- Directed by Jonathan Demme
- Written by Thomas Harris, Red Tally
- Stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuX2MQeb8UM
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
What’s better than a crazed killer in a movie? Two of them. The performances are brilliant, the story is gripping, the special effects and music is great. This movie is an all around win. If you haven’t by chance seen it by now, check it out spoiler free. There are some surprises.
Synopsis
We open on FBI Academy trainee Clarice Starling doing a workout in the woods. She gets interrupted; the boss, Crawford, wants to see her in his office. Crawford is working on the “Buffalo Bill” case, a lunatic who skins people. Crawford wants Starling to talk to a prisoner who won’t cooperate with anyone else. The prisoner is “Hannibal the Cannibal.” Crawford warns her not to tell Hannibal anything personal and be very, very careful around him.
Dr. Chilton is the psychiatrist in charge of Hannibal Lector, and he’s a bit of an arrogant pig. Lector is buried deep inside the prison since he’s so dangerous. She meets him, and Lector is surprisingly perceptive. They finally talk about Buffalo Bill and why he does what he does. That doesn’t go very far until Lector psychoanalyzes her before describing how he ate a census-taker. He does give her a clue to follow-up on.
Clarice goes to the storage locker that Lector hinted at. She looks around and finds a head in a jar. Lector wants to see Buffalo Bill’s case file. The head in the jar was one of Lector’s own patients, who may have been killed by Buffalo Bill. He can tell Clarice all about Bill and help her catch him; if she can get him moved to a cell with a window.
Meanwhile, in Memphis, a girl named Catherine helps a guy load a couch into his van. He kidnaps her since she’s a size 14. A week later, Clarice is called in, since it looks like a “Buffalo Bob situation.” She and Crawford go to examine the body. They find an insect cocoon in the corpse’s throat. That kind of moth only grows in Asia, which is weird.
We see that at Buffalo Bill’s house, he’s still got Catherine held as a prisoner. She’s a senator’s daughter, and the senator agrees to Lector’s terms. He’ll get his fancy new cell, but only if he helps with the case. Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill and Precious the dog insist that Catherine put on lotion. He wants her skin softer.
Dr. Chilton makes a power move and tries to get to the bottom of things first by intimidating Hannibal and transferring him to a new facility. The senator herself confronts Lector and makes the deal. Lector tells Chilton and the senator everything, but he’s lying.
Clarice goes to visit Lector in his new palatial cell. They talk about screaming farm animals. Clarice takes her case file back and returns home to DC. Shortly thereafter, Lector rather brilliantly and brutally escapes.
Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill is sewing a flesh costume made of human skin. Clarice looks at the notes Lector left in her case file. She tracks him down to Belvedere, Ohio, where Bill’s first murder occurred. Meanwhile, Crawford is going to Chicago to arrest the suspect.
Back at Bill’s, Catherine captures Precious the dog and holds her hostage. Clarice continues to follow up on the first victim’s details. Crawford is on the wrong lead, but Clarice finds Bill, who invites her in.
Clarice quickly figures out that she’s found Bill, but he runs off. She goes downstairs and promises to rescue Catherine. Then the lights go out; Bill has infrared night-vision goggles, and he stalks her in the dark. She hears him cock his gun and blows him away.
Time passes, and Clarice graduates the academy to go to work for Crawford. During the graduation party, Clarice gets a phone call from Lector, who is stalking his next meal, who just happens to be Dr. Chilton. ”I’m having an old friend for dinner…”
Commentary
There’s never been a more compelling psychopath than Hannibal Lector. That’s mostly due to Anthony Hopkins, of course. The best part is that Hannibal isn’t even supposed to be the villain of the story. Buffalo Bill, the target of the manhunt, takes a back seat to Lector for the first half of the film, but he gets his time toward the end.
The ending, with hunting in the dark basement, is definitely horror material, as is the lunatic making a skin suit. Still, it’s Anthony Hopkins who’s the really memorable one here.