Silence of the Lambs

I was a kid when this movie came out and desperately wanted to see it. I loved scary movies. My mom forbade it. I forgot about it until I was at home on the couch one night a few months ago and it was on TV. MY GAWD what a campfest!! Was anyone seriously scared by this? What are some of your favorite Silence of the Lambs lines/scenes? TIA.

Its become a campfest over time, but whenever I watch the whole movie again in context the camp value is lessened. The Catherine martin/Jame Gumb situation is truly disturbing and terrifying, as is the political subtext of poor victims vs. rich and connected victims, gender roles, etc. That said, if someone jokes about "a great big fat person" out of context I agree it is funny.
"Was she a great big fat person?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyadlNZnDY
Buffalo Bill
"It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." "Put the fucking lotion in the basket!" --Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb
"Freddy was so happy for me when I got this job at the bank. Toaster giveaways and Barry Manilow on the speakers all day. She thought it was such hot shit. What'd she know. Big dummy."
OMG I love r4!!!! I love that scene....and they often cut it for TV!!!!
This is the FBI...you're safe now!
The%20theater%20ERUPTED%20with%20laughter
"Oh, and Senator... One more thing: Love your suit!"
Bengali in Platforms
"You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube, with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?"
I'm having an old friend for dinner.
"...Fava beans...nice chianti."
"Dr. Lecter!!!"
It's something Miggs would say..... Not anymore.
Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.
I can smell your cunt.
Sometimes you wear L'air du Temps, but not today.
Toughened your nipples, didn't it?
R8 beat me to it. Big dummy.
Precious
There was no concept of censorship in my house, so I saw SOTL when I was 11 and found a lot of it to be hilarious. Especially "It rubs the lotion on its skin". Did Mrs Patrick Campbell get her way of referring to herself from Buffalo Bill?
Not scary though the idea that a killer that patient, calm and devious was perturbing.
When this movie was released, it wasn't scary but it was extremely suspenseful. People were glued to their seats, not moving an inch, holding their breath for long sequences. This was one of the first movies of it's kind to feature a female lead, carrying a gun, in grave, grave danger. The opening image of her running through the woods, alone, and then getting into the elevator with all the men who tower over her... It's not supposed to be about a killer that scares the audience, it's about caring for this fragile little bird flying between two monsters and what kind of damage (psychological? physical? both?) will happen to her. Unlike today, where there is a 24/7 stream of tv programs on multiple networks showcasing the hunting, raping and murdering of women (both real and imagined), Silence of the Lambs brought that idea into the present day and did it best in class. It was a first for that generation.
I love how this movie walks a fine line between the painful realism of Agent Starling's story, and the crazeballs over-the-toppitude of Hannibal Lecter. And the fact that Jodie Foster has most of the screen time keeps it all grounded, Foster does such a good job that you believe everything that happens to her. So IMHO the movie does not tip over into camp. Lecter really does work better in small doses, and when seem through the eyes of someone the audience can identify with. That's where the sequel went wrong.
I was disappointed, I was never really Jodie fan afterwards. Not that I thought she gave a bad performance, it's just the movie itself didn't interest me, and she hasn't made since I've liked either.
Terrific movie and I agree more suspense than fright- although the two monsters are pretty creepy. I think Anthony Hopkin's Hannibel L. is one of the great screen characters of all time. OP, imagine seeing it on a large screen with no commercials etc. The only as creepy bad guy was the Xavier Bardem sp? character in that Cohen Bros film a few years ago- along with Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones...
charlie
"Yes she will, Precious. She will get the hose!"
Not scary or terrifying. It's a total campfest.
Eh, I think it's still a terrific movie. The sequels hurt its reputation plenty, but the original is still great.
I haven't seen the movie for awhile but I remember thinking that it was great to have a strong smart woman chatacter who was the equal to her male counterparts but then being disappointed that they seemed to strip her intelligence and strength from her character towards the last 1/4 of the movie. It seemed like she only got to the bad guy by sheer luck and by the end of the film she had turned into the typical 'little woman' character needing to be taken care of by the big strong men. I loved the Hannibal character, he was brilliant, insane and evil in equal parts. Most of the bad guys in film and TV seem very simple and surface-y, and rather dumb. Agree with R23 that the only other bad guy that comes close to being as creepy as Hannibal was Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in 'No Country for Old Men'
[quote] It seemed like she only got to the bad guy by sheer luck But it wasn't luck. She was smart enough to listen to Lecter ("Hot damn, Clarice.") In fact, if she'd paid more attention, she probably wouldn't have been caught unawares when she found Jame Gumb; Lecter tells her where to find him in their first conversation, and if she'd put that together, she could have taken him alive.
The Voice of the Night
It took a combination of luck, smarts, and writerly manipulation to get Starling and Buffalo Bill alone together for the final confrontation. If she's figured absolutely everything out, the FBI would have gone in with guns blazing and sent her back to school. And what kind of story would that be!
Good points TVoN and R29.
R27
I'm a stickler for continuity; it's almost OCD-level, thanks to my mother who was worse than I am. The only error I ever found in this movie is that the rear license plate on the ambulance at the court house says Davidson County (Nashville) instead of Shelby County (Memphis).
[quote] It seemed like she only got to the bad guy by sheer luck Nonsense! My discussion of Marcus Aurelius led her to Buffalo Bill like a hummingbird to nectar.
H.
I wouldn't say that it was scary exactly, but it was very suspenseful and exciting to watch when it was new and you had no idea what would happen next. But it's one of those films that's been parodied so frequently and ripped off by so many other movies that it seems tame now.
They were scared because much of America thought that Dr. Lechter and Buffalo Bill were typical queers.
That is to say, it was homophobic. Violently so. And it was part of the whole hysteria about AIDS. No Way Out was a similar homophobic movie from that time.
Is this Lecter's handwriting? "Clarice, doesn't this random scattering of sites seem desperately random - like the elaborations of a bad liar? Ta, Hannibal Lecter."
"I graduated from UVA, Captain; it's not exactly a charm school." -- Kirker (er, I mean, Clarice)
It's probably a silly thing to be bothered by but I'm always annoyed by the way Foster's character says, "Dr. Lecter?! Dr. Lecter?!!" over and over and over at the end of the movie. It's about 6 "Dr. Lechter's" too long for me.
[quote]I can smell your cunt. Has anyone else seen "Silence: The Musical", wherein Davis Gaines, of all people, (at least in the LA production) sings the big powerhouse ballad, "If I Could Smell Her Cunt"? You probably won't be seeing that on the Tony Awards show anytime soon.
Diamond studs on a stud
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OwULE8sxiYo/TNpveYvJeuI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/KByJU98PK2w/s1600/David Haye.jpg
Whoops, wrong thread!
R40
"I CAN SMELL YOUR FEET!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP3cSZQCPdA
Don't leave me here you fuckin bitch! NO! This guy's fuckin CRAZY!!!!!
Hahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DtXkblbJqwn0
I love this movie. I disagree that it's a campfest. BB and Lecter are campy (to varying degrees) villains but the rest of the film is not. The Clarice character is one of the few true heroines* of films to this day. *in the Joseph Campbell way
French & Saunders parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dha7EB5Y_RT0
One of the most brilliant scenes in cinema.
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dfd7e1fXYIuM
R46. That was great.
My fav scene
http://youtu.be/O0ilk2NfOyw
He shaid ah kin shmell yer cunt.