The Silence of the Lambs: Reexamining & Reviewing the Best Movie of 1991
Last October, I rewatched three classic horror films, Psycho, The Exorcist, and The Shining, in honor of Halloween to see if they held up as being truly scary today. I wanted to do something similar for this year, and I settled on The Silence of the Lambs as one of the movies to rewatch. Well, after finishing the film for the first time in maybe ten years or so, I’m not sure it’s a good candidate for that particular horror movie article.
Is The Silence of the Lambs a horror film?
The Wikipedia page for The Silence of the Lambs describes it as a “psychological horror thriller” and a Google search for the only horror movie to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture will return with The Silence of the Lambs as the answer. Despite its frequent classification as such though, I’d hesitate to really call this a true horror movie.
Are there horror elements to The Silence of the Lambs? Definitely. But, as a whole, the movie’s main purpose isn’t to frighten, which is what I’d argue is the main point of motion pictures firmly in the horror genre.
I think that the main goal of The Silence of the Lambs is simply to tell a well-thought-out story. The story in question has gruesome elements to it, but everything is presented to us in an almost matter of fact/more realistic manner and not a “trying to frighten viewers” horror movie way. I’d classify The Silence of the Lambs as more of a thriller/drama with horror and crime elements mixed in.
Does the movie hold up?
The Silence of the Lambs is one of only three movies ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay, and is the most recent film to have accomplished the feat. However, the film was released in 1991 and is now 24 years old. Did it age like milk or like a fine wine (perhaps a nice Chianti)?
I’m happy to report that it’s definitely the latter. This is an all-around fantastic film. Everything is just first-rate here, from the direction from director Jonathan Demme, to the acting, writing, and look/feel of the film. We’re being told a brutally violent story, but Demme is extremely successful at reigning things in when necessary – nothing feels over the top for simply the sake of it or gratuitous in nature.
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter is excellent and is the most well-remembered character from the film. However, Jodie Foster, as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, delivers an equally great performance. Lecter is one of the best movie villains ever, but Clarice carries the bulk of the weight of the film.
So, how would I rate The Silence of the Lambs?
When I broke down films in that last Halloween post, I gave each film a Scary Factor rating. Even though I wouldn’t categorize this as only a horror film, there are a few frightening parts, and the plot is sometimes disturbing. So, on the scary factor scale, I’d give The Silence of the Lambs a 4.5/10. The frights are largely concentrated within a few key scenes, but this isn’t a movie with absolutely no scary moments.
Overall though, I’d more consider this to be an excellent movie, not simply an excellent horror movie. The Silence of the Lambs still holds up just as well today as it did when it was first released and is definitely worth a rewatch if you haven’t seen it in a few years.
Grade: 10/10