The Silence Of The Lambs Feminist Analysis

Its Oscar night 1992 and The Silence of the Lambs has become one of the few films to have won the ‘top’ five awards: Best Actress for Jodie Foster, Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, Best Picture for producers Ron Bozman, Edward Saxon and Kenneth Utt, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ted Tally and Best Director for Jonathan Demme. Proven to be a successful independent-minded filmmaker, Demme is one of those rare professionals in the film industry able to use his talents to create distinguishable movies within Hollywood customs. His ability to invest in characters with extraordinary depth and humanity has turned him into a multiple award-winning director. Demme is known for his courageous means of approaching controversial subject matters in films and simultaneously creating engaging plots for his

In recent years woman’s film has drifted from this concept to female friendship or romance, however, Silence disregards both ideologies and specifically centres a woman in jeopardy, a mission and her struggle in a genre such as horror and crime where woman’s danger is continuously being gestured through sexual means, The Silence of the Lambs evades eroticised violence. Rather, the audience follows Starling’s struggle to determine her identity and move on from her past as her character develops throughout. Transformation plays a key role within Starling’s character and the film itself. The Silence of the Lambs has previously been compared to criminal heroic masculine films such as Seven (US, David Fincher, 1995) unlike these, it fully establishes the fascinating role of the female investigator and her transformation through the overcoming of obstacles that differ from those confronted by her male equivalents. The most essential of these is establishing her abilities and validity as a woman in a male dominated society, as Starling undoubtedly