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Lecter attacks the two guards

The nominees read out are Clarice's first meeting with Lecter where Miggs ('Biggs' as transcribed) is introduced, Lecter taking out the two officers who brought him dinner without checking his handcuffs, the ambulance escape, the put-the-lotion-in-the-basket scene, and Clarice dropping in on James Gumm (as transcribed).

The pick is Lecter attacking the two guards with opera playing; the other host concurs and calls it haunting.

The film

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by Jonathan Demme · Thriller / Horror

118 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Jodie Foster Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Scott Glenn Jack Crawford
Ted Levine Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb
Anthony Heald Dr. Frederick Chilton
Brooke Smith Catherine Martin
Diane Baker U.S. Senator Ruth Martin
Kasi Lemmons Ardelia Mapp
Charles Napier Lt. Bill Boyle

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

14:05

Casting What-Ifs

Gene Hackman co-owned the rights and planned to direct and possibly play Jack Crawford before backing out; Sean Conne...

Gene Hackman co-owned the rights and planned to direct and possibly play Jack Crawford before backing out; Sean Connery and Jeremy Irons turned down Lecter; Ed Harris turned down Crawford because he wanted Lecter; Michelle Pfeiffer, the first choice for Clarice, and Meg Ryan turned it down; Redford, Hoffman and Robert Duvall are mentioned as Lecter possibilities

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:05Read transcript
  • The book rights were originally bought 50-50 by Mike Medavoy at Orion and Gene Hackman, who was going to direct and maybe star or just play Jack Crawford; one host says Hackman still should have played Crawford, though Scott Glenn is amazing.
  • Ted Talley (as transcribed) was hired to write what is called one of the great screenplays of the last 30 or 40 years; after the controversial Mississippi Burning, Hackman's daughter told him the film was too violent, he backed out, Orion paid him back his half and brought on Jonathan Demme, who began looking for a Lecter.
  • Sean Connery reportedly refused outright, calling the role grotesque, and Jeremy Irons would not do it either, possibly because he did not want to play two villains in a row after Reversal of Fortune; the hosts try Connery's voice on the fava beans line and conclude it would not work.
  • Ed Harris turned down Jack Crawford because he wanted Lecter, which is jokingly called a heat check and a little Dion Waiters of him.
  • Michelle Pfeiffer, first choice for Clarice, turned it down as too violent after working with Demme on Married to the Mob, and one host thinks that would have been really cool; Meg Ryan also passed at a time she was offered everything, which led to her casting in The Doors.
  • With Gene Hackman as Lecter the film could have gone badly wrong, the hosts say, and it would now be stuck on a minor cable channel at two in the morning.
  • Later, during research, the hosts are happy with Scott Glenn as Crawford over Tommy Lee Jones, cannot see Jones as Lecter, are glad Lecter was not Redford, Hoffman or Robert Duvall, and wonder whether Daniel Day Lewis was too early for it.
18:28

Most Rewatchable Scene

Lecter attacks the two guards

Lecter attacks the two guards

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:28Read transcript
  • The nominees read out are Clarice's first meeting with Lecter where Miggs ('Biggs' as transcribed) is introduced, Lecter taking out the two officers who brought him dinner without checking his handcuffs, the ambulance escape, the put-the-lotion-in-the-basket scene, and Clarice dropping in on James Gumm (as transcribed).
  • The pick is Lecter attacking the two guards with opera playing; the other host concurs and calls it haunting.
  • One host widens it to the full run from Clarice's first visit to the fifth-floor cell, a setup that badly needed a security camera, through the dinner, the bleeding elevator and the ambulance with Lecter wearing the guard's face, called one of the best 22-minute sequences of any movie; they agree on Lecter taking out the officers.
  • Dr. Chilton's earlier remark that Lecter's pulse never rose during an attack on a nurse foreshadows how calmly he swings the baton on the officers, an indelible image.
20:33

What’s Aged the Best?

The face-eating serial killer concept; the James Gumm name; the Lecter mask and stretcher; the elevator-and-ambulance...

