One of the most chilling moments in modern cinema comes when Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), genius psychiatrist, player of mind games, serial killer and cannibal tells Clarice Starling that he enjoyed eating the liver of one of his last victims accompanied by fava beans and a nice Chianti. Hopkins' performance in the film was nothing short of brilliant, and it helped to create one of the most terrifying psychological thrillers-come-horror movies of all time.
Adapted from Thomas Harris' 1988 novel of the same name, the movie tells the story of a young, inexperienced yet gifted F.B.I. agent called Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) who turns to the imprisoned Hannibal "the Cannibal' Lecter for advice and help as she pursues the identity of another serial killer known as Buffalo Bill; Bill skins his victims, all of whom are women, and Starling needs the insight of the man Bill idolizes in order to track him down and capture him.
The film was a gigantic hit, grossing almost two-hundred-and-seventy-three million dollars against a budget of just nineteen million. This made it the fifth highest grossing film of 1991. Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, it was immediately showered with accolades, director Jonathan Demme taking home the Silver Bear Best Director Award. It became the third film in history to go home with Academy Awards in all five of the major categories - Best Picture, both Best Actor categories, and both Best Supporting Actor Categories as well. It is the first horror film to win in the Best Picture category, not that many have even reached the nomination stage. Only two, Jaws, and The Exorcist, had been considered previously.
Demme's version of Harris' novel is the second big screen adaptation, the first being Manhunter which was released in the nineteen eighties to considerably less global acclaim. Because of a plethora of delays and difficulties in producing a script, Demme signed on as director after reading the novel, having not yet had the opportunity to see a completed script from screenplay writer Ted Tally. Tally's first draft was so skilled and so good that revisions were not needed; shooting began almost immediately after he completed it.
Given that Jodie Foster's performance as Clarice Starling is one of the best of her career, it is somewhat surprising to learn that she was not Demme's first choice for the role. He envisioned Michelle Pfeiffer, someone with whom he had previously worked, as Starling, but having recently already starred in a borderline horror movie (The Witches of Eastwick) a year earlier, Pfeiffer declined the role because the subject matter made her nervous. Meg Ryan turned the role down for much the same reason. Laura Dern liked the role and was ready to accept it but was ultimately ruled out because she was not a big enough name to draw audiences in the number that the studio envisaged. By default, the actress behind door number four was awarded the role; ironically, she was the only one who was truly interested, and invested in it, having read the book, and already developed some ideas about the way in which Clarice's character would evolve.
Demme had no better luck convincing his first choice actor to accept the role of Dr Lecter. Sean Connery was not interested in creating a cannibalistic killer; Anthony Hopkins, however, was, and beat out several others shortlisted, including Robert de Niro and Daniel Day Lewis.
Although neither Harris nor Tally every admitted to basing the character of Lecter on anyone living or dead, the character of Agent Jack Crawford was inspired by an actual person, John E Douglas. Douglas was one of the first criminal profilers to work in the F.B.I. and is still considered an authority on psychological profiling. After giving Scott Glenn, who was playing him, a tour of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, he shocked him with a recording of serial killers Roy Norris and Lawrence Bittaker describing in detail their murder of a sixteen year old girl. The recordings convinced Glenn to accept the role and also changed his mind about the death penalty, which he found himself in favor of for those who had committed crimes like these. Known as the Tool Box Killers, Bittaker and Norris kidnapped, raped and tortured five teenage girls in California during 1979.
The movie was widely praised because of Demme's line-walking between psychological thriller and horror genres, and because of Anthony Hopkins' performance as Hannibal Lecter. It remains one of his most notable, and strangely popular, roles. It was listed as one of the One Hundred Greatest Films of the Century in 1998, and was also given the accolade for having the Best Movie Poster of all time.
