Not all feminist movies feature women trying to fight for their rights by taking on the government or making a huge speech on how woman should be treated. Some movies take on a whole other genre, yet still bring up these cultural issues. One movie in particular that expresses this is “The Silence of the Lambs” directed by Jonathan Demme, a horror flick that consists of a woman detective, a cannibal and a killer. To give some background, Clarice Starling, a student for the FBI, helps one of her past teachers, Jack Crawford, by taking on a case. The case is based on a killer, “Buffalo Bill” who is kidnapping woman, skinning then killing them and dumping them in various locations. Clarice tries to solve varies clues with the help from Dr. Hannibal, also known as the violent psychopath “Hannibal the Cannibal”, as she tries to find out the killer’s motives for all the kidnappings along with finding him in time before he kills the US Senator’s daughter, his latest trophy. Throughout the movie, Clarice has to prove herself as a female detective and push through the cultural stereotypes of woman.
The movie shows the struggle of Clarice trying to solve this case while being held back for being a woman who works for the FBI. The movie shows this through varies shots that make her look visually submissive to men surrounding her along with other forms of cultural aspects of women that play as recurring motifs.
At the beginning scenes of the movie when Clarice is called into Jack Crawford’s office, we are given a shot of her riding the elevator that is filled with taller men. Just looking at the visual aspects, we can see that the only woman in the elevator, Clarice, is wearing a gray sweatshirt while all of the men in the elevator are wearing red polos. The height of all the male characters also play a part of making Clarice look small as if all the men’s heights are overpowering her (or over towering her). The cinematographer, Tak Fujimoto, made a smart choice of making Clarice look independent throughout all this by having her look straight up, not letting the men even consider they are better than her.
We are given another similar scene as a recurring motif throughout the movie. In this scene, the FBI finds the first victim of Buffalo Bill’s murders. They examine the body at a funeral house. There, Jack Crawford tells Clarice to go wait outside the room while he goes and talks to the forensic pathologist (someone who examines dead bodies). While Clarice waits outside, she is quite literally surrounded by sheriffs and cops of the local town. On top of that, almost all the men are wearing uniforms and sheriff’s hats displaying their authority and role to the public. Not being empowered by this, Clarice does not back down or looks the other way, instead she looks directly at the cops instead of being submissive based on the situation. (Valentine)
When it comes to Hannibal’s and Clarice’s relationship according to the plot of the film, Hannibal already right from the get go suspects that Clarice will fail as they first meet. Hannibal is almost offended that Jack Crawford would send a mere student to try to get information from him. He therefore makes it difficult by making her figure out and decipher information he gives her for the case, not only out of his amusement but also to show that he can still be overpowering while being locked up. Whenever they meet, it’s almost as if it is a power struggle between both of them. As Hannibal tries to scare her away, she is only merely taken back but never even breaks eye contact with him. (Barsham) Because unlike some other people who go to see Hannibal, she is not here to play his games. So throughout the movie, you see these constant battles of these two trying to dominate the other either through eye contact or clever tactics. (Alysonkrier)
“The Silence of the Lambs” film is very profound and well done. Not only are the performances by both Jodie Foster (Clarice) and Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal) phenomenal and were Oscar worthy, but they were also both able to really represent the struggles of women trying to show their independence and power in a male dominated society. These recurring motif’s really give an idea of the cultures and expectations of society for women. Who knew horror flicks can be the ones leading the feminist movements of the 90’s?
Works Citied
Barsam, Richard and Monahan, Dave. Looking at Movies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2016.
Photos and Information
Valentine, Genevieve. Strange Horizons. 17 May 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
Alysonkrier. The Best Picture Project. 13 Apr. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.