The Silence of the Lambs

Nothing pulled the wool over his eyes. 


Hannibal Lecter is a divorced father of two. Anthony (the eldest) is a high achiever, as shown by the trappings of success — trophies and Twitter followers. Whereas Bill leaves a lot to be desired, and knows it. As well as being thinner (a sign of diminished prowess), he has a slight lisp (another indication of weakness) and an obsession with the beasts of the great plains — resulting in an unflattering nickname. Yet despite his obvious shortcomings, we’re meant to feel sorry for young Buffalo Bill. One particularly ‘poignant’ (it’s in inverted commas as it really isn’t very moving) scene even shows him drawing a family picture at school, showing his brother much larger than him. If anything, his complete disregard for proportion only serves to highlight his obvious inferiority. But we move on and view him as we’re intended to — with pity.

[YEARS LATER]

Against all odds, Bill has done pretty well and got a job with the FBI. And a case comes up with his name written all over it (in red pen). A man has been found dead in a zoo car park, with his left hand removed and a calling card stuffed in the stump that reads, simply: REVENGE (written in the ‘Neighbours’ font — likely to be your classic system typeface, ‘Brush Script Std’).

Surprisingly, this isn’t really explored and the case is pretty much dropped due to lack of funds (despite this potentially making for a seminal movie in the thriller genre). The FBI budget won’t stretch to a nationwide manhunt. Neither is Bill haunted by the unsolved case, as he’s more of a ‘work to live’ kind of guy.

[HIS DAD’S HOUSE]

Still, he’s required to do a few cursory checks that take him to his dad’s home town so stops for Sunday lunch. They have a McDonald’s drive-thru as Hannibal’s collecting the Happy Meal toys as part of a bet with a neighbour (this is fleetingly mentioned, and not really explained). But as soon as Bill arrives, his old feelings of inadequacy coming flooding back. Mainly as the house is covered in photos of his brother’s hot wife — who unlike Bill’s, wasn’t sourced from the internet after following a link on a dogging site. (He was actually looking for pictures of sheepdogs, but more of that later.)

During the dessert course — an apple pie that is still scaldingly hot despite being purchased almost 56 minutes ago — it all comes to a head and he runs off to his room crying. He still has three posters in there, one of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and two more of her aunts. This is to show that he’s sensitive, not gay (in Hollywood, there are no characters who are gay where this is not part of the storyline). Hannibal feels bad. He actually did think Bill was gay, and being a bit old school, made him do sports until he fancied girls. Ironically, it was this grounding in sport that helped Bill get his FBI job, but as the director points out in the commentary, some things are better left unsaid.

[THEME TUNE TO ‘ONE MAN AND HIS DOG’ IS HEARD]

Eventually, his dad coaxes him downstairs as his favourite programme is on, ‘One Man and His Dog’ (this is the part that explains the dogging site — Bill loves sheepdogs!). Since Downton Abbey, America can’t get enough of English county life, and so surprisingly for an obscure British show, it’s on NBC. This helps them bond, shown by them clinking beers and Hannibal doing the Budweiser ‘Wasssap’ thing. Even though nobody’s done this for a good 12 years, Bill still chuckles along, showing that all is forgiven.

[WE WATCH AN ENTIRE EPISODE OF ‘ONE MAN AND HIS DOG’ BEFORE PANNING BACK TO THEM]

“We could do that son”. And with those five words, they begin a training regime to enter next year. Despite sheep-herding being a touchingly beautiful, yet lost art, this bit is pretty short.

[A YEAR LATER]

The two men sit down to a meal the night before the final, years of harboured resentment and failure ebbing away as quickly as the fava beans and fine chianti are eaten and quaffed, respectively.

The morning of the sheepdog trials. After his wireless router losing connection as he hit ‘submit’ on the website, Bill discovers that he’s entered the ‘amateur’ category by accident. So he won’t be herding sheep — but lambs! He and his dog, Starling, haven’t trained for this! But he has no choice but to enter the pen.

The lambs are on edge. Starling growls. And in a flash (shown by a video clip in a close-up of Bill’s actual eye), we see the analogy for what it is — the dominant dog is his dad and the lambs are Bill! It’s very clever. We now also realise that this wasn’t very subtle at all and Starling the dog has had piercing blue eyes and spoken in received pronunciation the whole time – just like Hannibal!

[MUSIC PLAYS: AN ORCHESTRAL REIMAGINING OF BAHA MEN’S ‘WHO LET THE DOGS OUT’]

The lambs are bleating loudly. One by one, Bill tries to calm them down. But the technique he used on the older sheep — penetration — doesn’t work! Although a common practice in the professional category, the crowd see red when they discover what’s happening in the amateur pen. “They’re just woolly children for goodness’ sake!” they shout. And with that, the dog goes proper mental, ripping Bill and every last one of the lambs to shreds. Naturally, this takes quite a while. But nobody steps in (as we just learnt, Bill has annoyed them with his misguided sexual practices). But as Bill draws his final breath and the last animal falls, the crowd cease their chanting. And Hannibal comes running over to the sound of silence (this is where the name of the film really comes into its own).

He clings to his son and then heads off for a much-needed drink. The barman, seeing him covered in blood, refuses to let him in, where the film ends on the oft-quoted line (and consistent top seventy entry in Channel 4’s ‘1000 Best Puns in the Final Line of a Movie’), “Sorry, you’re barred”.

[CREDITS ROLL]