The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. It is based on the novel by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Lithuanian count, sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them.

The film adaptation was released in 1991. Jonathan Demme won an Academy Award for Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won Oscars (for their roles as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, respectively); the film won additional Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Thus, it is the last of the only three films to win the five most prestigious Academy Awards (after It Happened One Night, 1934 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975).

Cast

Jodie Foster – Clarice Starling

Anthony Hopkins – Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Scott Glenn – Jack Crawford

Anthony Heald – Dr. Frederick Chilton

Ted Levine – Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb

Frankie Faison – Barney Matthews

Kasi Lemmons – Ardelia Mapp

Brooke Smith – Catherine Martin

Paul Lazar – Pilcher

Dan Butler – Roden

Lawrence T. Wrentz – Agent Burroughs

Don Brockett – Friendly Psychopath in Cell

Frank Seals Jr. – Brooding Psychopath in Cell

Stuart Rudin – Miggs

Masha Skorobogatov – Young Clarice Starling

Jeffrie Lane – Clarice's Father

Leib Lensky – Mr. Lang, Storage Manager

George 'Red' Schwartz – Mr. Lang's Driver

Jim Roche – TV Evangelist

James B. Howard – Boxing Instructor

Bill Miller – Mr. Brigham

Chuck Aber – Agent Terry

Gene Borkan – Oscar

Pat McNamara – Sheriff Perkins

Tracey Walter – Lamar

Kenneth Utt – Dr. Akin

Adelle Lutz – TV Anchorwoman

Obba Babatundé – TV Anchorman

George Michael – TV Sportscaster

Diane Baker – Sen. Ruth Martin

Roger Corman – FBI Director Hayden Burke

Ron Vawter – Paul Krendler

Charles Napier – Lt. Boyle

Jim Dratfield – Sen. Martin's Aide

D. Stanton Miranda – Reporter #1

Rebecca Saxon – Reporter #2

Danny Darst – Sgt. Tate

Cynthia Ettinger – Officer Jacobs

Brent Hinkley – Officer Murray

Steve Wyatt – Airport Flirt

Alex Coleman – Sgt. Jimmy Pembry

David Early – Spooked Memphis Cop

Andre B. Blake – Tall Memphis Cop

Bill Dalzell – Distraught Memphis Cop

Chris Isaak – SWAT Commander

Daniel von Bargen – SWAT Communicator

Tommy Lafitte – SWAT Shooter

Josh Broder – EMS Attendant

Buzz Kilman – EMS Driver

Harry Northup – Mr. Bimmel

Lauren Roselli – Stacy Hubka

Lamont Arnold – Flower Delivery Man

Lawrence A. Bonney – FBI Instructor

Darla – Precious

Jeff Busch – EMS Attendant

John Hall – State Trooper

Lynette Jenkins – Nurse

Chris McGinn – Autopsy Victim

Ted Monte – FBI Agent

George A. Romero – FBI Agent in Memphis

Mike Schaeffer – Prison guard

Plot

The story opens with Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, being asked to carry out an errand by Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI division that draws up psychological profiles of serial killers. Starling is asked to present a questionnaire to a serial killer named Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and genuine sociopath, currently serving a life sentence in a Maryland insane asylum.

We also learn of the hunt for a serial killer dubbed Buffalo Bill, who has abducted five different women, keeping them for up to three days before killing them, taking parts of their skins and dumping them in rivers. The nickname was started by Kansas City Police Homicide Division, on the theory that "he likes to skin his humps." Starling asks if she should ask Lecter about Bill, but Crawford tells her not to.

At the asylum, Starling is clumsily chatted up by its warden, Dr. Frederick Chilton. Eventually, Starling gets to talk to Lecter, who is seemingly quite polite and civil, but after toying briefly with Starling, he refuses to take the questionnaire. As she leaves, 'Multiple' Miggs, the prisoner in the cell next to Lecter flings his semen at Starling. Lecter, offended at this display of bad manners, calls Starling back and gives her some cryptic information. He gives her indirect information that one of his ex-patients, one Miss Hester Mofet will help her but does not tell her how. He tells her to see it herself. Lecter later talks Miggs into killing himself by swallowing his own tongue, which results in Chilton stripping Lecter's cell of everything, including his books; Lecter has quite an attachment to books; the name "Lecter" may come from the Latin word "lector," which means "reader".

