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The Rewatchables ·

The Silence of the Lambs

year 1991decade 90sdirector Jonathan Demmegenre Thrillergenre Horrorgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryan
All 12 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 18:28

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

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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.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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