Thirty years ago today,
While technically a sequel to Michael Mann's "Manhunter", that film's financial failure led famed producer Dino DeLaurentiis to relinquish the rights to Orion Pictures for a clean slate. After Gene Hackman famously flirted with the project, director Jonathan Demme joined the FBI in 1989 and he badly wanted his "Married to the Mob" star Michelle Pfeiffer as Clarice Starling. She reluctantly turned down Ted Tally's "evil" script, as did Meg Ryan. Meanwhile, newly-minted Oscar winner Jodie Foster(fantastic in "The Accused") was lobbying hard for the part, perhaps to exorcise the demons of the deeply-unfortunate John Hinckley association that kept her career quiet for most of the '80s. Her intelligence, strength, and accent made her perfect for the role
Baltimore is quite a fun town if you have the right guide.
Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson had no interest in playing Hannibal Lecter. Jeremy Irons needed a break from dark characters. Jon Lithgow would have been next in line, if Anthony Hopkins hadn't seen this project as his last chance to make a real impact in Hollywood. The 52 year old Welshman had been alternating between the stage and screen since the '60s, without ever truly achieving the fame and recognition that his talent warranted(with 1980's "The Elephant Man" being his most high-profile film role). That all changed the moment he burned a hole through Starling with that icy stare and unnerving stillness. Hopkins knew exactly how to play Hannibal, and Demme was receptive to all of his suggestions- the speech pattern, the manners, the slicked-back hair, the neat jumpsuit. To say that the performance was instantly iconic would be an understatement.
Ahh, 'Multiple' Miggs. It may not be possible to swallow your own tongue, but his sense of smell is legendary. Who's down for a Miggs prequel or limited series?
A brief flashback hints at the hidden pain of our heroine.
The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit aided the production, and later called Foster's performance so impressive, it increased female recruitment. These early scenes were actually filmed at the Bureau's training facility in Quantico, Virginia, granting "Lambs" an authenticity that would be impossible for other films to replicate. Lecter speaks in riddles, which leads a perceptive Clarice to a storage unit and(gasp!) a severed head.
Hannibal didn't kill Benjamin Raspail, he merely took care of the remains of Buffalo Bill's old boyfriend. The investigation is getting somewhere. Demme and production designer Kristi Lea didn't want boring bars separating Lecter and Starling(nor did they want to copy the "Manhunter" aesthetic), so we got transparent plexiglass for the director's trademark close-ups, to emphasize the pair's growing intimacy. Hopkins admitted that his greatest performance was inspired by the speaking style of Katharine Hepburn- his first movie was 1968's "The Lion in Winter". Sir Anthony is now just as revered- he played two Presidents- John Quincy Adams and Richard Nixon, Thor's father, and won his SECOND Best Actor Oscar for 2020's "The Father".
You just can't get help from a stranger to load a sofa into the back of a windowless van at night anymore. Thanks, Buffalo Bill. Demme's song selection is spot-on. "Married to the Mob" had a fun, table-setting soundtrack, and Tom Petty's 1976 hit "American Girl" proved the perfect intro to Catherine Martin(Brooke Smith).
Scott Glenn, a character actor best known for his roles in "Urban Cowboy" and "The Right Stuff", described his research for Jack Crawford as traumatic. Legendary FBI profiler John E. Douglas spared him none of the details of his grisly serial killer investigations. Fun fact- Crawford has also been played by Dennis Farina, Harvey Keitel, and Laurence Fishburne. When another victim is found in, it looks like a Buffalo Bill-type situation.
Demme constantly reminds the audience that Clarice is in over her head in a male-dominated world. His direction of key moments, like the examination of this mangled body, is brilliant. It's worth noting that the horrors of cannibalistic killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his 17 murder victims was in the news daily from July 1991 until his sentencing in May 1992, increasing the film's power and potency. You always used to hear about how "Jaws" made people afraid to go in the water. Demme created a similar vibe.
What's with the death's-head moths being inserted into the throats of the victims(including Raspail)? Demme loves character actors like Tracey Walter, Paul Lazar, and Dan Butler. And close-ups. Cinematographer Tak Fujimoto worked on ten Demme productions.
Catherine is the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin who makes a desperate televised plea for her safe return. Diane Baker's career goes all the way back to 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank". Catherine is a person, not an object. Clever stuff.
As the case grows more urgent, Clarice offers a deal. Lecter isn't buying an annual getaway to Plum/"Anthrax" island, and prefers to hear about her West Virginia childhood. What happened to her policeman father? Don't lie, or he'll know. Hopkins famously won the Best Actor Oscar with only twenty minutes of screentime, beating an equally-diabolical Robert De Niro("Cape Fear"), Warren Beatty("Bugsy"), Nick Nolte("The Prince of Tides"), and Robin Williams("The Fisher King"). What a roster.
Catherine is alive and NOT well, in an actual WELL in of the most disturbing movie moments, well, ever. Buffalo Bill's puppy Precious and his lotion fixation isn't calming anyone's nerves. If it makes you feel any better, Levine and Smith were very friendly during filming. Buffalo Bill's house in Pennsylvania has been a tourist destination since 2021, available for overnight rentals and guided tours. Maybe someday.
