What is your favorite movie?

Flawless performances, fantastic editing, one of the scariest villains of all time, riveting (and quotable) dialogue and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat even as the credits roll.

An absolutely amazing movie. What put this movie over the top for me was Anthony Hopkins performance. It was so mesmerizing, so chilling, I could not look away. It seemed so real, expressing the horror of such a monster, and yet introducing a subtle humanity to it. In a way, it was two movies in one, expressing two very different monsters in society, one completely real and one bordering on the absurd but made so real by the actor’s performance and the treatment of the character by the others.
This is the only movie that I have that left me at the end wanting more, going back and replaying scenes. Normally that only happens when I finish a good book.

Without a doubt my favorite movie of all time. I read the book and this is one of the few times where the movie is as good as the book. This movie is exciting from the beginning to the end. Great acting, great story, and a great ending. One of the all time best.

Amazing acting, fabulous twists, gorgeous picture making, and quite possibly the most famous character ever put to the screen. Absolutely phenomenal.

Silence was the best movie I have ever seen! When I first saw it, it was on TV on a rainy night at midnight. I remember seeing Clarice walking to Hannibal’s cell and how he knew she was there and was just…waiting for her. I started to consider hannibal the smartest person to the world at the age of 14. I thoguht the relationship between them was romantic in a weird freaky kinda way. i loved picturing them together and when he kissed her in the sequel (even though Clarice didn’t kiss back, though i’ll bet she wanted to) i posetively MELTED!!!

ASTOUNDING! Anthony Hopkins and Jody Foster at their best. What a great match. The chemistry was there. They connected . He stimulated her insight by intimidating her. She had stamina and Anthony challenged her. A new era of Anthony and introduction about serial killers that is real.
No horror, REAL.

This is a smart, gripping movie that will impress any audience it encounters. With two of the smartest contemporary performances caught on screen, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster portray two of the most prolific and fascinating characters ever featured in film. The story is well-told, never becoming too placid or too conventional. The dialogue is clever, and the look and feel of the cinematography adds up to make this one of the best films ever made, not to mention a five-time Academy Award winner.

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

Is there a more chilling scene in film than Clarice walking down the Mental Hospital hallway, approaching Hannibal’s cell. He already knew why she was there.

I’ve never experienced a more intence thriller the first time I watched it in my entire life
By: Andrew Cooper

A psycho thriller that is an all-time classic.

It’s an intense movie that no matter how many times you watch it, you gain new insight. The gore is minimal but the suspense is max!
By: Julaine George

The best of the best for everyone.

I saw this movie on vhs before it was released in the theatre (my friend did the poster art and had an advanced copy) and it just grabbed me from the very beginning. My friend gave me the cassette and told me to turn off the lights and just watch, I really didn’t know who Anthony Hopkins was ( i was 22), and I loved Jodie Foster so I thought ok!!..well it was in black and white and had no music score and it scared the hell out of me!!! It was a true fresh movie going experience, not ruined by any previews giving too much of the plot away. When it did come out in the theatre I went and loved it all over again! The actors and direction are top notch…It is without a doubt my favorite movie ever!

By: Patrick SKoien
Madison, MN 56256