1996 The English Patient

The English Patient

Hana: "Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace.  New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire."  For the heart is an organ of fire.  I love that.  I believe that.  K?  Who is K?
Almasy: K is for Katharine.

The English Patient definitely qualifies as one of the most depressing Best Picture winners.

When the movie begins, Count Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), horrifically burned beyond recognition and slowly dying, is being cared for by an Allied nurse, Hana (Juliette Binoche), during late WWII.  Hana is emotionally traumatized by the death of her loved ones during the war ("I must be a curse.  Anybody who loves me, anybody who gets close to me...or I must be cursed. Which is it?"), and is given permission to stay behind at an abandoned monastery in Italy to care for Almasy.  As she cares for him, and gets to know him, the movie cuts between Almasy's flashbacks from before the war and his time in the monastery with Hana.



The movie is primarily a love story between Almasy, a Hungarian cartographer exploring the desert in Northern Africa, and Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), a British woman married to another man (Colin Firth).  When Katharine and her husband join Almasy's geology group, there is an instant spark between Katharine and Almasy.  Katharine has known her husband Geoffrey since they were very young, but they have just recently married: "We've been friends for donkey's years.  Best friends  .She was always crying on my shoulder about somebody.  I finally persuaded her to settle for my shoulder.  A stroke of genius."  Though it is clear Geoffrey deeply loves Katharine, it appears that Katharine loves Geoffrey more like a best friend than a lover.  She and Almasy begin a passionate love affair; however, Katharine becomes overwhelmed by guilt over betraying Geoffrey and eventually ends the affair, leaving them both broken-hearted (Almasy: "How can you ever smile, as if your life hadn't capsized?").  Little does she know that Geoffrey knew about the adultery, and that he has been suffering in silence until he finally cracks and crashes his plan, with Katharine in it, flying it into the desert at Almasy's feet: ""Surprise," he said.  Poor Geoffrey.  He knew.  He must've known all the time.  He was shouting, ''l love you, Katharine.  I love you so much.''"  Katharine is badly injured, but survives.  Geoffrey does not.  Almasy puts her inside a cave with some provisions while he makes the three day journey through the desert for help, promising to return:

Katharine: Promise me you'll come back for me.
Almasy: I promise, I'll come back for you.  I promise, I'll never leave you.

Before he leaves, she reveals to him that she has never stopped loving him, when he observes that she is wearing the thimble he gave her as a gift on a chain around her neck:

Almasy: You're wearing the thimble.
Katharine: Of course, you idiot.  I always wear it; I've always worn it; I've always loved you.

World War II has broken out, and when Almasy meets up with the British, they arrest him, mistaking him for a German.  By the time he manages to escape and return to Katharine, she has died waiting for him.  As he flies her body away from the cave, he is shot down, and suffers the burns and injuries we see him with at the start of the movie.  See?  Depressing.

In the monastery, Hana and Almasy are visited by a man named Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe).  He is seeking revenge on Almasy.  In desperation to get back to the cave and Katharine, Almasy had exchanged the maps his group had made of the area to the Germans, which had led to Caravaggio being captured and tortured by the Germans.  In a really disturbing and unnecessary scene, we see his thumbs get cut off (well, some people see it -I covered my eyes).  From him, Almasy learns that his best friend from his cartography group, Madox, a British man, had committed suicide after being told that Almasy was a spy and had turned over their maps to the Germans.  Almasy is dismayed at his friend's death, and at the fact that Madox died incorrectly believing him to be spy.  As if he needed more sadness and guilt in his bedridden, barely able to breathe, morphine addled life.  At least Caravaggio gives up on the revenge idea once he hears the real story.


Hana, meanwhile, falls in love with a Sikh man named Kip, who is ridding the area of mines along with his friend and fellow soldier, Hardy.  Sadly, sweet ol' Hardy gets blown up in a freak accident atop a statue, and Kip receives orders to relocate.  He and Hana part on affectionate terms, but with no clear plans to meet again.  At Almasy's request, and to round out the overall tone of death and misery throughout the movie, Hana gives Almasy a lethal dose of morphine, sobbing while she does so, and then reads him the letter Katharine wrote him while she was dying alone in the cave as he dies: "My darling.  I'm waiting for you.  How long is the day in the dark?  Or a week?  The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold.  I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun.  I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words.  We die.  We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers.  Fears we've hidden in -like this wretched cave.  I want all this marked on my body.  Where the real countries are.  Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men.  I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds.  That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you.  With friends, on an earth without maps.  The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness."

You leave this movie with a heavy heart, and the desire to get in bed and pull the covers over your head.

In spite of strong performances from the actors involved, it really is not a great movie.  Hint: Making a movie as sad as humanly possible (and killing off as many characters as possible) does not make it good, though it apparently does make for an Oscar winner, however undeserving.

The English Patient vs. Out of Africa.

There are some similarities between this movie and Out of Africa, though Out of Africa was a much stronger movie.  This one also has a scene with the couple flying together in a two-seater plane -well, she's dead in the plane in The English Patient, but hey, she still looks good.  There's a hair washing scene with Katharine washing Almasy's hair (as Denys washed Karen's hair in Out of Africa).  Almasy makes a comment about not wanting to be owned ("Ownership.  I hate being owned."), which parallels Denys, except that Almasy clearly doesn't mean it, as he is a bit stalkerish of Katharine and he freaks out when she ends their relationship -perhaps Karen Blixen should have followed her example and played a little hard to get?  Both movies are set against the backdrop of a war (Out of Africa coincides with WWI), and Almasy is an adventurer like Denys.  But The English Patient, though romantic, lacks any of Out of Africa's sense of joy in living.  The tone is melancholy from start to finish.  It is also without Out of Africa's incredibly beautiful scenery.  I am not overly enamored of the desert, and even the scenes in Italy feel washed out.

I won't be watching The English Patient Again.

Frances McDormand in Fargo.

Of course, this begs the obvious question: Should Fargo have won?  Many claim it should have.  The answer is no.  Fargo was not an exceptional movie.  It's an uncomplicated, quirky crime movie with not much to it.  There's some cheesy violence.  It's not especially moving, funny, interesting, or innovative.  I've heard it described as a dark comedy, but I don't think it really fits that category.  Yes, it is dark, but there's no comedy.  Frances McDormand's performance was the exceptional part (She was funny, and her character was oddly compelling and fun to watch: "So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there.  And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper.  And those three people in Brainerd.  And for what?  For a little bit of money.  There's more to life than a little money, you know.  Don'tcha know that?  And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day.  Well. I just don't understand it.").  She got the Oscar for her acting, and that's all the movie warranted.

There were two movies that I thought were Oscar-quality this year, and the critics didn't agree with me (neither of the movies were even nominated), but oh well.

One is Evita.  It did not get the credit I feel it deserved.  Madonna was incredible as Eva Peron, former First Lady of Argentina -alternately innocent, wounded, powerful, conniving, and haunting.  She really was perfect for the part.  I think that people were against her because of her reputation, but she gave a wonderful performance.  She looked the part, her voice was beautiful, her dancing great, her acting spot on.  Of course, I have always loved the music of Evita, and this was a terrific rendition of the musical.  Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce were also well cast.



