We begin by coveting what we see every day.
Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice?
And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?
There's a tool often used in writing
called Chekhov's gun, posited by famous modernist author
and playwright Anton Chekhov.
Chekhov said if you have a gun mounted
on the wall in the first act, it must go off
at some point in the story.
I [BLEEP] knew it.
For one movie, the mere introduction
of that loaded gun mounted onto the wall
became one of the film's most impactful scenes.
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Released in 1991, Silence of the Lambs
was based on the 1988 novel of the same name written
by Thomas Harris.
The film would eventually find a writer
in Ted Tally, whose screenplay immediately
hooked director Jonathan Demme.
On paper, Demme doesn't sound like the natural fit
for such a taut thriller, having cut his teeth
with iconic B-movie producer Roger Corman
with producing and writing credits on the women in prison
film Caged Heat and the Rashomon via bikers film Angels Hard
as They Come.
He was eventually pursued by production company Orion
Pictures.
And it turned out to be a perfect choice
with Demme's sense of balance.
He wanted to respect the genre while never
reveling in its gore or violence and maintaining
the emotional core of the story.
Part of that core was casting Sir Anthony Hopkins, then just
two years shy of knighthood.
Hopkins said, in an interview with Vanity Fair,
that after his agent told him about the screenplay,
he asked if it was a children's story.
He goes on to say, after reading the first 10
pages of the screenplay, that it was
the best role he had ever read.
And while Lecter doesn't himself appear
until later, we can only guess how powerful
those first few pages were.
And Lecter is genuinely one of the film's most
iconic monsters.
What did you see, Clarice?
What did you see?
Lambs.
The movie follows FBI agent trainee Clarice Starling,
played by the recent Oscar award-winning actor Jodie
Foster, in pursuit of a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill.
In order to try and get a fix on who this killer is,
Starling's teacher, Jack Crawford,
wants Starling to interview the imprisoned psychiatric doctor
and cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
While the bringing in a killer to find a killer
isn't necessarily a new idea, it's
the execution that keeps us talking over 30 years later.
It begins with Starling being led
into the hallway where Lecter's cell lies by the way of two
locking doors.
Demme has the sound cranked as the door creaks and swings shut
with an emphasized locking noise.
It's so intense, we see Starling do her best
to keep her composure before the next door slides
along its tracking.
It's our first example of the everything matters mentality
down to the sound design.
The camera focuses on the first prisoner,
a man smiling menacingly to the trainee
as he rests against the cell door.
Demme eventually turns the camera
towards the long hallway, and it bobs
with uncertainty and nerves as it
tries to focus on the folding chair facing the unseen cell.
Starling is alone here.
The cells she passes are mostly dark,
filled with what our minds drift to when we
consider a high security ward.
The prisoners seem off-kilter as they glare and shout
at Starling.
But ahead of her, one chair is illuminated
by an unseen light, driving home that this is the only way.
While the hallway and previous cells
were dark and dilapidated, Lecter's cell
appears to be a mix of modern architecture and an art
exhibit.
Lecter stands, arms to his side, with a small, intrigued grin,
like a party host greeting guests to his New Year's bash.
We mentioned earlier that Hopkins
called the role of Lecter the best he had ever read,
but he has also stated that he immediately
knew how to play this character, even down
to the voice, which, he told Empire,
immediately resonated as a cross between Katharine
Hepburn, Truman Capote, and HAL from 2001--
A Space Odyssey.
That sort of attention to detail in character also applied
to the characters wants.
A character like Starling may want information
about Buffalo Bill, but what she needs
is the people, specifically the men around her,
to understand she can do this.
Our protagonists' needs and wants must be counterproductive
to the antagonists'.
As we watch Starling and Lecter interact,
he immediately tries to establish dominance and power
by giving the student orders.
He tells her to step closer and closer to the cell
in order to read her credentials,
and then asks her to sit, and we realize he just
wants to prove he's in charge.
