The Silence of the Lambs

1991 Mystery & Suspense

In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy whose shrewd analyses of serial killers lands her a special assignment: the FBI is investigating a vicious murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who kills young women and then removes the skin from their bodies. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into this case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out. Lecter does indeed know something of Buffalo Bill, but his information comes with a price: in exchange for telling what he knows, he wants to be housed in a more comfortable facility. More important, he wants to speak with Clarice about her past. He skillfully digs into her psyche, forcing her to reveal her innermost traumas and putting her in a position of vulnerability when she can least afford to be weak. The film mingles the horrors of criminal acts with the psychological horrors of Lecter's slow-motion interrogation of Clarice and of her memories that emerge from it. more..

Director: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster,Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald

Reviews

  • The superbly crafted suspense thriller...slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    27 April 2013

  • The interplay between Starling and Lector as they share an indefinable, dark understanding gives the film its unforgettable and unsettling power.

    - The San Francisco Chronicle

    27 April 2013

  • A movie with this kind of haunting power comes along only once every decade or so.

    Susan Wloszczyna - USA Today

    27 April 2013

  • Hopkins plays the cannibalistic doctor with a quiet, controlled erudition, lacing his performance with moments of black humor. His Lecter is a sort of satanic Sherlock Holmes whose spasms of violence are all the more terrifying because they erupt from beneath such an intelligent and refined mask.

    - TV Guide

    27 April 2013

  • At long, long last: the real thing.

    Steve Davis - Austin Chronicle

    27 April 2013

Awards

  • Top Box Office Films

    ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (1992)

  • Best Actor in a Leading Role

    Academy Awards (1992)

  • Best Actor

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1992)

  • Best Edited Feature Film

    American Cinema Editors (1992)

     
  • Jonathan Demme

    Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (1991)