Revisiting the 1991/1992 Oscars season with The Silence of the Lambs #bestfilmsrewatch

Welcome to the 90s!

Oscars 1992 was truly the beginning for me. I've shared many, many times about how when I (accidentally) saw "Moonstruck" I first became aware of the Oscars, but it was the 1991/1992 season that hooked me. Thanks to "Bugsy."

I wish I could go back in time and see where my Oscar news was coming from. I'm guessing it was a combination of Siskel and Ebert, E! and the Commercial Appeal--the Memphis paper...certainly not the Daily Corinthian...although I vaguely remember a weekend insert that talked about the movies. I became very aware of "Bugsy"'s chances early on and went to see it as soon as it came out in the theaters. I was utterly blown away. I loved the sick romance at its center, the gorgeous costumes and cinematography and Annette Bening. I LOVED Annette Bening. I was thrilled it won Best Picture-Drama at the Globes and I was looking forward to it winning Oscars for Picture, Actor for Beatty (on his birthday, nonetheless) and Bening being nominated, at least.

Oscar noms came out and Bening was left off the list. This automatically made me pissed at Jodie Foster, Thelma & Louise, Laura Dern and especially Bette Midler! What were they thinking?!

I was determined to see every Best Picture nominee that year, and I came very close. I saw "Beauty and the Beast," "Bugsy," (multiple times), "The Prince of Tides," (multiple times!! I was a Babs fan much more than a Bette one) even "JFK," to the horror of my parents who were in the theater with me. As determined as I was, my parents were determined to keep me away from Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs."

I had managed to convince them to let me watch "A Nightmare on Elm Street" when I was 9, and I think they regretted (still do) that decision to the point that they were a little more strict when it came to me watching horror movies. I tried my darndest to sneak in, but, if I remember correctly, the Crossroads Twin Cinema (the same one that let me see "Moonstruck" a couple of years earlier, also rated R) wasn't having it.

Come Oscar night, I was ready to be as informed as I could be, having not seen "Silence." The 1992 ceremony is one of 2 shows that I have missed since 1988. I was rehearsing "The Music Man"at Corinth Theatre-Arts and could not get out of it. Today I would not miss the Oscars for almost anything. Maybe anything. I called home during the breaks and was crushed when Beatty lost Best Actor...and stunned as "The Silence of the Lambs" won the top 5 prizes, one of only 3 films in history to do so ("It Happened One Night" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next" being the other two).

But I'm not here to write about "Bugsy" am I? That's how things can change.

A few months after the Oscars, I managed to convince my parents to let me rent something from the video store...who knows what it was honestly...with the intention of finally seeing "The Silence of the Lambs." The man behind the counter allowed me to rent it...I even think he let me put it in a different box. I went home and watched it. Not sure how I got lucky enough to be alone at the house.

It was incredible, and I knew instantly that the Academy got it right.

Revisiting it, the film absolutely holds up. The biggest shocks in terms of the Oscars are that it was somehow left off of Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. Tak Fujimoto (along with Demme, I am sure) make such bold choices with the camera. There are the obvious shots, such as Hannibal's display of poor Lt. Boyle, as well as the choice to have the actors often looking directly in the camera...mostly when the characters are talking to Clarice...and also, in the incredible scene in Memphis when Clarice opens up about the screaming of the lambs to Hannibal.

The scene, to this day, makes me catch my breath. Foster and Hopkins are both phenomenal throughout, but here particularly. Both are so intense here, with clear motivations and determination to get what they want. Both faces fill the screen and are 100 percent truthful to the characters they have created with Fujimoto and Demme allowing us to see straight through their eyes into their souls. At least to Clarice's soul.


There are so many incredible things that can be said about this film, and I'm trying hard not to compare it to "Hereditary," the film of the moment. I will truly understand the power...or lack of it...of Oscar bloggers/social media if Collette makes it to the podium (or to nomination morning) next winter. I compared what she and director Aster created with Burstyn, Friedkin and "The Exorcist" in my review...and this film solidifies that for me. "The Silence of the Lambs" goes very, very deep and its actors were absolutely deserving of the trophies they received.

I remember the protesting by the LGBT community with the depiction of Buffalo Bill as a Transexual serial killer, but on the revisit, it is made clear that Bill is not a Transexual, at least in Lecter's opinion. He is unhappy with his identity, but not because he is transexual. More than likely, it is because he is a psychopath. It is fascinating and daring...particularly for 1991. I wonder if this film would be made today. Doubtful...because we would be so furious...not even knowing why we are furious. Such a sad, sad state we are in right now.

The real story in "Silence" in regard to gender identity is Clarice. It's fascinating, still, to see the scene in the funeral home when Crawford uses Clarice's gender and the police officers' misogyny to his advantage, but there are other moments...when Clarice and Ardelia are running at Quantico and their male counterparts rubberneck them down. It happens again when Clarice returns from the airport...something I never noticed before.

"The Silence of the Lambs" is one of the great Best Picture winners. Was it daring for them to award it? Not really. How could you not give it Best Picture? We said similar things when "Moonlight" won, but it's clear, to me at least that the Academy isn't quite as vanilla or self conscious as we sometimes portray them to be. "Silence" took the trophy over 25 years ago. And "Midnight Cowboy" 22 years before that. Something to think about, for sure.