In the realm of "shitty ideas that turned out brilliant," one of the best examples has to be Brian Fuller's Hannibal TV series. No one thought a TV prequel show about Hannibal Lecter was going to be any good, let alone the most visually stunning work of art to be aired on network TV since Twin Peaks. A strong vocal cult developed around this show (one that I'm a part of), and the only downside to this, aside from the embarrassing nickname "Fannibals", is that certain fans have downplayed Anthony Hopkins' iconic portrayal of Hannibal in order to boost Mads Mikkelsen's. These people need to sit down and re-watch Silence of the Lambs and ignore every other Hannibal Lector film that came after.
Silence of the Lambs is an odd mixture of psychological crime drama and Gothic horror, with Anthony Hopkins channeling his inner Bela Lugosi to create what would be considered one of the greatest horror monsters in recent history. The film, which certain actors refused to call a horror film, is absolutely a part of the horror genre, with Clarice Starling's first visit to Hannibal being a direct homage to Jonathan Harker's first journey into Dracula's castle. The Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane is a brick-laden dungeon, betraying director Jonathan Demme's horror angle and leading to a shot of a smiling Lecter staring at the audience, a brilliant reveal that calls back to Lugosi's first appearance as the Count. From then on Lecter looms over the rest of the film, creating the effect, much like Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, that he's on screen more often than he actually is because people can't stop talking about him.
Jodie Foster's performance as Clarice Starling, while not as iconic, is an amazing emotional journey that successfully wrestles the film away from Hannibal and places the focus back on Starling as she goes about her investigation of the murderer Buffalo Bill. This is one of the meatiest roles an actress could hope for, since not only is Starling the protagonist of the film, but there's also thankfully no love interest here, even if the argument could be made that the relationship between Clarice and Hannibal is a courtship. When you watch The Silence of the Lambs and pay attention to how great the character of Clarice Starling is portrayed, you understand completely why Foster turned down the shitty Grand Guignol horseshit she was offered for the sequel.
Speaking of sequels, part of the reason why Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal is easy to dismiss is because of the exaggerated, jokey way he started portraying the character in both Hannibal and Red Dragon. Hopkins amped up all the corny aspects of the character and instead of being afraid of him, he became another Freddy Krueger that you wanted to root for. Yes, Lecter does make some corny jokes in Silence of the Lambs ("love your dress!"), but he is also a real threat, and no one knows if he would actually murder Clarice if he had the chance. At the end of the sequel he's almost a dashing hero, albeit one who serves a portion of Ray Liotta's brain to a small boy on a plane.
The Silence of the Lambs, next to Seven, was the best horror film to come out of the 90s, and one of the best horror films ever made, full stop. Horror also happens to be one of my favorite genres, so this one's gonna get ranked higher than most people would rank it. When thinking about the ranking, it's tempting to try to come up with reasons why I like it more than Grand Illusion. The fact is, as much as I love Grand Illusion, I can't come up with a single reason why I should rank it higher than The Silence of the Lambs. I truly did not expect to have it ranked this high, but seriously, if you haven't watched The Silence of the Lambs recently, do it. Just try to ignore what Hopkins did to that character later, and all the jokey Buffalo Bill jokes that started infiltrating pop culture in the early aughts.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Seven Samurai (1954)
3. The Seventh Seal (1957)
4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
5. Grand Illusion (1937)
6. Hard Boiled (1992)
7. The 400 Blows (1959)
8. Walkabout (1971)
9. The Killer (1989)
10. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
11. A Night to Remember (1958)
12. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
13. Amarcord (1973)
Next up: Do I rank Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy as three separate films or just one? How the fuck do you even rank something like this? Find out when I kick off this triple feature with Musashi Miyamoto.
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