Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine in the Jonathan Demme movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’

A psychological horror movie based on the 1988 Thomas Harris novel The Silence of the Lambs captures our attention today. Released this weekend 32 years ago, we look into the Jonathan Demme directed movie The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

(From left, Scott Glenn as Jack Crawford and Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The Silence of the Lambs opens with an introduction to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) trainee Clarice Starling, as portrayed by Jodie Foster, being withdrawn from her Quantico, Virginia training by Jack Crawford of the FBI‘s behavioral analysis unit for a special assignment. Crawford, portrayed by Scott Glenn, assigns Starling to interview former psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter, in furtherance of the investigation of an ongoing set of serial crimes occurring in the present day.

(From left, Anthony Heald as Dr. Frederick Chilton and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The visit to the so-called Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane introduces us through Starling to Lector, as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. It is here that much of the significant groundwork is laid for aiming to gain insight into the Buffalo Bill serial killer, the complex psychology of Lecter, and the unseemly motivations of many attached to the storylines of Lecter, his stay at this hospital, and the underlying criminal behavior in play with Buffalo Bill. It is at this hospital that we are introduced to Dr. Frederick Chilton and orderly Barney Matthews, portrayed respectively by Anthony Heald and Frankie Faison.

(From left, Brooke Smith as Catherine Martin and Ted Levine as Jame Gumb in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

A further intrigue for The Silence of the Lambs deals with the disappearance of Catherine Martin as portrayed by Brooke Smith. Martin is the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin of Tennessee, as portrayed by Diane Baker. That there’s a connection to Jame Gumb, as portrayed by Ted Levine, is part of the underlying notion of pulling Lecter and Starling into the notion of conversing in the first place.

(From left, Diane Baker as U.S. Senator Ruth Martin, Kasi Lemmons as Ardelia Mapp and Darla as the dog Precious in the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The compelling ways that the threads of the characters tie together, along with the emotional weight of the darkness motivating and acting on multiple characters in this narrative, lend strength to the ways the personal stories of this larger narrative work together in delivering strong psychological impact to the stories. The sympathetic roles of Ardelia Mapp, as portrayed by Kasi Lemmons, and Precious further this impact. Darla portrayed Precious, the dog.

(From left, actor Anthony Hopkins, actor Frankie Faison and director Jonathan Demme on location for the Jonathan Demme movie The Silence of the Lambs).

The staying power of the underpinning story of The Silence of the Lambs rest largely with the character of Hannibal Lecter. The deviance from societal norms on multiple fronts, with a resonating portrayal of him by Anthony Hopkins, sticks with me many years after my initial encounter with him. The sensibilities of the era the story lives in are captured well, too. I offer The Silence of the Lambs as directed by Jonathan Demme 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, February 11, 2023

Tom Hanks, Ed Harris and the Ron Howard film ‘Apollo 13’

It was 50-years ago this week that the first humans to walk on the moon occurred with the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission. Less than a year after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon, the intended Apollo 13 Lunar Landing Mission became a triumph of human ingenuity and tragedy averted when an explosion in space aborted that mission. Child actor and film director Ron Howard brought us the film of that latter mission in the blockbuster film that is our subject today, Apollo 13 (1995).

(Former actor turned acclaimed film director Ron Howard directed the film Apollo 13).

Three astronauts flew the mission depicted in Apollo 13, including Jim Lovell (as portrayed by Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (as portrayed by Bill Paxton), and the bachelor Jack Swigert (as portrayed by Kevin Bacon). Bachelor Ken Mattingly (as portrayed by Gary Sinise) was due to fly the mission, but owing the concern by medical flight controllers over the possibility of Mattingly getting measles while in space, Swigert was a middle-of-training replacement for the space flight. The movie offers a compelling introduction to each of these men, their pre-flight familial situations, and a foretelling of the relationships the men would have once adversity comes both pre-flight and in-mission.

(From left to right – Bill Paxton as astronaut Fred Haise, Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell, Gary Sinise as astronaut Ken Mattingly, and Kevin Bacon as astronaut Jack Swigert in the film Apollo 13).

Four NASA leaders important to the Apollo Missions overall and the Apollo 13 flight in particular were NASA director Christopher C. Kraft Jr. (portrayed as a loose composite in the film by Joe Spano), flight director Gene Kranz (portrayed by Ed Harris), flight controller Seymour ‘Sy’ Liebergot (portrayed by Clint Howard), and flight engineer John W. Aaron (as portrayed by Loren Dean). Kranz, Liebergot, and Aaron take prominent paths in the story, which dramatized the emotional stakes in the movie Apollo 13 so as to demonstrate effectively in movie presentation the dramatic story of what happened.

(From top to bottom – Joe Spano as a NASA director loosely based on Christopher C. Kraft Jr., Ed Harris as flight director Gene Kranz, Clint Howard as flight controller Seymour ‘Sy’ Liebergot, and Loren Dean as flight controller John W. Aaron in the film Apollo 13).

Heartstrings and emotional impact were shared back on earth during many critical junctures of the film. We met in loving detail an emotional depth for Jim Lovell‘s family and the growing quality of Fred Haise‘s family through the movie.

(From left to right, Mary Kate Schellhardt as Barbara Lovell, Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell, Miko Hughes as Jeffrey Lovell, and Max Elliott Slade as Jay Lovell in the film Apollo 13).

Beyond the compelling drama for whether the crew would make it home within the film, seeing the families of the crew, along with the extended NASA family of engineers pull together to bring about just that outcome, was quite dynamic.

(Tracy Reiner as Mary Haise, left, and Jean Speegle Howard as Blanch Lovell in the film Apollo 13).

The film Apollo 13 was a blockbuster movie with the budget and effects to go with it. The film won Academy Awards for sound and film editing. The film earned high marks among critics and moviegoers alike, per Rotten Tomatoes. As I continue to enjoy watching this film again and again, my overall rating for Apollo 13 is 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, July 17, 2019