"I am only a simple woman who lives to serve Peron in his noble crusade to rescue his people!  I was once as you are now, and I promise you this: we will take these riches from the Oligarchs -only for you -for all of you!  One day you too will inherit these treasures!  Descamisados!  Mis compañeros!  When they fire those cannons, when the crowds sing of glory, it is not just for Peron, but for all of us!  For all of us!"
-Evita

"The chorus girl hasn't learned the lines you'd like to hear.  She won't go scrambling over the backs of the poor to be accepted -by making donations just large enough to the correct charity.  She won't be president of your wonderful societies of philanthropy.  Even if you asked her to be -as you should have asked her to be.  The actress hasn't learned the lines you'd like to hear.  She won't join your clubs, she won't dance in your halls.  She won't help the hungry once a month at your tombolas.  She'll simply take control as you disappear."
-Evita

"Oh what I'd give for a hundred years!  But the physical interferes every day more -Oh my Creator!  What is the good of the strongest heart in a body that's falling apart?  A serious flaw -I hope you know that."-Evita

The other is The Birdcage, a hilarious movie about a gay couple, Armand Goldman, who owns a gay nightclub called The Birdcage, and Albert, who performs at the club as Starina.  I adored Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in this movie (and Hank Azaria was hilarious as their housekeeper, Agador).  Nathan Lane is charming as Albert.  The character is so feminine I find myself thinking of Albert as a she (him dressing in drag while performing naturally adds to this effect).  Albert is very dramatic, which sometimes leads to him bickering with the more serious Armand when Albert feels unappreciated.  Things become chaotic when Armand's son becomes engaged to the daughter of the very conservative Senator Kelley (Gene Hackman), and the Kelley family (the daughter is played by Calista Flockhart and the mother by Dianne Wiest) goes to visit their future in-laws.  Armand's son requests that they "play it straight," which leads to hilarity.  Aside from the humor, it is also a touching love story between Armand and Albert.  Terrific acting.  There should have been performance Oscar nominations here.

 Armand [Helping Albert act more masculine]: Al, you old son of a bitch!  How ya doin'?  How do you feel about that call today?  I mean the Dolphins!  Fourth-and-three play on their 30 yard line with only 34 seconds to go!
Albert: How do you think I feel?  Betrayed, bewildered...Wrong response?
Armand: I'm not sure.
-The Birdcage

Albert: You know, I used to feel that way too until I found out that Alexander the Great was a fag.  Talk about gays in the military!
-The Birdcage

Albert: Don't give me that tone!
Armand: What tone?
Albert: That sarcastic contemptuous tone that means you know everything because you're a man, and I know nothing because I'm a woman.
Armand: You're not a woman.
Albert: Oh, you bastard!
-The Birdcage

The Academy (and the critics) just got it wrong in 1996.

1995 Braveheart

1995 Braveheart

"Aye, fight and you may die.  Run, and you'll live -at least a while.  And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take...OUR FREEDOM!"

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

Terrific movie, but couldn't it have ended after the first 20 minutes, before William Wallace's love interest dies?  Seriously, they managed a more heartfelt, memorable, beautiful love story in 20 minutes or so of film than the last three Star Wars movies managed in like eight hours:
Terrific movie, but couldn't it have ended after the first 20 minutes, before William Wallace's love interest dies?  Seriously, they managed a more heartfelt, memorable, beautiful love story in 20 minutes or so of film than the last three Star Wars movies managed in like eight hours:

William: Of course, running a farm is a lot of work, but that will all change when my sons arrive.
Murron: So, you've got children?
William: Not yet, but I was hoping you could help me with that.
Murron: So, you want me to marry you then?
William: Well, that's a bit sudden, but alright.
Murron: Is that what you call a proposal?
William: I love you, always have. I want to marry you.



It breaks my heart just to think about poor Murron's death.  I guess it was necessary, as her death becomes the driving force that rouses Wallace to lead the Scottish in the fight against the English, but still... 


I like the other gal as well, Princess Isabella, who marries the English prince, and also has a brief romance with Wallace.  She's smart and feisty: "The king will be dead in a month and his son is a weakling.  Who do you think will rule this kingdom?"

Most of the rest of the movie is made up of battles, which tend to blur together in my mind.  Of course, the big group mooning sequence sticks in my mind.  That's how you start a battle.  Tyler could probably describe all these battles in detail, but I can't -he has an amazing memory for military minutia.

Mel Gibson was great (he directs and stars as William Wallace).  A shame he had to go batty in recent years -he was such a talent.

Tyler has come up with a rather brilliant idea for Braveheart, The Musical.  His songs are hilarious and catchy.  Take note, Broadway!

"The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots."

"It can all end, right now. Peace. Bliss. Just say it. Cry out mercy."

It was a tough year, because Braveheart was up against Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and Apollo 13, which both deserved Oscars in their own right.  Some years feast, some famine.

Elinor Dashwood: You talk of feeling idle and useless.  Imagine how that is compounded when one has no hope and no choice of any occupation whatsoever.
Edward Ferrars: Our circumstances are therefore precisely the same.
Elinor Dashwood: Except that you will inherit your fortune.  We cannot even earn ours.
Edward Ferrars: Perhaps Margaret is right.
Elinor Dashwood: Right?
Edward Ferrars: Piracy is our only option.
-Sense and Sensibility

Marianne Dashwood: Can he love her?  Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections?  To love is to burn --to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise.
Mrs: Dashwood: They made rather pathetic ends, dear.
Marianne Dashwood: Pathetic?  To die for love?  How can you say so?  What could be more glorious?
Mrs: Dashwood: I think that would be taking your romantic sensibilities a little far.
-Sense and Sensibility


Jim Lovell: Houston, we have a problem.
-Apollo 13

Blanche Lovell: Don't you worry.  If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.
-Apollo 13

1994 Forrest Gump vs. The Shawshank Redemption

1994 Forrest Gump

"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get."



This is a great movie, following the life of Forrest Gump, from his childhood as a bullied kid with leg braces to his adulthood as a wealthy single father, and his enduring love for a girl named Jenny.


Tom Hanks, always amazing, is Forrest Gump.  The movie begins when Forest is a sweet, but not overly bright (But as he says, "Stupid is as stupid does."), child, picked on by other children, but fiercely protected by his loving mother (Sally Field).  This is when he meets and befriends Jenny, a nice young girl deeply traumatized by the abuse of her father.