The face-eating serial killer concept; the James Gumm name; the Lecter mask and stretcher; the elevator-and-ambulance escape; night goggles as a murder aid; the first murder being someone the killer covets; the music; the two endings; the behavioral-science investigation; Jonathan Demme's direct-to-camera close-ups

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:33Read transcript
  • The concept of a face-eating serial killer still works in 2017; Buffalo Bill's real name, James Gumm (as transcribed), is a favorite, with jokes about interviewing someone named James for a Ringer job.
  • The Lecter mask and stretcher is called magnificent and underrated 26 years later, prompting an Artest melee joke, and the lamb chop, elevator and ambulance stretch is called outrageous.
  • Night goggles as a murder aid are the most prominent in any Hollywood film, with Manhunter's dark scene, Patriot Games and Zero Dark 30 (as transcribed) as comparisons; a host who rewatched the last half hour expected it to be dated and found nothing dated except the lack of cell phones.
  • The idea that a killer's first victim is someone he covets has aged well and changes how one host thinks about murder investigations.
  • The music is praised: a Bernard Herman (as transcribed) Hitchcock-style score and the song choices, especially Catherine Martin singing along to Tom Petty's American Girl, which establishes her in 20 seconds; the lesson never to help a stranger move furniture into a van is compared with The Vanishing, and the film's two endings, Clarice killing Gumm and then Lecter's call about having an old friend for dinner, both work.
  • One pick is the music, as a tribute to Demme's use of music and for the creepy, haunting score.
  • The other pick is the concept of the film's two serial killers, a genius psychiatrist who kills and eats people among them, which many films have gotten wrong.
  • The behavioral-science investigation feels authentic: the viewer learns alongside Clarice, as when she profiles the killer in the back seat on the drive to West Virginia, unlike older cop films such as The French Connection or Dirty Harry, or Dr. Loomis in Halloween; the covet realization in her scene with Cassie Lemons's (as transcribed) character is an earned light-bulb moment.
  • Demme is added to the list for making this film and then Philadelphia; the hosts say he won best director for both, which rarely happens.
  • Demme's actors deliver lines straight into the camera; he did not invent it, with French New Wave precedents, but it makes the viewer feel like Clarice in the cell and the FBI offices, and he reserves it for a few characters, never James Gumm, Catherine Martin or the victims.
  • Lecter appears 11 minutes and 50 seconds in, right after a credit sequence that follows Clarice through Quantico with men turning to look at her, setting up the sense that she is being watched before Lecter's question about her perfume; she is part of an early-90s run of strong female characters with Thelma and Louise and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.
31:03

What’s Aged the Worst?

The opening title graphics; the Crawford-Clarice relationship; the trans material; the sequel Hannibal and the preque...

The opening title graphics; the Crawford-Clarice relationship; the trans material; the sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:03Read transcript
  • The opening graphics have an early-90s look compared to X Files and Twin Peaks.
  • The Crawford-Clarice relationship feels as if it is missing a scene, such as a late-night hotel bar where he half hits on her, called one host's biggest nitpick.
  • The trans material has not aged great given what we now know, though one host notes a serial killer is never going to flatter whatever group he belongs to.
  • Hannibal, which nobody but a well-paid Hopkins wanted to make, with Julianne Moore as Starling, and Red Dragon with Ed Norton, where Lecter looks ten years older in a prequel, taint the film slightly for one host; people love the Hannibal TV show, the rights are split, and the story never became the franchise people expected.
  • Final choices: the Crawford-Clarice relationship for one host, the title graphics for the other.
33:36

Half-Assed Internet Research

Hopkins mocked Foster's Southern accent in their first scene; James Gumm combines Ed Gein, Ted Bundy and Gary Hednick...

Hopkins mocked Foster's Southern accent in their first scene; James Gumm combines Ed Gein, Ted Bundy and Gary Hednick (as transcribed); Gene Siskel gave the film a negative review; Brooke Smith gained 25 pounds for Catherine Martin; Goodbye Horses replaced a Bob Seger song and Ted Levine insisted on the dance; Levine and Scott Glenn did extensive research; the story was inspired by Robert Keppel and Ted Bundy; William Goldman got Demme to cut a 12-minute Crawford-Clarice sequence

