The Conversation

Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" was released on February 14, 1991, which wasn't an ideal date for producers who were harboring hopes of being honored during the awards season the following year. But the film was a sleeper hit. It won an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, making it the third film, after Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night" (1934) and Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) to win the top categories.

Many considered Demme's adaptation as a horror film, but the book had lots to offer. Thomas Harris gained a following from his trilogy, namely "Red Dragon" (1981), "The Silence of the Lambs" (1988), and "Hannibal" (1999). They were hair-raising novels featuring disturbed characters along with their pursuers who have emotional baggage. And Hannibal Lecter happened to be in the center of these stories. The novels were an appalling illustration of human nature.

Tell me your secret

Buffalo Bill was wanted for luring overweight women, starving them, and then killing them in the most brutal manner. And he wasn't an easy catch, as he seemed to be smarter than the FBI. Only Hannibal Lecter, who was serving nine consecutive life sentences in a Maryland mental institution, could provide vital information. He was a brilliant psychiatrist, also a cannibalistic serial killer. He won't give away details without anything in return. So Clarice Starling was tasked to talk to him.

Starling was a promising FBI trainee whom Dr. Lecter seemed to like. Or was it a case of traumatic bonding? She had a painful childhood, which made her empathized with the women who were kidnapped by Buffalo Bill. The doctor sensed it during their first meeting. He, on the other hand, found out how the Nazis killed his sister. (Readers would be shocked when Lecter found her clothes, which she wore during the day she died. A tooth of one of the soldiers was found there.) There was unease during their meetings, but readers couldn't helped but be hooked to their conversation. And this was where Harris revealed the ugly truth. Most of us would be drawn to the sordid details, one bloody chapter after another.

But there were redeeming features. In "Red Dragon", Molly Graham showed kindness to Francis Dolarhyde, another killer with a sharp mind. She was blind, though. He might've murdered more innocent people, as the FBI pointed out to her. One couldn't helped but notice the cynicism, though. As for what happened to Dr. Lecter and Agent Starling, don't be surprised at what became of them. Blame it on fate. Point your fingers at offenders who couldn't forget Dr. Lecter and disgraced police officers who should knew better. And the doctor was patient all along.

"Hannibal" showed Dr. Lecter catching up with his life in Florence, immersing in Renaissance art. Who would have thought that he liked a prefrontal cortex to be sauteed with shallots.