Similar Products- Silence Of The Lambs Analysis

‘Silence of the lambs’ is a psychological crime thriller, which provides thrills, suspense and tension throughout the film in many different ways to the audience. It is a film which is full of mystery, maintaining the audience at the ‘edge of their seats’ as they become involved in the unknown, which creates excitement for them as the plot unravels. There are many twists in the plot of ‘Silence of the lambs’, making the film very conventional yet also unconventional in some parts which create interest for the audience.

The film keeps the audience uncertain about events throughout as they are filled with cryptic clues, the title itself, ‘Silence of the lambs’ is a reference to Clarice’s childhood and the victims of the murders which Buffalo Bill carries out. When Clarice is younger she witnesses the death of a lamb which she could not save, this is a memory which remained in her head; when exchanging information with Hannibal Lecter she tells him of this event which happened in her early life, to which he uses as a psychological advantage as he Is always in her head, this is shown in a letter which he writes to her at the end of the film in which he hopes for her that ‘the lambs have stopped screaming’, referring to the lamb in her early life as well as the victims she tries to save. This shows the title as being cryptic itself which is very true to the thriller genre and is shown throughout the film when Lecter is exchanging information with Starling. Having cryptic clues throughout the film creates mystery for the audience leaving them in suspense which heightens the tension as they try to unravel the clues.

When we are first introduced to Hannibal Lecter, we see that he has been placed into a psychological unit, for a series of murders as a result of cannibalism. We learn straightaway that he is psychologically unwell, this is very conventional to a character of the thriller genre; he uses this to his advantage as he plays mind games with the protagonist, Clarice. This puts him in power, which builds suspense for the audience as they are aware of his capabilities yet uncertain of his actions through the course of the film. Although he is a dangerous and unnerving character who fits the conventions of the thriller genre, he does also break them as he helps Clarice catch Buffalo Bill. In a thriller it is very unusual for the protagonist and antagonist to work together; usually the protagonist and antagonist are conflicting characters which makes it debatable to whether he is an antagonist in the film as there is another obvious antagonist, being Buffalo Bill.

We learn that Clarice is an FBI trainee at the start of the film when we see her taking part in an assault course; her character is very unconventional as we would stereotypically expect a male to be taking the role of an FBI trainee and completing such activities. Whilst on a mission to catch Buffalo Bill we see her relationship with Lecter develop further than one would expect, often it is suggested that Clarice and Lecter’s minds are similar as a ‘connection’ is created between them. This forms tension amongst the viewer’s due to the dangerous situations she puts herself into.  Even though Clarice is breaking ‘police rules’ if you like, I would say this is conventional of a thriller film since a twist in the plot is being produced, therefore putting the audience into the unknown.

Buffalo Bill is undoubtedly an antagonist in this film, the audience fears him greatly mainly because we are told of his character throughout the film and hear of his actions, yet are only exposed to him a few times during the film, which leaves the audience unknown to what to expect when they finally see him and so the tension builds. I feel that his character is feared the most by the audience as his doings in the film are very much hidden throughout, so although you expect him to be psychopathic, you don’t realise to which extent until you see him. The fact that we see him rarely in the film is very unconventional to a thriller genre due to him being an antagonist in the film. Usually you would see the antagonist throughout the film and see the conflicts or the dangerous situations he is causing; Buffalo Bill however breaks this convention because we don’t see his actions from the start.

I believe ‘The silence of the lambs’ is conventional to the thriller genre in terms of the camera angles used; it is common for a thriller to use simple shots such as, mid shots, tracking shots, pan shots and zooms or close-ups. A particular scene which stands out for me when discussing camera angles is the one in which there is a zoom and close-up of Lecter as he gains more information about Clarice. The camera positioning used here is spot on when linking to narration. A zoom is used when Lecter is prompting Clarice for more information of her reasons for leaving home, when Clarice replies a mid shot is used, when comparing to the camera positioning used when Lecter talks, we can tell that she is somewhat uncomfortable due to the contradicting distance between her and the camera compared to Lecter and the camera. When the camera stops zooming on Lecter, this is when he gets an insight into Clarice’s mind; one could interpret this shot being from Clarice’s mind and how Lecter is constantly in it.

The lighting used is mainly naturalistic and low key which is very conventional to the thriller genre, making settings dark and mysterious. In terms of lighting, the scene in which Buffalo Bill is killed is one which ticks all boxes for the thriller genre in the way that it creates suspense, mystery and tension for the audience; this is due to the fact that the audience are aware of where Buffalo Bill is, however are unsure of what he will do to Clarice and it also makes the audience fear for Clarice as she is unaware of his whereabouts in the basement.

The music used in ‘Silence of the lambs’ is very slow yet progressive to create tension as scenes build, the timing is a major contributor to the sound, which is key to the thriller genre because even when there are moments of silence, tension is also built as the audience are put at the ‘edge of their seats’ whilst remaining deeply concentrated on the narrative.

Overall I feel that ‘Silence of the lambs’ sits comfortably in the thriller genre, featuring many of the conventions you would expect to see, including an antagonist and a protagonist, twisted plots, life threatening characters, police officers, the use of guns as well as the simplistic camera angles and sound samples used, to create suspense, tension and thrills for the viewers.