The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by

Jonathan Demme

Written by

Ted Tally

Cast

Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Charles Napier, Kasi Lemmons, Brooke Smith, Dan Butler, Diane Baker

Genre

drama film, horror film, crime film, thriller film, LGBTQ-related film, psychological horror film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 58m

Rated

R

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 18,144 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An FBI trainee interviews a brilliant imprisoned cannibal to get inside the mind of a serial killer who skins women. She must race to stop the killer before he claims another victim.

tensedarkpsychologicaldisturbingslow-burnintelligentunsettlingcerebral

What happens

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel. It stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who is hunting a serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine), who skins his female victims. To catch him, she seeks the advice of the imprisoned Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial murderer. The film also features performances by Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, and Kasi Lemmons. Released by Orion Pictures on February 14, 1991, the film grossed $272.7 million worldwide on a $19 million budget and became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year. It premiered at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival, where Demme won the Silver Bear for Best Director. At the 64th Academy Awards, it became the third—and most recent—film to win the "Big Five" categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It remains the only horror film to have won Best Picture. The Silence of the Lambs is regularly cited by critics, film directors, and audiences as one of the greatest and most influential films. In 2018, Empire ranked it 48th on its list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. The American Film Institute ranked it the sixty-fifth greatest film in American cinema and the fifth-greatest thriller, while Starling and Lecter were included among the greatest film heroines and villains. The film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2011. The film has drawn criticism for its portrayal of gender identity, particularly regarding the character of Buffalo Bill, which some critics argue perpetuates harmful stereotypes. Demme defended the film's intentions, arguing that it merely tells the personal story of "a tormented man". The film launched a franchise that includes the sequel Hannibal (2001), the prequels Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007), and two television adaptations. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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