Fava Beans

Ooooooh, Silence of the Lambs. Such a great, creepy film. As is usually the case, the book is better. Well, most of Thomas Harris' books are great. If you have not read Red Dragon or Hannibal I recommend that you do. 

I am not sure watching this film before bed was wise. Even though I have seen it many times, it still gives me the creeps. What makes it so good is Clarice Starling. Jodie Foster really does a great job! She is also an excellent student. We see her completing not only her FBI training, but she is also taking on the extra credit of investigating Hannibal Lecter. She really shows us her smarts too! From figuring out Hannibal's riddles, to using her car jack at the storage facility, to figuring out crimes that are baffling seasoned FBI officers. When I was growing up, I wanted to be just like Clarice, or any other super smart, forensic, crime solver. 

This movie has lots of overt sexual stuff but also some subtle stuff. Like when Clarice is jogging and the men look over at her or the scientists at the bug museum and Dr. Chilton. Well, Dr. Chilton was overt I suppose. There are some points to be made about Clarice being a woman in a man's world (the FBI). When they are in West Virginia and Crawford asks to speak to the Captain in private to not talk about sex crimes in front of a woman, Clarice being the only one in funeral home. Or when you cut back to FBI training and she is the woman in the center of the men punching circle exercise. Come to think of it, there are not many women in this movie besides Clarice and her FBI training friend, well except for all the victims and the Senator. This would make a great movie to dissect. I am sure it has been done before, maybe I should google it. 

If an RA were to do a program around this movie I would start with the weird bugs. Even though moths can be beautiful and stuff, when they are being raised in the dark basement of a troubled man who kills people for skin, they are weird and creepy. Maybe how they are a sign of the bad guy or that another reason why you should be glad you cannot have animals or live insects in the residence halls. Or how you should adhere to stranger danger, even if someone is struggling to lift a couch into a van with a broken arm. 

It was mentioned in the making of the Silence of the Lambs featurette, that Buffalo Bill and Hannibal Lecter were created after looking at many other serial killers of the time the book was written. Maybe an RA program can be the way Hollywood portrays serial killers and their mental illness. That would be an interesting one!