By far the greatest thriller ever made, it is not defined by that genre alone. The acting, writing, and direction of the picture is pure genius, making this one of the best and most real films I’ve ever seen.

Where to begin?

This is absolutely the most terrifying film ever made, rivaled only by The War of the Roses (no joke). It is not at all frightening in the way that horror movies are meant to be, or even most thrillers for that matter. It’s scary because of how real it is. As you watch it, you realize that people like Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill exist; Buffalo Bill is, in fact, a mixture of real-life serial killers. Clarice is led to him by Hannibal, who knows Bill’s identity, and she finds him. However, it’s essentially all luck that Bill is found. It’s luck that there is someone who knows who Bill is; it’s luck that Clarice realizes who he is before it’s too late. It’s luck that the latest victim is not yet dead when Clarice gets there, and it’s luck that Clarice gets Bill in the end. Is there anything more frightening in reality than the thought that some creep might kidnap and kill you, perhaps torturing you, perhaps skinning you or worse? Actually, there is. It’s that those things could happen to you while you’re only chance for survival rests on the FBI being incredibly lucky.

Also, the film manages to chill you right to the bone with almost no shocking images. So many horrors and thrillers are based around scaring people by showing them horrid things that they wouldn’t even want to imagine. The gore in The Silence of the Lambs is essentially limited to one scene, and that serves to make it all the more effective. I cannot think of one scene from any movie that better serves it’s purpose. The particular scene that I speak of is that of Hannibal’s escape, which serves as a reminder that he is a monster, that the world is full of them, that things nearly unimaginable to most can and do happen, that the people who do them are those who you undoubtedly would not suspect.

Hannibal Lecter, when with Clarice, comes across as a gentle and decent human being. Were you to meet him on the street, unaware that he was a psychopath, the worst thing you might think of him is that he’s stuck up. If you got to know him, you might even think he’s the nicest guy you ever knew. As the movie progresses, you see that Clarice develops a certain affection for him, even though she knows what he is. Buffalo Bill, too, is shown to be a man who could be your friend, albeit in a more subtle way. We don’t see much of him outside his insane killer persona, but we see the pictures of his first victim. She let him take pictures of her without clothes; they were close friends. She would have never pegged him to be what he is.

The movie is great because it develops all of it’s characters into three dimensional beings. We come to know the characters; we get a glimpse into the psyche of each. None is defined by any one thing. Hannibal certainly is a cannibal, but that’s not all that he is. Clarice is one of the most human characters ever created in a motion picture. We don’t just learn some random fact about her past and expect that to explain everything as happens in many other films; we learn much, see and know how she feels about things. The performances are amazing, and the Oscars were well deserved on all counts.
By: Patience Bruce