Through his own talents, his courage, and fate, Forrest leads an extraordinary life.  He seems to go where the wind takes him, which is to wealth and fame.  Jenny urges him to run from bullies ("Run, Forrest!  Run!), and his speed makes him a football star.  It is suggested he join the army, so he does.  Forrest is deployed to Vietnam ("We was always taking long walks, and we was always looking for a guy named "Charlie".").  He befriends Bubba, a young man interested in becoming a shrimp fisherman, and Lieutenant Dan, a soldier who intends to die in battle ("He was from a long great military tradition.  Somebody from his family had fought and died in every single American war.  I guess you could say he had a lot to live up to."):

Drill Sergeant: Gump!  What's your sole purpose in this army?
Forrest: To do whatever you tell me, drill sergeant!
Drill Sergeant: God damn it, Gump!  You're a god damn genius!  This is the most outstanding answer I have ever heard.  You must have a goddamn I.Q. of 160.  You are goddamn gifted, Private Gump.  Listen up, people...


Forrest: Now for some reason I fit in the army like one of them round pegs.  It's not really hard.  You just make your bed real neat and remember to stand up straight and always answer every question with "Yes, drill sergeant."

Forrest ends up saving most of his unit, including Lieutenant Dan, who loses his legs, but fails to save Bubba (so sad), and becomes a war hero.  While recovering from his war wounds, he becomes a ping-pong champion.  Once he is discharged, he becomes a shrimp fisherman, in honor of Bubba, with help from Lieutenant Dan.  When a fluke hurricane destroys all the other ships, they become a great success.  Lieutenant Dan invests their money in Apple, making them both rich: "Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company.  So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more.  And I said, "That's good!  One less thing.""



Along the way, he meets Elvis, John Lennon, three presidents ("The best thing about visiting the President is the food!  Now, since it was all free, and I wasn't hungry but thirsty, I must've drank me fifteen Dr. Peppers."), runs across the country a couple times, and helps uncover the Watergate scandal ("Yeah, sir, you might want to send a maintenance man over to that office across the way.  The lights are off, and they must be looking for a fuse box, 'cause them flashlights, they keep me awake.").


And through it all, his love for Jenny remains fervent and true.  She is the most important thing in his life, though they only meet periodically throughout the years.  As Forrest tells her, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."  That makes him pretty smart, in my opinion.  I know, I'm getting sentimental.  He tries to help her turn her life around, but she is very emotionally damaged -caught in a downward spiral and seemingly determined to remain there.

When they finally reunite for the last time, Jenny is ill and dying, and she reveals that she has had a son by Forrest.  It's so heart-wrenching when she dies.  He has lost his North Star.  But Forrest Jr. helps fill the gap, and Forrest is a caring and doting father.



Every time I watch the end, when he talks to Jenny at her graveside, it makes me cry:

"You died on a Saturday morning.  And I had you placed here under our tree.  And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground.  Momma always said dyin' was a part of life.  I sure wish it wasn't.   Little Forrest, he's doing just fine.  About to start school again soon.  I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.  I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day.  Teaching him how to play ping-pong.  He's really good.  We fish a lot.  And every night, we read a book.  He's so smart, Jenny.  You'd be so proud of him.  I am.  He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can't read it.  I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you.  Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan.  I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both.  Maybe both is happening at the same time.  I miss you, Jenny.  If there's anything you need, I won't be far away."

Tom Hanks is incredible, and Forrest is an endearing character.  The love story is tragic, but beautiful.

However, it's tough to compete with The Shawshank Redemption.

1994 The Shawshank Redemption

"I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible.  Here you'll receive both.  Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me.  Welcome to Shawshank."

"Andy Dufresne -who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side."

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is a successful banker wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and her lover.  He is sentenced to life in Shawshank Prison.  Shawshank is under the control of Warden Samuel Norton, a religious but corrupt man, and Captain Byron Hadley, the violent and murderous head guard.  Andy becomes best friends with a man called Red (Morgan Freeman), "a man who knows how to get things."  Red is the narrator of the story.

Andy is a mysterious character.  He is quiet, but intelligent, and originally keeps to himself, though he is harassed and abused by a prison gang.  Red says: "I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be.  I wish I could tell you that -but prison is no fairy-tale world.  He never said who did it, but we all knew.  Things went on like that for awhile -prison life consists of routine, and then more routine.  Every so often, Andy would show up with fresh bruises.  The Sisters kept at him -sometimes he was able to fight 'em off, sometimes not.  And that's how it went for Andy -that was his routine.  I do believe those first two years were the worst for him, and I also believe that if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him." Eventually, he begins doing the taxes for the prison guards, and eventually for the warden, which garners him protection and some perks, such as a cushy job working in the prison library with an elderly inmate named Brooks (who has a pet crow named Jake):

Brooks: And then Andy says, "Mr. Dekins, do you want your sons to go to Harvard... or Yale?"
Floyd: He didn't say that!
Brooks: God as my witness!  Dekins just looked at him a second and then he laughed himself silly and afterwards he actually shook Andy's hand.
Heywood: My ass.
Brooks: Shook his hand!  I near soiled myself.  I mean all Andy needed was a suit and a tie and a little jiggly hula gal on his desk and he woulda been Mister  Dufresne, if you please.
Red: Making a few friends, huh Andy?
Andy: I wouldn't say friends.  I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning -it's a wonderful pet to have.


Brooks illustrates the concept of "institutionalization."  He becomes so accustomed to living in prison after being there for so many years, that he is terrified to leave, almost resorting to killing one of his friends just so that he won't have to leave:

Red: The man's been in here fifty years, Heywood.  Fifty years!  This is all he knows.  In here, he's an important man.  He's an educated man.  Outside, he's nothin'!  Just a used up con with arthritis in both hands...These walls are funny.  First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em.   Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.  That's institutionalized.
Heywood: Shit.  I could never get like that.
Prisoner: Oh yeah?  Say that when you been here as long as Brooks has.
Red: Goddamn right.  They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take.  The part that counts, anyway.

Brooks is convinced to leave, but can't adapt to the outside world, and hangs himself, which is terribly depressing: "Dear fellas, I can't believe how fast things move on the outside.  I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they're everywhere.  The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.  The parole board got me into this halfway house called "The Brewer" and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway.  It's hard work and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time.  I don't think the store manager likes me very much.  Sometimes after work, I go to the park and feed the birds.  I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello, but he never does.  I hope wherever he is, he's doin' okay and makin' new friends.  I have trouble sleepin' at night.  I have bad dreams like I'm falling.  I wake up scared.  Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am.  Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway so they'd send me home.  I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus.  I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense any more.  I don't like it here.  I'm tired of being afraid all the time.  I've decided not to stay.  I doubt they'll kick up any fuss.  Not for an old crook like me.  P.S: Tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat.  No hard feeling, Brooks.


Andy works hard, finding ways to obtain more
books for the library, handling the warden's crooked financial dealings, helping a young inmate, Tommy Williams, get an education, and periodically doings small things to brighten the lives of his fellow prisoners -such as offering Captain Hadley financial help in exchange for beer for his friends ("We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men.  Hell, we could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses.  We were the lords of all creation.  As for Andy -he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer."), and barring himself in a room in order to play music over the intercom, even though he gets in trouble for this effort ("I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about.  Truth is, I don't want to know.  Some things are best left unsaid.  I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it.  I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream.  It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.").

When Tommy reveals that he has evidence that could prove Andy's innocence, the warden has him killed by Captain Hadley, because Andy knows too much about his corrupt financial dealings to go free.

