The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Analysis

The Silence of the Lambs (1991): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/
Director:
Jonathon Demme
Writers:
Thomas Harris (Novel) 
Ted Tally (Screenplay)
Cast:
Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling)
Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Hannibal Lector)
Scott Glenn (Anthony Crawford)

The Silence of the Lambs is a crime/drama/thriller about a young FBI trainee (Clarice Starling) who is assigned to discover the whereabouts of a missing girl before she is killed by psychopathic serial killer, 'Buffalo Bill'. She uses imprisoned serial killer/cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lector to gain a better insight into the mind of a serial killer. However, Clarice is forced to gain Hannibal's confidence before he reveals any information and clues to her about who or where 'Buffalo Bill' is.
 
 


The Opening credits are fully integrated with the opening scene, the movie starts with a title of the Production company's (Orion) name.

The opening scene begins in a woodland setting with the location (Woods near Quantico, Va) fading into the bottom right corner at 0:26 then fading out again at 0:30 this immediately sets the location for the movie and gives the audience an idea of how this can relate to the plot of the movie. It also makes the movie more gripping and interesting to audiences watching from an area nearby or in Virginia.

The opening titles then start to fade in, they use a bold black font and capital letters that stands out from the white, snowy background to make it impossible for the audience to miss the main three actors (Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn). These three actors all appear seperately whereas the rest of the cast are shown at the same time, this emphasizes the important role that the main three actors characters will play in the rest of the film. The credits then appear in this order:

A Strong heart/Demme production

Jodie Foster

Anthony Hopkins

Scott Glenn

 The Silence of the Lambs

Brooke Smith

Diane Baker

Kasi Lemmons

Charles Napier 

Tracey Walter

Roger Corman

Ron Vawter

Danny Darst 

Frankie Faison

Paul Lazar

Dan Butler

Chris Isaak

Casting by Howard Feuer

Music by Howard Shore

Costume designer Colleen Atwood

Production designer Kristi Zea

Director of photography Tak Fujimoto

Edited by Craig Mckay A.C.E
Based on the novel written by Thomas Harris
Executive producer Gary Goetzman
Screenplay by Ted Tally
Produced by Edward Saxon
Kenneth Utt
Ron Bozman
Directed by Jonathon Demme

The main character, Clarice Starling is the first character to be introduced to the audience at 0:59, this indicates to the audience that she is the main character and the films plot revolves around her. A long shot is used as she is seen climbing up the hill, this helps capture that she is by herself in an isolated environment and gives the audience the impression that she is alone throughout the majority of the movie.

As Clarice is running, the camera is behind her giving a rear view of what is happening, the camera also follows her so that she doesn't get any further away. The way that the camera follows Clarice shows that the movie follows her throughout on how she cracks the case and attempts to become an FBI agent.

At 2:45 a man comes into the scene who seems to be Clarice's trainer, he is clearly in control because when he sends Clarice to Crawford's office, Clarice replies with "thank you sir". This shows that the man is in control because Clarice thanked him for giving her an instruction, this could be to represent the stereotype that men are more powerful than women which is commonly believed in certain parts of the US.

At 3:00, a sign is shown saying "hurt, pain, agony- love it". This shows that Clarice clearly put in hard work to get too where she is and gives the audience an idea of the type of person she is- someone who works hard and doesn't give up until she is successful

As Clarice reaches the building, it becomes apparent that she is the only female training to become an agent for the FBI. There are many males visible in the shot all training as a unit whereas the only female trains by herself. This could be representing the misogynistic views that many males have towards woman and that they isolate her from the activities that they take part in together.

Once again in this shot the building is dominated by males which puts into perspective how much males control society and get the more desired jobs. This represents the sexism women face and the amount of doubt society has in them. Also the only person that Clarice says hello to is a female once again showing how isolated she is because of her gender.

Once again misogyny is shown in this shot when Clarice enters the elevator. As she enters it is crowded with men who give her a peculiar look as if to say "what is she doing here", you can see by the confusion on their faces that it is rare for a female to be in the FBI. This makes the audience feel that misogyny is going to be a common theme throughout the movie.

As Clarice exits the elevator and walks towards Crawford's office, the camera pans away towards a sign that reads "Behavioural Science Services". This suggests that maybe Clarice has a rogue personality or is mentally ill in some sort of way. It implies that she has done something wrong and tells the audience that she isn't as innocent as she looks.

Conclusion of analysis

Altogether I think that the opening sequence to the Silence of the Lambs gives a good introduction to the main character and gives the audience a slight idea to what her personality is like and it also outlines a few key themes to the movie such as misogyny. It also leaves a high amount of the information untouched which is good because it leaves the audience wondering what the plot of the movie will be like. However, the lack of information given in to what the story will be like makes it less gripping and doesn't really reel in the audience.