The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Seen it? Rate it in one tap.
FavoriteLoved itLiked itIt was OKNot for me
Rate 5 films and ThumbScore predicts your score for every other one. Not seen it? Get your predicted score →
Cast
Is The Silence of the Lambs good?
Where it ranks on ThumbScore
By audience score, among films with 500 or more votes.
Overview
About the Film
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror thriller directed by Jonathan Demme, based on Thomas Harris's 1988 novel. The film stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who is sent to interview the imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, in hopes of gaining insights that will help catch another serial killer known as Buffalo Bill.
What develops between Starling and Lecter is one of cinema's most compelling and unsettling relationships — a psychological chess match in which Lecter offers his brilliant criminal profiling expertise in exchange for personal details about Clarice's troubled past. The Silence of the Lambs achieved the extraordinary distinction of winning all five major Academy Awards — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay — a feat accomplished only twice before, by It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, despite appearing on screen for only approximately 16 minutes, became one of the most iconic performances in cinema history and was voted the greatest movie villain of all time by the American Film Institute.
Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling was equally celebrated as a groundbreaking portrayal of a woman navigating a male-dominated profession while confronting genuine evil. Jonathan Demme's intimate close-up cinematography, in which characters appear to look directly at the audience, created an unprecedented sense of psychological claustrophobia.