This is the last straw for Andy Dufresne.

Thus ensues one of the best endings to a movie ever.

Dear Warden, You were right.  Salvation lay within."

It is an all around terrific movie.  You get a look at a different world, you see characters develop and change, you learn to relate to different types of people and understand why some people behave the way they do.  For example, you see Red, throughout the movie, trying to convince the parole board that he has been rehabilitated, to no avail.  And then one day, he finally tells them like it is:

Parole Hearing Man: Ellis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence.  Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?
Red: Rehabilitated?  Well, now let me see.  You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
Parole Hearing Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...
Red: I know what you think it means, sonny.  To me it's just a made up word.  A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job.  What do you really want to know?  Am I sorry for what I did?
Parole Hearing Man: Well, are you?

Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret.  Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should.  I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime.  I want to talk to him.  I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are.  But I can't.  That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left.  I got to live with that.  Rehabilitated?  It's just a bullshit word.  So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time.  Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.

It's all around amazing.

It's a tough choice, but I would give The Shawshank Redemption the edge in the Oscar race.

ADDENDUM: After watching Forrest Gump again, I've changed my mind -I give it the edge.

1993 Schindler's List

1993 Schindler's List

The girl in the red coat.

"It's Hebrew, it's from the Talmud.  It says, "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.""

Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List is an incredible movie.  It tells two true stories -the story of the Holocaust, and the story of an unlikely hero, Oskar Schindler.

The title refers to the list of approximately 1,100 Jewish people that Schindler saved by having them work in his factory to prevent them being sent to Auschwitz.  He did this at great financial expense to himself, and risked his own safety if the German authorities figured out what he was up to.

In the beginning, he is simply out to make a buck.  The Jewish workers are originally living in the Krakow Ghetto, and he can use them as cheap labor.  It's a good deal for him, and his sole interest is in running a successful, money-making business.  He is a charming guy, but desirous only of having a good time, drinking and womanizing, making connections within the German ranks, and ultimately, making money: "Three hundred and fifty workers on the factory floor with one purpose: to make money –for me!...They won't soon forget the name Schindler, either.  I can tell you that. Oskar Schindler, they'll say.  Everybody remembers him.  He did something extraordinary.  He did something no one else did.  He came here with nothing, a suitcase, and built a bankrupt company into a major manufactory.  And left with a steamer trunk, two steamer trunks, full of money.  All the riches of the world."  He doesn't want to be a hero, or to be involved in any cause other than his own.

The real Oskar Schindler.

Schindler, however, is unable to turn a blind eye to the horrifically deteriorating situation, as the Ghetto is closed and the Plaszow Concentration Camp is constructed under a violent and murderous regime.  He watches the children and elderly being rounded up and sent away, and sees people being shot for no reason, and cannot remain unmoved.  Increasingly, he helps people to get employment in his factory, which he has made self-sustaining through bribes and is therefore relatively safe, though he is reluctant to accept the good-guy reputation he is acquiring amongst his Jewish workers.  For example, a young woman goes to see him (she tries twice -he only agrees to see her the second time because she has dressed up to look more sexually appealing) to request that he help her parents, and he originally becomes angry with her and sends her away:

Regina Perlman: They say that no one dies here.  They say your factory is a haven.  They say you are good.
Schindler: Who says that?
Regina Perlman: Everyone.  My name is Regina Perlman, not Elsa Krause.   I've been living in Krakow on false papers since the ghetto massacre.   My parents are in Plaszow.  Their names are Chana and Jakob Perlman.  They are older people.  They're killing older people now in Plaszow.  They bury them up in the forest.  Look, I don't have any money.  I –I borrowed these clothes, I'm begging you –please, please bring them here.
Schindler: I don't do that.  You've been misled.  I ask one thing: whether or not a worker has certain skills.  That's what I ask and that's what I care about...such activities are illegal.  You will not entrap me, Miss Krause.  Cry and I'll have you arrested, I swear to God.

But in spite of what he says, Regina soon sees her parents safely moved to Schindler's factory.

Schindler's right-hand man is Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), a Jewish accountant who does most of the running of the business and selection of the workers.  Schindler is at first mortified to discover that Stern has hired an elderly, one-armed man (Stern simply replies, "Very useful!"), but when the Germans execute this man, Schindler is furious.

When Stern forgets his papers one day and is put on a train to be sent to Auschwitz (I think that's where they were sending him), Schindler races to the train to save him.  The two German soldiers present arrogantly refuse to remove him from the train at first, but with great confidence, Schindler bluffs them into stopping the train and releasing him, by jotting down their names and saying, "Gentlemen, thank you very much.  I think I can guarantee you, you'll both be in Southern Russia before the end of the month.  Good day."  After that, they are enormously helpful.

Goeth shooting people from his balcony.

Schindler goes out of his way to befriend the Goeth, the main villain of the story (of course there are many).  Take the villain from Platoon (Sergeant Barnes) and set him loose with no one to check his bloodthirsty power, and you've got S.S. Lieutenant Amon Goeth, commandant of the Plaszow Concentration Camp in Poland, played by Ralph Fiennes (he plays a lot of different villains -Voldemort, the Toothfairy serial killer in Red Dragon).  This guy is absolutely nuts and a true psychopath.  When he first arrives, he maliciously orders the execution a young female engineer:

Reiter: The entire foundation has to be torn down and repoured.  If not, there will be at least a subsidence at the southern end of the barracks.  Subsidence, and then collapse.
Goeth: And you are an engineer?
Reiter: Yes.  My name is Diana Reiter.  I'm a graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Milan.
Goeth: Ah, an educated Jew.  Like Karl Marx himself.  Unterscharfuehrer!
Hujar: Jawohl?
Goeth: Shoot her.
Reiter: Herr Kommandant!  I'm only trying to do my job!
Goeth: Ja, I'm doing mine.
Hujar: Sir, she's foreman of construction.
Goeth: I'm not going to have arguments with these people.  No.  Shoot her here, on my authority.
Reiter:  It will take more than that…
Goeth:  I'm sure you're right.  [Reiter is shot]  Take it down, repour it, rebuild it, like she said.

Goeth and Helen.

Goeth becomes infatuated with his Jewish maid, Helen, and because he is ashamed of his illegal desires, he beats her viciously.  Poor Helen lives in a constant state of terror, telling Schindler, "We were on the roof on Monday, young Lisiek and I and we saw the Herr Kommandant come out of the house on the patio right there below us and he drew his gun and shot a woman who was passing by.  Just a woman with a bundle, just shot her through the throat.  She was just a woman on her way somewhere, she was no faster or slower or fatter or thinner than anyone else and I couldn't guess what had she done.  The more you see of the Herr Kommandant the more you see there are no set rules you can live by, you cannot say to yourself, "If I follow these rules, I will be safe.""

We see a lot of scenes showing the atrocities taking place within the camp -of people being hunted down and killed, of children hiding in the latrines to avoid being torn from their parents and sent to Auschwitz, of Goeth shooting people from his balcony just for fun.  Haunting images.

