The Silence of the Lambs

16 January

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I thought the film was naive, from the "If the professionals were idiots" series. Maybe it's all about immersion. Surely the police seem funny movies about the police, and divers about divers. There are too many white threads in Silence of the Lambs. So, let's get into the painting. The boss assigns a beginner to a difficult task. Because that's what they usually do, isn't it? The best student on the course stands in front of a bewildered subject and answers his questions. It is the researcher who should conduct the survey. If he answers questions, he loses the lead role, the poll is leaked, it needs to be finished immediately. That would be immediately obvious to the best on the course. More. A trained agent honestly leaks vulnerable moments of his personality to a psychopath. Such an agent is an idiot. It is impossible to watch without tears as paramedics drag the victim into the ambulance and begin to measure the pulse, along the way something hysterically shouting over the connection. Because assisting the victim involves initial examination and diagnosis on the spot. At this point, the deception would have been revealed immediately. The screenwriter obviously assumes that pre-medical care consists of throwing the body into the machine and motivating speeches "don't die."
It has often been noted that the film immortalized Anthony Hopkins with the performance of his character. That's right. Unfortunately, his character is impossible in reality. A psychopathic intellectual who plays a subtle psychological game, turns into a killer machine and gets involved in the subtle world of his FBI agent is fantastic. For the latter, a psychopath needs empathy, and if he has it, he is not a psychopath.
It is said that the film has a talented film language. Looks like it. And Jodie Foster is great. Women were never allowed into the FBI. And then purposeful could, and all the men rubbed their noses. And this is in 1990. Not bad. But artificiality spoils the impression.

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19 March 2022

15 December 2021

28 June 2021

22 May 2014

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Why haven't I seen such a classic? The answer is simple - I thought it must be terribly boring. As they say, “That’s what happened.”

The Silence of the Lambs is a spherical thriller in a vacuum. A fragile FBI agent is looking for (somehow almost alone) a terrible maniac. To do this, she consults with another, even more terrible maniac - Hannibal Lecter, of course. Why? Because he's a psychiatrist, a genius and a cannibal. True, he is devilishly cunning and he can not be trusted - he can even kill a police squad with a pen. What about bare hands and teeth? But, apparently, there is no one else to consult with - no one in the whole country is more intelligent anyway.

Clarissa, (despite being shown steeply overcoming an obstacle course in an FBI training camp at the beginning of the film), looks more like a lost teenage girl than a “siloviki.” And the whole story with the lambs... what does she do with such psychological problems in the special service?

Buffalo maniac Bill is so inadequate that one wonders how he has not been caught before. Wild appearance, exotic hobby, exalted behavior - yes, he is so similar to a psychopath that you can even suspect him of simulating! And this man hid from the FBI for so long?

The only thing that pulls the film is, of course, Hannibal Lecter performed by Anthony Hopkins. Lecter is cynical, brutal, mad and genius. A real monster in human form, not only in guise, but equipped with one of the finest human minds in history. A genius of evil, a priest of some savage, otherworldly justice. But there is also a spoonful of tar - it is painfully steep, right to improbability. But Hopkins managed almost impossible - to make the audience empathize with the maniac cannibal.

However, there is also the “merit” of other characters – they are such that they want to bite.

But Hannibal's 17 minutes of screen time doesn't seem to be enough to pull the film out. And Hannibal himself is more convincing than plausible.

Result: someone will say "standard", someone - "template". I didn't like it. Only the presence of Hannibal Lecter saves this boring and primitive story from turning into a dull thrash.

6 out of 10

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