The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs

Introduction

The Silence of the Lambs shows us about the criminal nature of humans and the reasons why people become criminals. It shows us about women in careers and the unseen struggles they face while navigating the work environment. An analysis of this film shows that psychopaths are hard to change even with medication and rehabilitation. Also, women are intelligent and don’t need to have males or have ‘favours’ to climb the career ladder; they can do it on their own. Women are strong, and can even solve some problems in a way that the males cannot.

Background information

The silence of the Lambs is a film adaptation of the book by the same name, written by Thomas Harris. The film revolves around Clarice Starling, an FBI rookie trying to solve a psychotic murder case with the help of Dr Hannibal Lecter. Jack Crawford, heads behavioural science at the FBI and sends for Clarice to help him with a serial murder case that they are trying to solve. After hitting a wall, Crawford uses Clarice to get to Dr Lecter, who is a psychiatrist and also a psychopath himself. The two men and also Dr Chilton seems to have some likeness for Clarice, mostly romantic.

A psychotic murderer named Buffalo Bill is on the loose. The real name for the murder is Jame Gumb, a psychologically disturbed person who kills women by starving them to death to skin them and create a woman’s “skin” that he can wear to make himself a woman. Jame, a misspelt name for James, lived in foster care from the age of two to ten. After his grandparents take him to live with them but end up killing them, such psychological traumas of his childhood make him unstable that he is taken to a mental institution where he learns to tailor. For the murder case at hand, all the cases were women, and they were all dumped in different rivers. Besides, they all have moths inserted or forced into their throats. Also, different parts of the victim’s skin were missing at the time they were found. This makes him be known as Buffalo Bill because he ‘skins his humps.’

With Buffalo Bill kidnapping the daughter of a sitting senator, Dr Lecter agrees to help Clarice to capture Buffalo Bill, with the condition he will be transferred. She decides to this, though he is not officially given the transfer. After Dr Chilton is involved and moves Dr Lecter, Clarice and a different team led by Crawford use Dr Lecture’s clues to find Buffalo Bill. Crawford heads to a house where Buffalo Bill has an address on and don’t see him there, while Clarice heads to another location using some evidence and finds the psycho in another house, with the daughter of the senator held hostage in the base room. With Buffalo being caught, Dr Lecter escapes from police custody, and we see him following Dr Chilton in another part of the world. Clarice receives a call from Dr Lecter, asking her if the lambs have finally gone silent. It leaves us wondering the next move.

There are various themes discussed in the film that are still happening in society today. Known issues such as feminism, real-life crime and criminals, psychopathy and profiling are common in both the film and in today’s world.

Feminism and Sexuality

In the film, we see Clarice continually being surrounded by men and some with hidden motives. We get the idea that Crawford has some romantic feeling for Clarice and even Lecter himself asks her about him, how they perceive each other. Also, Lecter himself has some sentimental fetish attachment to Clarice. From his observation, he even asks Clarice about the men in her environment. He asks ‘Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice?’ (ref4–). Dr Chilton also makes some romantic moves. It seems men with a hidden agenda surround Clarice. Lecter “helps” Clarice by killing one of his cellmates who throws some “fluids” to Clarice.

I believe that Clarice being surrounded by men signifies an accomplishment in her part. The fact that in the end, she can know how and where to find Buffalo Bull shows how intelligent she is. Also, the notion that Crawford has a romantic feeling for her is subject of discussion. Does he have a feeling for her? That’s a yes. Is it deep romantic feelings? Maybe not. Crawford may have romantic feeling for Clarice, but from my perspective, he chooses her due to her intelligence and as bait. He somehow knows that Lecter will open up to her and his instincts, if I may call it so, pays off. For Lecter, his call at the end of the film signifies he is not over her yet, and this leaves us hanging, wondering what would have happened next. Clarice signifies a strong woman who can not only solve cases but can overcome difficulties in her life. We learn from her background of her father passing away while she was still a child and Lecter’s analysis of Clarice the first time they meet.

Childhood trauma

In the movie, most of the characters have childhood trauma’s that still haunt them even in their old age. It seems that they never get over the damage caused in their childhood. For a start, Dr Hannibal Lecter has childhood trauma’s that make him a psychopath. We learn that Dr Hannibal is still mourning of his sister Mischa (ref3—). Lecter feels estranged from others and has difficulty relating to others (ref1—).  Lecter does not eat his victim’s flesh, only pancreas, brain, and thymus glands. This shows are-enactment of how his sister was eaten by consuming the vital organs of her body (ref1—). Buffalo Bill suffers from the same problem. Having been brought up in foster care for during his childhood, and we have information that his mother was a prostitute who even mispronounced his name in the birth certificate, he murders his grandparents. Such trauma has been haunting him since, and he now kills women to try to make a skin to wear to be a woman himself. With the two characters acting out in their adult lives due to childhood trauma, there is a view among clinical personnel working with such people that these individuals cannot be treated (ref3—). The theory is that human personality is a stable condition that cannot be changed (ref3—).

I agree with the theory of psychopathy, and it is hard to treat them. For one, their brain is damaged in a way that it is hard to change. Even with the theory about brain plasticity; that our mind is continuously evolving and we can change any habits, a psychopath’s brain is not like a healthy humans brain. The biggest problems an average human has are about simple habits such as smoking or procrastinating. For a murderer, the image of killing someone lives with them forever, and it can’t be removed.

Born criminal

Research has shown that the psychopath’s brain is different from a normal person’s brain. Research by French brain expert Finel and American Psychologist Rush independently showed that some criminals were strangely uninhibited and violent (ref2—12).  The criminals also showed no remorse about their actions, no matter how inhuman the crime. Brain imaging of psychopaths also shows different patterns with one researcher claiming that they seemed very odd that they ‘couldn’t come from real people.’ (ref2–12). Such acts made psychological profiling by behavioural scientist easier. It is against this backdrop that Crawford, an FBI head, seeks the help of Lecter in solving Buffalo’s case. He knows that Lecter, being a psychiatrist himself and also a psycho can solve the case for them. This causes Crawford to use Clarice as bait to Lecter in helping out. Surprisingly it works out, at the expense of Lecter escaping.

With the born criminal tendencies shown in research, Buffalo Bill was not born a criminal, as Lecter points out clearly “He was not born a criminal, but made one.” This shows Buffalo was as a result of psychological abuse and not biological. I don’t believe that there are born criminals for once since a child has no reason to act inhuman. It is the constant problems that such people face that make them criminals.

Conclusion

The film The Silence of the Lambs teaches us a lot about human nature, from crime, the reasons why we act the way we do and the intelligence of women. Through Clarice, we get to learn about the hard work women have to put in to climb the career ladder and humiliation that they go through in their work. We learn about psychopaths and how they operate.