It is disheartening and infuriating how few people were willing to help, even in the smallest of ways.  When a train packed with Jewish people is being sent to Auschwitz, so cramped that they have to stand up, and gasping because of the tight quarters and the terrible heat, reaching out the barred windows and crying for help, Schindler is the only person to do something.  He requests that they use a hose to spray down the cars, providing them with some water and cooling them down.  While he manages this effort, the soldiers just laugh at him, Goeth saying, "This is very cruel, Oskar.  You're giving them hope.  You shouldn't do that.  That's cruel!"  It's such a small mercy, and yet, the German soldiers think he's being ridiculous and a little annoying.

Eventually, the Plaszow Concentration Camp is shut down, and all the prisoners are to be sent to Auschwitz, including Schindler's workers.

After a period of inner turmoil, during which time Schindler is preparing to go home a wealthy man("I'm going home.  I've done what I came here for.  I've got more money than any man can spend in a lifetime."), he realizes that he can't abandon his workers to a horrible fate.  He decides to open another factory and take his workers with him.  He approaches Goeth with his proposition, and Goeth is puzzled:

Goeth: You want these people?
Schindler: These people, my people, I want my people.
Goeth: Who are you, Moses?  Come on, what is this?  Where's the money in this, where's the scam?...Look, you've got to move them, the equipment, everything to Czechoslovakia, pay for all that and build another camp.  It doesn't make any sense...you're not telling me something...
Schindler: Look, all you have to do is tell me what it's worth to you.  What's a person worth to you?
Goeth: No, no, no, no.  What's one worth to you?

Schindler sets to work with Stern to make a list of "essential workers" for his factory.  They work for hours, and Schindler continues to insist on more names.  Finally, they have completed their list of 1,100 workers:

Schindler and Stern making the list.

Stern: What did Goeth say about this?  You just told him how many people you needed, and -you're not buying them.  You're buying them?  You're paying him for each of these names?
Schindler: If you were still working for me, I'd expect you to talk me out of it.  It's costing me a fortune.  Finish the page and leave one space at the bottom.
Stern: The list is an absolute good.  The list is life.  All around its margins lies the gulf.

 By this point, all of Schindler's desire for money seems to have left him.  He is bleeding money to help save his workers.

There is one more person he wants to add to the list, and that is Goeth's maid, Helen, but Goeth won't hear of it:

Schindler: She's just going to Auschwitz...What difference does this make?
Goeth: She's not going to Auschwitz.  I'd never do that to her.  No, I want her to come back to Vienna with me.  I want her to come work for me there.  I want to grow up old with her.
Schindler: Are you mad?  Amon, you can't take her to Vienna with you.
Goeth: No, of course I can't.  That's what I'd like to do.   What I can do, if I'm any sort of a man, is the next most merciful thing.  I should take her into the woods and shoot her painlessly in the back of the head.

He finally agrees to play cards for her, but I'm not clear who won.  If you know, please comment and tell me!

Demanding the release of the children.

Unfortunately, after all Schindler's efforts, the train carrying the women being transferred to his new factory is accidentally rerouted to Auschwitz.  The women try to explain the mistake to the infamous Dr. Mengele, one woman, Mrs. Dresner, telling him, "Sir, a mistake has been made.  We're not supposed to be here.  We work for Oskar Schindler.  We're Schindler Jews," but it is to no avail.  They have their hair sheared and are forced into the showers, convinced that they are going to be gassed.  Thankfully, they really are getting showers -it's an intense, harrowing scene.  Meanwhile, Schindler has raced to Auschwitz upon hearing what happened to try to get them released.  He bribes Commandant Rudolf Hoss with diamonds to put them back on a train and send them to his factory, refusing an offer of "fresh" Jewish workers arriving soon, saying, "Yes, I understand.  I want these."  As the women are being loaded back onto the train, the guards start to take away the children, assuming that they are not workers Schindler requires, much to the dismay of their mothers.  Schindler intervenes again, shouting, "What are you doing?  These are mine.  These are my workers.  They should be on my train.  They're skilled munitions workers.  They're essential.   Essential girls.  Their fingers polish the insides of shell metal casings.  How else am I to polish the inside of a 45 millimeter shell casing?  You tell me.  You tell me!" and gets them on the train.

Schindler's factory is non-productive, and he is losing even more money as he refuses to produce functioning weaponry for the German army.  The treatment of the Jewish people has clearly driven him to loathe the entire German war effort, and he sabotages their efforts:

Stern: We've received an angry complaint from the Armaments Board.  The artillery shells, tank shells, rocket casings, apparently all of them have failed quality-control tests...They're withholding payment.
Schindler: Sure, so would I, so would you.  I wouldn't worry about it.  We'll get it right one of these days.
Stern: There's a rumor you've been going around miscalibrating the machines.  They could shut us down, send us back to Auschwitz.
Schindler: I'll call around, find out where we can buy shells, pass them off as ours.
Stern: I don't see the difference whether they're made here or somewhere else.
Schindler: You don't see a difference?  I see a difference.
Stern: You'll lose a lot of money, that's the difference.
Schindler: Fewer shells will be made.  Stern, if this factory ever produces a shell that can actually be fired, I'll be very unhappy.

Saying goodbye to his workers.

His workers are not made to create the weapons that will be used against the cause of their people.  He also encourages them to begin honoring the Sabbath again.

When the war ends, Schindler bids farewell to his grateful workers (they give him a ring made out of their own gold fillings, and they all sign a document saying that he helped them in case he is captured), and leaves to evade the Soviets, as he is a known "member of the Nazi Party...a munitions manufacturer...a profiteer of slave labor."  He has no money left.  But as he walks to his car, surrounded by the people whose lives he saved, all he can think of is that he could have done more:

Schindler: I could have got more out.  I could have got more.  I don't know.  If I'd just...I could have got more.
Stern: Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you.  Look at them.
Schindler: If I'd made more money... I threw away so much money.  You have no idea.  If I'd just...
Stern: There will be generations because of what you did.
Schindler: I didn't do enough!
Stern: You did so much.
Schindler: This car.  Goeth would have bought this car.  Why did I keep the car?  Ten people right there.  Ten people.  Ten more people.  This pin.  Two people.  This is gold.  Two more people.  He would have given me two for it, at least one.  One more person.  A person, Stern.  For this.  I could have gotten one more person...and I didn't!  And I... I didn't!

Schindler breaking down as he prepares to depart.

A powerful, epic movie.  It's difficult to watch, and almost impossible to believe that these things could possibly have happened in such recent history.  Oskar Schindler was a fascinating character to watch develop.  Tyler and I found it difficult to believe that Liam Neeson had not won the Oscar for this role, until we saw that Tom Hanks had won for Philadelphia.

At the end, we see real shots of the people saved by Schindler, and their descendents, visiting his grave, and learn that there are more than 6,000 descendents of the workers he saved living around the world.