What an unsettling transition from BB's basement/well to Lecter's cell. Somebody check and make sure all the doors and windows are locked. Demme directed the hell out of this film, and a special thanks must go out to his seven-time editor Craig McKay(nominated for this and Warren Beatty's 1981 masterpiece "Reds"). Now would be a good time to mention that Frankie Faison's burly Barney is also in the sequel/prequel combo "Hannibal" and "Red Dragon"(AND "Manhunter" in a different role). He must really love Lecter. But not as much as Anthony Heald's smarmy Dr. Chilton loves taunting his infamous prisoner. He may regret it.
I love how Lecter is so dangerous, he needs to be masked, put in a straighjacket, and strapped to a gurney, to be brought in front of the Senator and at least a dozen law enforcement. Did Demme and Hopkins know they were creating iconography? I wish I could hear their conversations about the character. Hannibal provides an accurate physical description but a false name("Louis Friend") for Catherine's abductor, but is only amusing himself(and the audience) with his breastfeeding and fashion commentary.
People are going to think Hannibal and Clarice are in love. That suggestion caused Foster to relinquish her signature role to Julianne Moore in the controversial, long-awaited sequel "Hannibal"(she hated Harris' 1999 novel). Lecter's laser-like stare forces her to finish her earlier recollections of childhood. She may be secretly enjoying the impromtu therapy sessions. A ten-year old Clarice "recovered" from her father's murder with relatives at a Montana ranch, where she was further tramautized by the slaughter of their spring lambs. They were screaming. Can you imagine taking a date to see this on Valentine's Day 1991? Demme originally intended to insert more flashbacks here. The performances he captured made that totally unnecessary. Lecter's tidy white outfit, also worn by an underrated Brian Cox in "Manhunter", makes the bloodshed to come more startling.
I could watch Hannibal Lecter escape from his Memphis captivity once a week for the rest of my life. I won't, but that's how entertaining it is. Give a great movie character a pen or a paperclip and watch all hell break loose. If you can buy that Rocky Balboa can get punched in the head 500 times and still win, then you can buy the greatest escape since Steve McQueen. Give a guy an inch, or in this case an extra meal and some material to draw with, and he'll brutally murder two guards, disguise himself as one of them, and kill the EMTs and the nearest airline tourist. Charles Napier got to be in nine Demme movies. He survived a machine-gun-toting Rambo in 1985, but not a nightstick-wielding Hannibal the Cannibal.
Didn't the all-knowing Lecter say something about Belvedere? Clarice just doesn't believe that Crawford and the male FBI have everything under control, so she continues digging into the first victim, Frederika Bimmel. Her female intuition gives her an edge that they don't have. The Yale-educated Foster used the "Silence" momentum to direct and star in "Little Man Tate"(released the same year), and would be nominated twice more for "Nell" and "Nyad". I've got "Contact", the Robert Zemeckis sci-fi epic, as her second-best outing in the '90s.
Jame Gumb(his parents must have forgot the "s") is playing dress-up and Catherine can't escape. God, this movie is scary. Demme discovered troubled singer Q Lazzarus(Diane Luckey) and put her haunting track "Goodbye Horses" to good use. Did you know that the infamous nipple wasn't real and Precious(real name-Darla) was in "Batman Returns"? Mind-blowing, I know. Demme's second-best film, 1993's "Philadelphia", was partially motivated by the hurtful backlash from the LGBTQ+ community over this insensitive portrayal. The politically-active director was a humanist and it certainly wasn't intentional.
Clarice arrives at the Ohio home of Gumb's old seamstress Mrs. Lipman, only to find that it's odd new occupant killed her two years ago and turned the residence into his house of horrors. The start of this sequence is cleverly crossed with Crawford's failed search in Illinois. Buffalo Bill's basement is right up there(or down there) with Regan MacNeil's bedroom and the Overlook hotel if you want to talk about hellish settings. I don't think Catherine Martin is sufficiantly appreciative of Clarice's rescue efforts. The night-vision goggles come back into play, but Starling's cool head is enough to overcome the darkness of Gumb's home-field advantage. She puts at least four bullets in the freak to earn her official FBI badge.
Clarice's graduation elation is short-lived, as a phone call from Lecter reveals that the world's most dangerous man is alive and well. One psychopath is dead, and another is back in circulation. An unknown tropical location has a disguided Hannibal waiting to exact revenge on a vacationing Dr. Chilton. The super-villain has "dinner" plans and eerily blends into the crowd("Dr. Lecter..."). No wonder sequel rumors floated throughout the '90s(without the internet). A great movie leaves you wanting more, and Harris was paid $10 million to continue the fictional lives of two characters that felt so real. But did we need it? Turns out that imagining what Lecter might do, is a lot more frightening than seeing him do it. "Hannibal" is a well-made Ridley Scott film with a great cast(Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta) and creepy moments that never comes close to "Silence". Despite all the money being thrown around, Demme and Foster were united in their belief that the most special project of their careers couldn't be matched.
What a poster. What a movie.
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