He's not entirely wrong in this either.
He knows they need something from him,
and that plays directly into Lecter's wants and needs.
While he may come across as wanting of nothing,
he needs people's respect, their adoration, their understanding
that he is the smartest person in the room.
As Lecter and Starling continue their conversation,
Starling tries to get to the business at hand.
Lecter immediately acts on his needs
by stating how well she's been doing up to this point.
He recounts every by the book interactional point she's made.
You had been courteous and receptive to courtesy.
You had established trust.
After stating how awkward her segue was,
Starling makes a move he doesn't expect.
I'm only asking you to look at this doctor.
Either you will or you won't.
It's a turn in the conversation that Lecter not only respects,
but also directly plays into his need of being all-knowing.
When Starling tells Lecter she believes Buffalo Bill skins his
victims for the excitement or as a trophy,
Lecter responds that he didn't.
Starling deftly and quickly adds--
No, you ate yours.
Bryan Fuller would later go on to create the Hannibal series,
which went into greater depth on the idea of why cannibalism,
but this hurried exchange establishes
an abbreviated answer.
When Lecter asks Starling to pass the paper
through the cell's box, he admits
that the only difference between his and Buffalo Bills trophies
were that Lecter's were edible.
We had already been told that Lecter
was a cannibal, that he was intelligent and slightly
charming.
It's when Lecter takes the questionnaire from Starling
and flips through the pages like a teacher you're
sure would rather fail you than actually engage in education,
we begin to realize Lecter's full terror--
his indifference to humanity.
Do you know what you look like to me
with your good bag and your cheap shoes?
You look like a rube.
It's a common trope in villains-- an alienation
or sense of superiority, an idea that their goals usurp
basic human decency or kindness.
While we, as people, celebrate confidence
and a self-assured attitude, we abhor arrogance.
It's a writer's shorthand to tell
the audience this person is deserving of your contempt.
But that's not all Hopkins, Demme, and Tally deliver here.
They demand the question-- if we can use monsters to hunt
their own kind, is it worth it?
Part of that answer lies in the character being used,
and thanks to Hopkins, the answer is yes.
We mentioned earlier how drawn to the role he was,
how fully realized Lecter was in his mind.
Lecter had been brought to life once before by Brian Cox
and Michael Mann's Manhunter, released
five years earlier in 1986.
While nobody could argue that Cox isn't an incredible actor,
his Lecter felt lacking.
Part of that is because it's said
Cox based his role on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel.
And, of course, that is scary, but it's also not
as grandiose as Hopkins decision to form
an alien yet recognizable accent.
Hopkins makes so many wonderful choices throughout his scene.
The small bit where he mocks Foster's Southern accent
was improvised.
You think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool?
With Demme smartly keeping her earnest reaction in the film,
it's a small moment--
one that shows how vicious he can
be with his emotional attacks as well.
When Lecter becomes irritated by the simplicity of Starling's
questionnaire, he dresses her down,
pulling from her small tells to rightfully identify her
as someone from a small town who desperately
wants to be so much more.
Good nutrition has given you some length of bone,
but you're not more than one generation
from poor white trash.
When Sterling is assaulted by a prisoner as she leaves,
Lecter calls her back to give a piece of information
she needs, not because he wants to help her,
but because he needs to help himself.
Lecter's needs are never in direct contrast to Starling
because despite being one of cinema's most
terrifying and influential villains,
he's not necessarily Starling's villain.
At the top of this video, we call Lecter a loaded gun.
Thanks to one scene that used every shot and every second
to convey the most vital, moving information,
Hannibal Lecter became a pop culture icon
without being the film's main villain, something
that grabs us by the throat and refuses to let
go until we understand fear in just
a few breathtaking minutes.
So what do you think?
Who are some other villains that still haunt you
more than 30 years later?
Let us down in the comments below.
And as always, thank you for watching.