Emilie Schindler, Schindler's wife, said later that "Oskar had done nothing astounding before the war and been unexceptional since.  He was fortunate, therefore, that in that short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who summoned forth his deeper talents."  I don't know how accurate this is, because she was likely bitter over his constant adultery.  But I do understand that this was the great accomplishment of his life, and it was a great one.  His words in the beginning turned out to be true, though not for the reasons he thought at the time: "They won't soon forget the name Schindler, either.  I can tell you that.  Oskar Schindler, they'll say.  Everybody remembers him.  He did something extraordinary."

1992 Unforgiven

1992 Unforgiven


"All right, I'm coming out.  Any man I see out there, I'm gonna shoot him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down." 

Yuck, what a bad movie.  I'm not a big fan of Westerns, with some exceptions, but this is one of the worst Westerns I've ever seen.

It's dark and mean-spirited.

Two young men get drunk and rowdy and disfigure a prostitute, and the lead prostitute decides to hire someone to kill the two men, as the sheriff (Gene Hackman) does not punish them harshly enough.  Munny (Clint Eastwood), his pal Logan (Morgan Freeman), and another guy decide to go for it.  Some other guys are trying on their own.  Gene Hackman is trying to protect the young men from being murdered.  One of the men is repentant, but the prostitutes will not take his apologies.  I felt bad for him, especially since the wrongdoings were really his friend's fault.

 


The only character I liked was Delilah, the prostitute that was injured.  She was a nice girl.

Thus ensues a lot of violence and killing.

I hated it.  Very disturbing.  It made High Noon look good.



So many better choices: My Cousin Vinny, Aladdin, Chaplin, and A Few Good Men would have been better options.



Lisa: Well I hate to bring it up because I know you've got enough pressure on you already.  But, we agreed to get married as soon as you won your first case.  Meanwhile, ten years later, my niece, the daughter of my sister is getting married.  My biological clock is ticking like this [stomping her foot] and the way this case is going, I ain't never getting married.

Vinny: Lisa, I don't need this.  I swear to God, I do not need this right now, okay?  I've got a judge that's just aching to throw me in jail.  An idiot who wants to fight me for two hundred dollars.  Slaughtered pigs.  Giant loud whistles.  I ain't slept in five days.  I got no money, a dress code problem, and a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids.  Not to mention your [stomping his foot] biological clock -my career, your life, our marriage, and let me see, what else can we pile on?  Is there any more shit we can pile on to the top of the outcome of this case?  Is it possible?
Lisa: Maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.
-My Cousin Vinny


Genie: Never fails!  You get in the bath and there's a rub at the lamp.
-Aladdin

Charlie Chaplin: Alright you're so creative, you work it out!  The tramp buys a flower from the girl, in order for the plot to work, she has to think he's rich.  That's all, except if you're aware of it, the flower girl is blind.  I don't know how to make the girl mistake the tramp for a millionaire.
-Chaplin
 
Kaffee: Colonel Jessep, did you order the Code Red?
Judge Randolph: You don't have to answer that question!
Col. Jessep: I'll answer the question!  You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I'm entitled.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Col. Jessep: You can't handle the truth!  Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.  Who's gonna do it?  You?  You, Lt. Weinburg?  I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom.  You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines.  You have that luxury.  You have the luxury of not knowing what I know.  That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.  And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.  You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.  We use words like honor, code, loyalty.  We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.  You use them as a punchline.  I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it.  I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way.  Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post.  Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?
Col. Jessep: I did the job I...
Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?
Col. Jessep: You're Goddamn right I did!
-A Few Good Men

1991 The Silence of the Lambs

1991 The Silence of the Lambs

"Good evening, Clarice."

An awesome movie, and the only horror film ever to win Best Picture.  Besides being an amazing horror story, it is also a mystery, a detective story and a psychological thriller.  It's based on the book by Thomas Harris, which is nail-biter and a total page-turner that hooks you from page one, and the movie is extraordinarily true to the book.

The movie is directed by Jonathan Demme, though the four main actors, (two of which later became directors in their own right -Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins), Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling), Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Hannibal Lecter -best name for a movie villain ever), Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) and Ted Levine (Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb), all had quite a bit of say in how their roles developed.  All seemed to have been very passionate about the movie, and about properly capturing their characters, which paid off in pitch perfect performances.


The movie begins with Clarice Starling, a student at the FBI Academy, being called in from a run to meet with Agent Jack Crawford in the Behavioral Science Department.  According to IMDB, "Originally, the film was to open with Clarice Starling and a male FBI agent in the middle of a drug bust.  They were to burst into the room and make a number of arrests, and only then would the audience be let in on the fact that it was a training exercise.  However Jodie Foster was able to convince director Jonathan Demme to change this scene, as she felt it had been done so many times before.  It was Foster herself who came up with the idea of opening with Starling running through the assault course."  Jodie Foster had originally wanted to make the movie herself, and when that wasn't possible, had worked very hard to get the part of Clarice, so she had strong opinions about how the movie should be made, and thankfully the director listened.

When Clarice arrives in Crawford's office, he quickly explains the special task he has in mind for her:

Crawford: It says, when you graduate, you wanna work for me in Behavioral Science.
Clarice: Yes, very much, sir.  Very much.
Crawford: We're interviewing all serial killers now in custody for a psycho-behavioral profile.  Could be a real help in unsolved cases.  Most of them have been happy to talk to us.  Do you spook easily, Starling?
Clarice: Not yet, sir.
Crawford: See, the one we want most refuses to cooperate.  I want you to go after him again today in the asylum.
Clarice: Who's the subject?
Crawford: The psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter.
Clarice: Hannibal the Cannibal.
Crawford: I don't expect him to talk to you.  But I have to be able to say we tried.  So if he won't cooperate, I want just straight reporting.  How does he look?  How does his cell look?  ls he sketching, drawing?   If he is, what's he sketching?  Here's a dossier on Lecter.   A copy of our questionnaire and a special ID for you.  Have your memo on my desk by Wednesday.
Clarice: OK.  Excuse me, sir, but why the urgency?  Lecter's been in prison for so many years.   Is there some connection between him and Buffalo Bill maybe?
Crawford: I wish there were.  Now, I want your full attention, Starling.
Clarice: Yes, sir.
Crawford: Be very careful with Hannibal Lecter.  Dr. Chilton at the asylum will go over all the physical procedures used with him.  Do not deviate from them for any reason whatsoever.  And you're to tell him nothing personal.  Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.


This quickly sets the tone of the movie, and of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.  We are made aware of the fact that the FBI is searching for a serial killer called Buffalo Bill.  We also begin to fear the character of Dr. Lecter.  This ominous first conversation establishes him as a dangerous and enigmatic killer.  From the very beginning, Dr. Lecter is a frightening character.

Clarice arrives at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, a dark, bleak, and foreboding institution, where she meets the hospital's director, Dr. Frederick Chilton.  Chilton, it becomes quickly apparent, is an egotistical, misogynistic man.  He tells Clarice that Dr. Lecter views him as his "nemesis," and then, after Clarice rebuffs his attempts to flirt with her, says, "Crawford is very clever, isn't he, using you?...A pretty young woman to turn him on.  I don't believe Lecter's even seen a woman in eight years.  And oh, are you ever his taste.  So to speak."  He is instantly distasteful to Clarice, as well as to the audience.