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:36Read transcript
  • According to Jodie Foster, Hopkins improvised mocking her Southern accent during their first meeting, so her horrified reaction is genuine; the hosts love when good actors unsettle their scene partners, and the accent is called not great and one of several problems with her performance.
  • James Gumm ('Jame Gum' variously as transcribed) combines three real killers: Ed Gein, who skinned victims, Ted Bundy, who escaped and killed again, and Gary Hednick (as transcribed), who kept captives in a basement pit.
  • Gene Siskel gave the film a negative review, and one host calls Siskel the movie equivalent of the host's perpetual disagreements with Greenwald.
  • Brooke Smith, who played Catherine Martin, gained 25 pounds for her first major role, and the hosts wonder whether she deserved a supporting actress nomination.
  • The dance song Goodbye Horses by Q Lazarus was originally supposed to be a Bob Seger song, which one host is glad it was not; the hosts joke about how men their age would react if it came on in a bar.
  • Ted Levine insisted the dance scene be in the film, and the screenwriter did not know it would be until he saw it; it was improvised, Levine needed two drinks first, and he researched by visiting trans bars and talking to people.
  • Scott Glenn researched child murder cases and worked with the real-life model for Crawford, with tempestuous political arguments because Glenn opposed capital punishment; a host jokes that Glenn then murdered him.
  • The story was inspired by the relationship between University of Washington criminology professor and profiler Robert Keppel and Ted Bundy, which is how the Green River killer was caught.
  • The second host's research, from a Deadline oral history: after an LA screening, William Goldman told Demme to cut a filmed 12-minute sequence in which the attorney general chews out Crawford and Clarice, kicks her out of the academy and takes him off the case; Demme and the editor resisted, cut it anyway, and the film became a tight hour and 54 minutes.
  • Goldman is also credited with telling the Good Will Hunting writers to drop the second half where Will becomes a spy; the host found the Goldman story the most interesting, the Hackman material having been covered.
42:02

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Ted Levine

Ted Levine

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:02Read transcript
  • The hosts say they know who wins and there is no argument, but read the nominees anyway: Anthony healed (as transcribed) as Dr. Frederick Chilton, a classic 'that guy'; Charles Napier as Lieutenant Boyle with his great death scene; Chris Isaac (as transcribed) at his peak; and Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill.
  • Levine is called robbed of a supporting actor nomination; one host has rooted for him ever since and, seeing him as a detective in Heat in 1995, expected him to do something creepy, though the role probably pigeonholed him.
  • No one has won the award more convincingly: in the basketball metaphor he takes eight shots, all threes from 25 feet or more, makes them all, and is plus 38 in 12 minutes.
43:49

Apex Mountain

Anthony Hopkins; Ted Levine; Jodie Foster (one host rates her performance in The Accused higher)

Anthony Hopkins; Ted Levine; Jodie Foster (one host rates her performance in The Accused higher)

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:49Read transcript
  • Anthony Hopkins is a yes: this is the apex for him.
  • Ted Levine is a yes, called the apex not just for him but for all actors.
  • Jonathan Demme is a no from one host, who would choose Stop Making Sense or Something Wild; the other asks how a five-for-five Oscar sweep is not the apex, and the first host admits to being a hipster about it but sticks with that choice.
  • Chris Isaac's apex (as transcribed) is instead the Wicked Game video, called a top-12 video of all time.
  • Jodie Foster is a yes: after an initial 'I think so', the reply agrees this was her apex; her performance in The Accused is rated higher, she is called good in Panic Room and Inside Man without those being apex work, and her most iconic role plus a second Best Actress Oscar settle it.
45:18

Unintentional Comedy Award

The put-the-lotion-in-the-basket scene

The put-the-lotion-in-the-basket scene

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:18Read transcript
  • Nominees: Chris Isaac's (as transcribed) three-second cameo getting out of the van with one line; Charles Napier's reaction on realizing he is handcuffed just before he is clubbed; and Catherine Martin shouting a profane insult at Clarice, the person trying to rescue her.
  • Buffalo Bill's dance scene is judged more disturbing than funny, and the lotion-in-the-basket lines are called an iconic thing to say.
  • Miggs is nominated; the reply is that Miggs is on the nominator's Mount Rushmore of references and the most disturbing over-the-top performance, but not unintentional comedy; the case is then made that nobody toned down his crude act toward Clarice.
  • Relaying Jim Cunningham's question about what became of the actor, the hosts name him as Stewart Rudin (as transcribed); a high-school friend's joking college-era question about the prop used in the scene is recalled, and a search for how it was made turned up nothing.
  • The lotion-in-the-basket scene takes the cake over Miggs; the host reads Gumm's five lines in the scene in order.
  • The host recalls seeing the film in a packed Worcester, Massachusetts theater in college and laughing through the lotion scene while people turned around and shushed the host, then doing Gumm impersonations with roommates for a decade before the internet showed everyone found it funny, while acknowledging the scene is about a man torturing a captive in a pit.
50:47

Picking Nits

Crawford's plan to send an inexperienced Clarice to Lecter; Clarice entering Gumm's basement alone; the two guards wh...

