By I. Booth
Since the original Lambs movie was released in 1991, Thomas Harris, the creator gave us 2 more books which were also turned into movies. This was also followed by an NBC series.
Thirty years on CBS is taking us back but this time the focus is on the FBI-agent Clarice in a drama series that seems remarkably fresh. It is perhaps surprising it has taken this long to return this character to the screen but yet again, it was played so marvellously by Jodie Foster you can see why another actress may have thought twice before taking on the role.
As it turns out, Rebecca Breeds, of Pretty Little Liars fame, plays the role in a very confident manner. It takes place a year after the end of Silence and the old events are still in Clarice’s nightmares. Clarice is contacted by an old friend and inevitably she finds herself again amongst multiple dead bodies. The series expands on the theme of being a woman in a workplace dominated by men who are seemingly just waiting for her to fail and ignoring the obvious intelligence that she must have had to secure the role in the first place. Clarice realises she needs to work extra hard to gain their respect. While the series will never outshine the original, it left me feeling much better about it than I expected.
It is exactly 30 years since the “Silence of the Lambs” was released (Valentines Day 1991).
Originally low budget it took its time to awake from sleep and turn into a box office great. It was awarded 5 Oscars (Best Film, Writing, Director, Actor and Actress) giving an indication as to what the new series Clarice has to live up to. Clarice is a trainee, and she turns to the imprisoned psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter to help solve a serial murder case. One of the most surprising statistics is that Dr. Lecter only has around 16 minutes of screen time – the fact that he remains the most haunting memory of the entire movie shows how great a performance it was. The murderer himself, Buffalo Bill, only becomes visible to the audience in the final third of the film as a transgender character which broke new ground for movies at that time. The psychological effects of the film still influence movie makers and movie audiences even today.
