It’s hard to believe that this fantastic film is now more than 25 years old. This is the movie that catapulted Anthony Hopkins into the upper reaches of stardom, though he had been headlining movies for decades before this film’s release including wonderful gems such as Magicand The Bounty. The Silence of the Lambsis also the movie that injected the serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lector into the popular culture spawning film and television sequels and prequels. Though five years earlier Brian Cox has done a perfectly serviceable performance as Lector in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, where Lector made his fiction entrance, it was Hopkins’ depiction that caught fire with audiences. In addition to Hopkins The Silence of the Lambsboasts a terrific cast of Jodie Foster, who successfully navigated the treacherous seas between child and adult actor, Scott Glenn, and Ted Levin giving a credible and creepy performance as the serial killer ‘Buffalo Bill.’

Jodie Foster plays Clarice Starling who is finishing her school at the FBI school in Quantico when her boss Crawford (Scott Glenn), desperate for a break to identify and capture ‘Buffalo Bill’ send her to interview the notorious imprisoned serial killer and psychiatrist Hannibal Lector. Sensing that Clarice is driven by a dark and tragic past Lector agrees to help but only if she does the one thing that Crawford insisted she must never do, allow Lector into her head. Once ‘Buffalo Bill,’ who is known to kidnap and hold his female victims for several days before killing them, abducts, unwittingly Catherine, the daughter of a U.S. Senator, Clarice and Crawford begin a race to discover ‘Bill’s’ identity and location before it’s too late.

With tight taunt plotting, well-developed characters, and sharp cinematic skill The Silence of the Lambs, stormed the box office and took several well-deserved Oscars. A modern classic this is a film that is timeless and always worth watching and studying.