As he walks Clarice further into the depths off the hospital, Chilton gives Clarice instructions on how to approach Dr. Lecter.  In doing so, he amps up our fear of the man, so that Dr. Lecter has become a chilling character well before we ever see him: "Do not touch or approach the glass.  You pass him nothing but soft paper.  No pencils or pens.  No staples or paperclips in his paper.  Use the sliding food carrier.  If he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it...I am going to show you why we insist on such precautions.  On the evening of July 8th, 1981, he complained of chest pains and was taken to the dispensary.  His mouthpiece and restraints were removed for an EKG.  When the nurse leaned over him, he did this to her.  The doctors managed to reset her jaw more or less.  Saved one of her eyes.  His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue."

It's the perfect setup.  As Clarice walks down the dimly lit hallway, passing cells full of deranged prisoners, you can see her sense of unease increasing, and the viewer's fear increases as well.  I was both curious and reluctant to first see man she was going to meet.

I have to say, even though it is irrational, I feel I have to refer to the character as Dr. Lecter throughout this review, instead of just Lecter, out of respect.  He's not real, but I still feel like I don't want to offend the man.  That's a sign that a character has made an impact.  It should be noted that Hannibal Lecter was voted the Greatest Film Villain of all time by the American Film Institute.  No contest.  Dr. Lecter is a complicated villain.  He is a serial killer, cruel and vicious.  He can be mocking, sarcastic, arrogant, temperamental, and extremely unpredictable -not to mention the whole cannibal thing.  He likes to play games with people, and is clearly a sociopath.  But he is also brilliant, talented, polite in his own way, and even charming at times.  Sometimes he even seems almost likable.  But he is evil, and is never to be trusted.

Clarice finds him in the last cell, standing and waiting for her behind a glass panel.  At first, Dr. Lecter seems harmless enough, which actually makes him more frightening since we know his history, and what he is capable of:

Dr. Lecter: Good morning.
Clarice: Dr. Lecter, my name is Clarice Starling.   May I speak with you?
Dr. Lecter: You're one of Jack Crawford's, aren't you?
Clarice: I am, yes.
Dr. Lecter: May I see your credentials?
Clarice: Certainly.
Dr. Lecter: Closer, please.  Clo-ser...
The way he says closer, in a high, drawn out voice, drawing her nearer the glass, is extremely spooky.  Dr. Lecter is clearly irked when he discovers that Clarice is a student.  It is obvious he thinks himself above such treatment, but he uses the opportunity to try to learn more information about Crawford's current case, which he has been following: "Jack Crawford must be very busy indeed if he's recruiting help from the student body.  Busy hunting that new one: Buffalo Bill.  What a naughty boy he is."

While not interested in helping fill out Clarice's questionnaires, he is curious to know more details about the case, and seems to enjoy toying with Clarice:

Dr. Lecter: Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?  Enthrall me with your acumen.
Clarice: It excites him.  Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
Dr. Lecter: I didn't.
Clarice: No.  No, you ate yours.

He quickly tires of her, not interested in completing a questionnaire he deems below his notice, and insulted that Crawford has tried to entice information out of him using a female student.  He attacks her in a mocking tone of voice, something Hopkins decided on spontaneously, as stated on IMDB: "Anthony Hopkins's mocking of her southern accent was not rehearsed...Hopkins improvised it on the spot.  Foster's reaction of horror was totally genuine."  In the face of his verbal assault, Clarice holds her own pretty well.  Though shaken, she responds cleverly, only to be answered with one of the classic quotes from the film:

Dr. Lecter: You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes?  You look like a rube.  A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste.  Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?  And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia.  What is your father, dear?  Is he a coal miner?  Does he stink of the lamp?  You know how quickly the boys found you.  All those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars, while you could only dream of getting out, getting anywhere, getting all the way to the FBI.
Clarice: You see a lot, Doctor.  But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself?  What about it?  Why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see?  Or maybe you're afraid to.
Dr. Lecter: A census taker once tried to test me.  I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
He sends her on her way, saying "You fly back to school, now, little Starling.  Fly, fly, fly..."

This could have been the end of it, if Lecter's next door neighbor, Miggs, had not decided to fling semen (yuck yuck yuck) at Clarice as she was walking away.

Dr. Lecter is revolted by the rudeness of this act (though he apparently didn't deem his own insulting comments earlier rude):

Dr. Lecter: Agent Starling!  Come back!  Agent Starling!  Agent Starling!  I would not have had that happen to you.  Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly.
Clarice: Then do this test.
Dr. Lecter: No, but I'll give you a chance for what you love most.
Clarice: And what is that?
Dr. Lecter: Advancement.  Listen carefully.  Look deep within yourself, Clarice Starling.  Go seek out Miss Mofet, an old patient of mine.  M-O-F-E-T.   I don't think Miggs could manage again so soon, even though he is crazy.  Go!

His clue leads her to a victim related to the Buffalo Bill case, revealing that Dr. Lecter likely knows the identity of Buffalo Bill.  Crawford sends Clarice back to try to find out what Dr. Lecter knows, but he is not revealing anything further without an improvement in his living situation.  Clarice does discover that he has punished Miggs for his behavior towards her by somehow coaxing him to kill himself.

Crawford sends Clarice back with a fake offer of a transfer to a better prison on an island, but now Dr. Lecter is more interested in learning about Clarice:

Dr. Lecter: Terns?  Mmh.  If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" with us too.  Quid pro quo.  I tell you things, you tell me things.  Not about this case, though.  About yourself.  Quid pro quo.  Yes or no?  Yes or no, Clarice?  Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice: Go, doctor.

This is exactly what Crawford had warned Clarice against.  But Buffalo Bill has kidnapped another victim, Catherine Martin, the daughter of a Senator, and the clock is ticking for them to find her before she is killed, so Clarice agrees to play along.  She tells him about the murder of her father, who was the Town Marshall, and her subsequent move to live with family at a ranch.  In return, he gives her this information about the killer: "There are three major centers for transsexual surgery, Johns Hopkins, the University of Minnesota, and Columbus Medical Center.  I wouldn't be surprised if Billy had applied for sex reassignment at one or all of these, and been rejected...Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence.   Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice.   He was made one through years of systematic abuse.  Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual.  But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying."

With this information, Clarice sets off to begin further research.  Before she can speak to Dr. Lecter again, however, Dr. Chilton screws things up for her, telling Dr. Lecter about the ruse the FBI is playing on him about the prison transfer.  Angry at the deception, and faced with a real offer from Senator Martin, he accepts a deal to be transferred to Memphis and a new and improved cell, before taunting Senator Martin and giving fake information once he has been moved.