Crawford's plan to send an inexperienced Clarice to Lecter; Clarice entering Gumm's basement alone; the two guards who had one job; the senator's deal with Lecter; nobody noticing Lecter in the guard's face; the hard-to-follow Gumm identity trail; decoding the self-storage clue; Miggs swallowing his own tongue

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:47Read transcript
  • A self-described hot take that Jack Crawford was a bad boss, sending the inexperienced Clarice into the dungeon unprotected; the response is that it was a win-win and Lecter was hostile to Crawford, countered by asking why not send an experienced woman agent; the film never mentions Will Graham, perhaps because of the character rights.
  • After the FBI storms an empty house, Clarice walks into Gumm's basement instead of calling for help; the objection that she would have had to drive to a pay phone without cell phones leads the host to rescind the nit.
  • The senator promising Lecter perks such as Hyannis Port or a week on Plum Island in exchange for help finding the senator's abducted child would dominate the news for weeks today, and after careful procedures for Clarice's visits the authorities are loosey-goosey with Lecter once he is moved; the two guards who brought a second meal and left the door open are the definition of having one job.
  • Lecter wearing a guard's face and uniform should have been noticed, given the blood and a guard who was a little skinnier, though perhaps the guard was expected to have massive facial injuries.
  • The James Gumm identity trail after Lecter throws out one name is hard to follow, and Clarice decoding the 'look within yourself' clue as Yourself self-storage in Baltimore, in the Hester Moffat (as transcribed) storage-unit scene, is called a leap.
  • You cannot swallow your own tongue to death; one host researched it and says Miggs would have had to bite it off and choke, with what Lecter told him deferred to unanswerable questions; the hosts note that Lecter, who eats people, was offended by Miggs's crude act, likened to a baseball manager fine with a fastball at a batter's head but not a bat flip.
56:28

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice glass of Chianti."; "Senator, one m...

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice glass of Chianti."; "Senator, one more thing. Love your suit."; "Hey, are you about a size 14?"; "You don't know what pain is!"; "Oh, is she a big fat person?"

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:28Read transcript
  • With the Gumm lines already covered, the census-taker line is called iconic, along with Hopkins's pronunciation of Chianti, and 'Senator, one more thing. Love your suit' is praised for its delivery, which Gene Hackman might not have matched; it was an era, with Terminator 2, of lines built to be repeated.
  • Lecter's remark in the breastfeeding exchange with the senator made theater audiences squirm; Gumm's size 14 question and 'you don't know what pain is' are also cited.
  • One host's personal favorite is Gumm answering Clarice's knock about Mrs. Lippman by asking whether she was a big fat person and then fetching the index cards; the other has no additions, and Charles Napier's scream when he is hit is added.
58:10

Probably Unanswerable Questions

What did Lecter say to make Miggs kill himself?; Is it okay to root for Hannibal Lecter?; Did Catherine Martin keep P...

What did Lecter say to make Miggs kill himself?; Is it okay to root for Hannibal Lecter?; Did Catherine Martin keep Precious?; Would you watch a 1997 Buffalo Bill prequel with Ted Levine?; Should Jodie Foster have done the Hannibal sequel?; Was Jodie Foster good in this movie?

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:10Read transcript
  • Is it okay to root for Lecter: he is one of the five worst people the hosts have rooted for, they cheer when he attacks Charles Napier's character, Clarice tells her FBI roommate he would not come after her because he would find it rude, and he seems to attack only people he has a grudge against.
  • Did Catherine Martin keep Precious: she carries the dog out at the end after the bone-and-bucket Hail Mary, and the host thinks she kept it.
  • Would they watch a Buffalo Bill prequel with Ted Levine in 1997: yes, though the investigation of serial killers interests one host more than their origins; should Foster have done the Hannibal sequel: no, she knew to leave well enough alone.
  • Was Foster good: one host thinks she is great; the other, since learning Michelle Pfeiffer had turned the role down, watches imagining Pfeiffer, would be more scared and more convinced, and thinks Pfeiffer the better actress, perhaps a year or two old for it.
  • The rebuttal is that Clarice's background as a rural West Virginia sheriff's daughter fits Foster, while Pfeiffer seems like a Tequila Sunrise, Fabulous Baker Boys person; the accent is still judged not good enough, with the claim that Hopkins knew it, and the advice is never to do an accent unless you are Daniel Day Lewis.
  • The Pfeiffer backer, calling her a favorite actress, adds that Castaway would be better with her in the Helen Hunt part and admits to simply not being a big Jodie Foster fan; another voice asked for an opinion praises her rookie vulnerability, Julia Roberts is rejected as too much of a megastar against Foster's diminutive presence, and there were few great actress options at the time.
  • Earlier, during the nits, what Lecter told Miggs over six hours to make him kill himself was parked for this segment.
1:02:05

Who Won the Movie?

