Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh

uuid:	B3AD84B8-B420-43EE-9539-D1EFEBBC8FB4
upc:	0715515009133
title:	The Silence of the Lambs - Criterion Collection
theatricalDate:	14-02-1991
purchase date:	19-02-2006
publisher:	Criterion
published:	15-07-1998
price:	$39.95
numberInSeries:	13
net Rating:	4.5
MPAA Rating:	R
minutes:	118
last lookup time:	162092832
genre:	Suspense Thrillers Murder & Mayhem Detectives Cops Haunted by the Past Mind Games Race Against Time Serial Killers
fullTitle:	The Silence of the Lambs - Criterion Collection
features:	Color Dolby Letterboxed Widescreen NTSC 1.85:1
director:	Jonathan Demme
currentValue:	$34.99
created:	162092816
country:	us
aspect:	DVD
asin:	6305050058