The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

Silence of the Lambs, The

Identification American horror film
Director Jonathan Demme (1944- )
Date Released on February 14, 1991

Besides winning five Academy Awards and grossing over
$130 million in the United States alone,The Silence of
the Lambsbecame the film for which the director Jonathan
Demme would become best known and established not only
Anthony Hopkins as a leading man but also his character,
Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, as one of the most infa-
mous villains in Hollywood histor y.

Part horror film, part crime drama, and part psycho-
logical thriller,The Silence of the Lambswove together
a complex story from the perspective of Clarice Star-
ling (Jodie Foster), a young Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation (FBI) trainee for whom the capture of a se-
rial killer represents her biggest and most dangerous
challenge. The danger is not only physical—as a
woman, Starling herself risks becoming the killer’s
next victim—but also psychological: Encouraged by
her superior Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) to enlist
the assistance of the incarcerated serial killer Dr.
Hannibal Lecter, whose trademark had been the de-
vouring of his victims, she reluctantly becomes vul-
nerable to his insidiously subtle manipulation.
Thus, the capturing of the killer becomes a sort of
red herring (or, as such devices have come to be
known in cinema, a MacGuffin). Jonathan Demme’s
main concern was the effective dramatization of
Starling’s loss of innocence and her initiation into
maturity as she comes face to face with criminals ca-
pable of a brutality, a deviousness, and a depravity
she had previously only experienced secondhand.
In the process, she discovers weaknesses within her-
self that she had been unable to confront and devel-
ops the strength to overcome them.

Impact Before directingThe Silence of the Lambs
(based on the 1988 novel of the same name by the
crime novelist Thomas Harris), Jonathan Demme
had made thirteen films ranging from cult favorites
such as Caged Heat (1974), Melvin and Howard
(1980), and the Talking Heads concert filmStop
Making Sense(1984) to the hit comedyMarried to the
Mob(1988). WithThe Silence of the Lambs, however, he
established himself as a director capable of trans-
forming serious cinema into box-office and Oscar
largesse. The film had a similar, status-cementing ef-

fect upon the careers of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie

Foster, both of whom, despite having compiled

lengthy and critically well-regarded Hollywood

résumés, had never been considered top-draw per-

formers.

Besides spinning off the sequelsHannibal(2001),

Red Dragon(2002), andHannibal Rising(2007),The

Silence of the Lambsalso gave rise to controversy. That

the serial killer turns out to be a transvestite obsessed

with creating an outfit from the flayed skins of his vic-

tims led members of the gay rights community to ac-

cuse the film of having insensitively reinforced the

stereotypical linking of homosexuality and patho-

logical instability. Demme’s 1993 film,Philadelphia,a

sympathetic portrayal of an AIDS victim suffering

unfair discrimination, was generally considered to

have been, at least in part, his response to such criti-

cism.

Further Reading

Bliss, Michael, and Christina Banks. What Goes

Around Comes Around: The Films of Jonathan Demme.

Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,

1996.

Harris, Thomas.The Silence of the Lambs. New York:

St. Martin’s Press, 1988.

Simon, John.John Simon on Film: Criticism, 1982-

2001. New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema

Books, 2005.

Arsenio Orteza

See also Academy Awards; Dahmer, Jeffrey; Film

in the United States; Homosexuality and gay rights;

Philadelphia; Transgender community.

 Silicon Valley

Identification A region of Northern California

associated with technology and science

Place The southern part of the San Francisco

Bay Area in California, encompassing San

Mateo and Santa Clara counties

Known for the large number of silicon chip innovations in

the 1950’s and 1960’s, this area emerged as a leader in

global communications systems by the late twentieth cen-

tur y.

Silicon Valley is recognized for its role in the expand-

ing electronics industry in the fields of radio, televi-

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Silence of the Lambs, The The Nineties in America