Ironically, he was the only actor who immediately turned it down. But director Jonathan Demme had his heart set on the actor that immortalized James Bond by being the first to play the British spy - none other than Sean Connery himself. There were a few actors really interested in playing the part, reportedly Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman. At the time, a lot of names were loosely tossed around, from Robert De Niro to Robert Duvall. Here is that scene.Yet, funny enough, Hopkins wasn't the first choice to play Hannibal Lecter. So I watched these performances, and they were extraordinarily powerful, and Jonathan, said, “How can I cut away from these performances to a flashback? It’s all there: she’s telling us the entire story in her face, in her words, we don’t need to see it as well.” He said it’s just primary rule of filmmaking that if you can show it instead of telling it, you show it, but don’t show it and tell it. He sent the dailies to me and said to watch them and give him a call. Then Jonathan shot the scene where Clarice tells Lecter about the killing of the lambs. Jonathan was willing to shoot them, it was going to be the last thing we shot as we had to wait for the lambing season in spring, and it was going to cost a million dollars to set up the whole thing. I could see that if we were going to have flashbacks, they should culminate, there should be some climactic thing, and we should see the child Clarice encountering the slaughter of the lambs and trying to save one of them. Interesting to note, the script called for a third flashback, but was scrapped. All of that melds together in this evocative flashback scene. His death made her a victim and fuels her identification with Buffalo Bill’s kidnap victim Catherine Martin. His death has haunted her as she has subconsciously equated his ‘slaughter’ with the slaughter of the lambs in Montana she witnessed (with horror) as a child. His death dictated her choice of vocations (he was in law enforcement, she followed in his footsteps). It drives home a key point: She has never recovered from the loss of her father. This flashback reveals that her father died when Clarice was a young girl, but also demonstrates how Clarice’s issues about her father’s death lie close to the surface of her consciousness. On the looming coffin… closer and closer… until finally she can see, lying inside it… her dead father, arms folded, his marshal’s badge still pinned to his lapel.Īs the grownup Clarice turns towards the impatient Crawford. Her hands are held by the plump hands of unseen matrons. In her best dress, is reluctantly approaching the casket. Sad country faces turn, looking at us from the flanking pews. Staring back at the mourners, hearing the music, as a sense memory is triggered in her…Īs we approach, down the aisle of a country chapel, an open wooden coffin. Several of the mourners glance over at her curiously. The music - “Shall We Gather At The River?” - is issuing from the open double doors. In their somber best, filing into the mortuary for a service. SOUND of organ music, as Clarice, carrying her fingerprint kit, mounts some steps to the sidewalk. SIDEWALK OF THE FUNERAL HOME - POTTER, WEST VA. Here is the scene in the screenplay written by Ted Tally:ĮXT. The second flashback occurs at a funeral parlor where the body of one of Buffalo Bill’s victims has been laid out for an autopsy. Young Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs As Clarice leaves the prison and heads toward her car, she revisits a moment in her past: Her father, dressed in his sheriff’s outfit, coming home from work, Clarice, then 11 years old, surprising him, then as he swoops her up into his arms, she asks, “Did you catch any bad guys today, Daddy?” The first one is right after she has had her initial meeting with Lecter and had a disturbing experience with the prisoner in the next cell Miggs. There are two flashbacks which provide a deep insight into Clarice’s psyche. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. The 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs won all 5 major Academy Awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. Two flashbacks to Clarice as a young girl are critical to the narrative.
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