Clarice arranges to meet with him one last time, believing that he was telling her the truth in their interviews:

Dr. Lecter: First principles, Clarice.  Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius.  Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself?  What is its nature?  What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice: He kills women...
Dr. Lecter: No.  That is incidental.  What is the first and principal thing he does?  What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...
Dr. Lecter: No!  He covets.  That is his nature.  And how do we begin to covet, Clarice?  Do we seek out things to covet?  Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice: No.  We just...
Dr. Lecter: No.  We begin by coveting what we see every day.  Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice?  And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?

But he won't tell her anymore.  He demands to hear more about her.  She tells him that she ran away from the farm she was living on when she woke up to screaming and discovered that the lambs on the farm were being slaughtered.  She tried to save one, but was caught and failed, and ultimately was sent to live in an orphanage:

Dr. Lecter: You still wake up sometimes, don't you?  You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: Yes.
Dr. Lecter: And you think if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don't you?  You think if Catherine lives, you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: I don't know.  I don't know.
Dr. Lecter: Thank you, Clarice.  Thank you.
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor.
Dr. Lecter: Dr. Chilton, I presume.  I think you know each other.
Chilton: Okay.  Let's go.
Clarice: It's your turn, Doctor.
Chilton: Out!
Clarice: Tell me his name!
Boyle: I'm sorry, ma'am.  We've got orders.  We have to put you on a plane.  Come on, now.
Dr. Lecter: Brave Clarice.  You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won't you?
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor!
Dr. Lecter: Clarice, your case file.  Goodbye, Clarice.

While this is happening, Jame Gumb, the man known by the FBI only as Buffalo Bill, is keeping and preparing his latest victim, Catherine Martin, in a pit in his house.  He captures heavyset women and keeps them imprisoned until their skin loosens up, forcing them to apply lotion to themselves, until he is ready to kill them.  He wants to transform himself into a woman, and is making a suit out of women's skin.  We see him in his house, dressing up in women's clothes and dancing in front of a mirror (IMDB states that "Buffalo Bill's dance was not included in the original draft of the screenplay (although it appears in the novel).  It was added at the insistence of Ted Levine, who thought the scene was essential in defining the character."), talking to his small dog, Precious, and periodically checking on Catherine, who he refers to as "it": "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.  Yes, it will, Precious, won't it?  It will get the hose!"  He's a creepy, creepy dude to say the least.  Completely deranged.  IMDB describes Gumb as follows: "Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement."

Dr. Lecter, now removed from his secure cell where he was under the constant watchful eye of a worker named Barney (who was trained never to underestimate Dr. Lecter), quickly makes a genius, horrifyingly brutal, grutesque escape from prison.

When Clarice gets word, she is distressed, but not concerned for her own safety:

Clarice: He won't come after me.
Ardelia Mapp: Oh really?
Clarice: He won't.  I can't explain it.  He -he would consider that rude.

She continues, though officially off the case, to go over what Dr. Lecter had told her, knowing that the answer must be there.  She remembers what he said about first coveting what we see, and realizes that Buffalo Bill must have known his first victim.  She heads to the first victim's hometown to investigate on her own.

Catherine's time is up.  Gumb is ready to kill her, and goes down to the basement, only to find that she has cleverly managed to lure his dog into the pit, and is holding her hostage, threatening to kill her.

That's when Gumb hears somebody at the door upstairs.  He opens it to Clarice Starling, who was hoping to find the first victim's employer, who used to live at this house.  Gumb offers to try to find some contact information for her, but just then Clarice spots a moth -the same as the rare moths that have been found stuffed into the mouths of the victims -and she realizes that she is looking at Buffalo Bill.  He sees the recognition in her face, and she pulls her gun, but he manages to slip away into another room of the house.

What follows is an intense chase scene through the house in the dark, as Gumb (possessing night vision goggles) manages to cut the lights.  It follows the book to a tee, though in the book we get to hear Clarice's thoughts as she struggles to use her FBI training to find Gumb while protecting Catherine, which is interesting.  It is suspenseful, and my heart pounded reading this part of the book and watching this part of the movie.


The finale of the movie was even better than the book.  At a celebration over the successful end to the manhunt for Buffalo Bill, and rescue of Catherine Martin, Clarice receives a haunting phone call:

Dr. Lecter: Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?
Clarice: Dr. Lecter?
Dr. Lecter: Don't bother with a trace, I won't be on long enough.
Clarice: Where are you?
Dr. Lecter: I have no plans to call on you, Clarice.  The world's more interesting with you in it.  So you take care now to extend me the same courtesy.
Clarice: You know I can't make that promise.
Dr. Lecter: I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner.  Bye.
Clarice: Dr. Lecter?  Dr. Lecter?  Dr. Lecter?  Dr. Lecter?

The last thing we see is Dr. Lecter casually trailing Dr. Chilton in a tropical location.


Flawless.

IMDB (Sorry, lots of making-of citations from IMDB this time, but I find the amount of work the actors put into researching their roles so important to the success of this movie), describes the effort the four main actors put into preparing for the movie:

"Scott Glenn's character of Jack Crawford was based on real-life FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas, an early member of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, who coached Glenn on his portrayal of a member of the BSU. Douglas, still an active FBI Special Agent during production, was in the midst of tracking Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, who was convicted of killing seventy-one women and believed to have killed more than ninety between 1982 and 1998 in Washington state...After working with John Douglas for some time Scott Glenn thanked him and said how fascinating it was to have been allowed into his world.  Douglas laughed at this comment and told Glenn that if he really wanted to get into his world, he should listen to an audio tape of serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris torturing, raping and murdering two teenage girls. Glenn listened to less than one minute of the tape, and has since said that he feels he lost a sense of innocence in doing so and that he has never been able to forget what he heard.

In preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins studied files of serial killers.  Also, he visited prisons and studied convicted murderers and was present during some court hearings concerning serial killings.

Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming and it was Krause who gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying.  Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overbearing that this was a good way to get an emotional release.

After being cast as Buffalo Bill, Ted Levine had done a lot of research into developing his character by reading profiles of serial killers.  Levine later said that he found the material very disturbing.  He also went out and attended a few transvestite bars, where he began interviewing patrons, as Bill was also a cross-dresser."

This is real devotion, and it certainly paid off.  The amount of passion put into this movie is apparent in the outcome.

I have not seen Hannibal, and never plan to (nor do I plan to read the book, though I do know what happens).  It sounds terrible, and completely unfaithful to the characters.  Harris was clearly out of ideas and wanted to make more money, so he decided to just shock and disgust his audience rather than coming up with anything creative or innovative.  Red Dragon, the book before Silence of the Lambs, and the movie version made with Edward Norton starring as Will Graham, the man that captured Dr. Lecter, is worth checking out for sure:

Will Graham: I thought you might enjoy the challenge.  Find out if you're smarter than the person I'm looking for.
Dr. Lecter: Then, by implication, you think you're smarter than I am, since it was you who caught me.
Will Graham: No, I know I'm not smarter than you.
Dr. Lecter: Then how did you catch me?
Will Graham: You had... disadvantages.
Dr. Lecter: What disadvantages?
Will Graham: You're insane.