Jonathan Demme; Anthony Hopkins

Jonathan Demme; Anthony Hopkins

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:05Read transcript
  • The candidates offered are Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Demme (misspoken as 'Ted Demme') and Ted Levine; one participant chooses Jonathan Demme, and another would have said Hopkins and asks for the case.
  • The case for Demme: he bridged late-70s and 80s independent filmmaking with a subversive yet entertaining genre blockbuster, the reason something new appears on every rewatch, aided by his regular cinematographer Tack Fujimoto (as transcribed), who shot Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller; Demme had recently died.
  • After a joke answer naming Miggs's actor, the case for Hopkins is that his would be among the first performances named in any bar argument about the most memorable ever.
  • The Demme backer answers "You're not going to get any argument from me", just wanted to shout Demme out, expected the other to have Hopkins, and calls it "a 1A, 1B thing".
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Jonathan Demme
Speaker not identified
Anthony Hopkins

More from the conversation

Joe House was wanted as a third host but lives in Washington, D.C.; the episode is the two originals. The film is only the third to win the five major Oscars, after It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Orion was going out of business during the awards push, likened to the Moneyball A's winning a World Series.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:30Read transcript
The hosts call it a thriller, not horror, that uses horror tropes such as the night-vision scene and hallways you should not walk down while upending when the scares come; it is noted as only the third horror film nominated for best picture.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:35Read transcript
Hopkins has under 25 minutes of screen time, eight or nine scenes and four with Foster, and beat De Niro, Bridges, Nolte and Robin Williams; the hosts debate lead versus supporting, compare Sean Connery's career award for The Untouchables, trace the Jack Palance and Marissa Tomei (as transcribed) chain, and think De Niro would have won for Cape Fear.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:05Read transcript
Foster beat Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise; one host, who was taking a film class at Holy Cross that year, calls Sarandon the rightful winner, a lukewarm rather than hot take. Demme beat John Singleton, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone and Barry Levinson, whose Bugsy prompts a Premiere magazine and Warren Beatty tangent.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:03Read transcript
The supporting actor nominees were Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Jack Palance, Tommy Lee Jones and Michael Lerner, while Ted Levine was not nominated; his is called perhaps the most iconic supporting performance since 1990.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:34Read transcript
The film came after an 80s run of Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, alongside Misery, Cape Fear and Basic Instinct in a new modern-thriller era, and the 'from hell' cycle of Sleeping with the Enemy and Hand the Rocks the Cradle (as transcribed) that Fatal Attraction started.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:22Read transcript
Demme came up through Roger Corman's exploitation factory and had made Something Wild, Married to the Mob and Stop Making Sense, called perhaps the best concert film; the hosts contrast that apprenticeship with directors like Colin Trevorrow handed huge franchises after one or two films.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:16Read transcript
Manhunter (1986), which one host prefers to this film while loving both, did not make its money back, so Dino De Laurentiis, who owned the rights, gave the book away without charge.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:29Read transcript
Hopkins was ice cold before this, best known for The Elephant Man and The Bounty and working on stage, while Foster was the next great actress after Taxi Driver, Yale and her Oscar for The Accused; her 90s afterward (Little Man Tate, Maverick, Nell, Home for the Holidays, Contact) are judged poor.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:17Read transcript
The film was huge on release, built on word of mouth in an era of blockbuster beach-read paperbacks like Presumed Innocent and The Firm; Zach is credited with saying before taping that the film has no fat, and it is called a filet mignon on the bone.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:09Read transcript
Philadelphia is said to have aged poorly: largely a courtroom drama with Denzel Washington rather than the AIDS-activism film people expected.
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:30Read transcript
A host's wife suggests Kristen Stewart as Clarice in any remake, with J-Law also endorsed, and a joke imagines James Gumm's Facebook page.
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:05Read transcript
A tangent on growing up with serial-killer coverage: Zodiac, the Atlanta child killer Wayne Williams, and the hosts' view that real-life serial-killer films rarely work apart from Fincher's Zodiac, with Spike Lee's Son of Sam film cited and surprise that Ted Bundy has no movie.
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:37Read transcript
After this role Hopkins was hard to see as anyone but Lecter until The Edge (1997) with Alec Baldwin; by Fracture he was 'available', and the film was a fixture on movie channels in the mid-90s.
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:12Read transcript
The wrap apologizes for the language; the closing plugs promise 25 to 30 episodes, Cam Collins coming to the Ringer office, a live Rewatchables in Los Angeles the next month, and a joke that Miami Vice will be the final episode.
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:00Read transcript