by Chris Marshall:
I remember liking The
Silence of the Lambs well enough the first time I saw it, and I’ve watched
various parts of it a few times since then. But I’ve never really considered it
a classic, at least not in the same sense that many others do. I never bothered
with the prequels or sequels (it seems like there are so many) because I just
never had any real interest in them.
Upon revisiting it for The Oscar Project, I was reminded of just
how well crafted a film it is. It very well might have been the “fastest” movie
so far, by which I mean it felt much shorter than its two hour running time.
Everything flows together so smoothly and swiftly that you never have to wait
for a new development in the plot.
Still, I’m not completely sold on it being an all-time
classic, despite its dominance at the Oscars. The Silence of the Lambs became the third film, after It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest[1],
to win all five major Academy Awards: picture, actor, actress, director, and
screenplay. I don’t think it’s quite in the same class as those two films,
however. Maybe I’ve gotten so used to Oscar winners being about “important”
things that I’ve forgotten how to enjoy films that are simply well-made and fun
to watch.