Starling discovers that Mofet is dead but the information somehow manages to lead her to a rent-a-storage lot where the possessions of Lecter's last victim, Benjamin Raspail, are contained. Hidden in Raspail's vintage car is a severed head in a jar. Back at the asylum, Lecter explains that the head is that of a man named Klaus; he was Raspail's lover, before Raspail killed Klaus in a fit of jealousy over a new partner. Lecter predicts that the next victim will have been scalped. He suggests an insight on Buffalo Bill's motivation – "He wants a vest with tits on it." Finally he offers some thoughts of his own. He has been in a windowless, stone-walled cell for eight years and will never get out while he is alive. He draws pictures of his favorite sights, ("The Duomo, as seen from the Belvedere" in Florence, Italy is brought to our attention), but these can be taken away from him. What he wants is a room with windows. Lecter wants to be free, and though this is not stated in the movie it can easily be understood).

When Bill's sixth victim is found, Starling helps Crawford perform the autopsy. Crawford's wife has a terminal condition and is not expected to survive for much longer; many at the Bureau marvel at Crawford's ability to function. Regardless of home-life distractions, he and Starling fly to West Virginia to investigate. A moth chrysalis is found in the throat of the victim. She has been scalped. Star shaped patches of skin have been taken from her shoulders. Autopsy reports, furthermore, indicate that he killed her within four days of her capture; whatever it is he does with them, he's getting better and faster at it. On the basis of Lecter's prediction, Starling believes that he knows who Buffalo Bill really is. Lecter, however, is not going to reveal such information easily.

Starling takes the chrysalis to the Smithsonian where, (much later in the book than the film), it is eventually identified as the "Death's Head Moth," so named because of the signature skull design on its back. It lives only in Asia and in the United States must be hand-raised.

In Memphis, Tennessee a young woman, Catherine Ruth Martin, is just getting home in her car and is just outside her home when she finds a man struggling to lift a couch into the back of his van as he has a cast on his arm. She assists him in moving the couch but is then trapped inside the van. He knocks her unconscious and drives off, having removed her shirt and left it at the roadside. However the woman's mother is Ruth Martin, a junior U.S. Senator from Tennessee. Crawford is advised that no less than the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case, and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed.

With the stakes heightened, Starling is sent back to Lecter to obtain more information from him. After his correct predictions and, most notably, the discovery of another Death's Head Moth cocoon in Klaus's throat, the inside word is that Lecter must know who Buffalo Bill is. Starling presents a deal – if he gives information which leads to Bill's arrest and saves Catherine Martin's life, Senator Martin will have Lecter transferred to a new institution where he will be given greater freedom. Unknown to Starling, the deal is phony, concocted by Crawford as a last-ditch effort to get Lecter to talk. Lecter, in turn, demands information from Starling – in exchange for details of her personal life, he will offer his views on who Buffalo Bill might be.

He starts by asking Starling about her worst childhood memory – the death of her father, a policeman who was killed by two crooks on a night patrol. In exchange, Lecter explains that Bill is seeking to change himself, and that he is a transsexual, or rather, someone who thinks he is a transsexual. Bill's obsession with moths stems from the metamorphosis they go through, caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. He has probably tried to apply for gender-reassignment surgery and been rejected. Starling doesn't pick up on how this will help her, so she asks for more information. Lecter probes further into her past – After her father's death, her mother couldn't support her and she was sent to her uncle's ranch in Montana. Two months later she ran away. Lecter, quid pro quo, explains that checking through the records of people turned down for gender-reassignment surgery because of convictions for violence would be a good place to start a search for Bill's true identity. He explains that "Buffalo Bill" was not born a criminal, but made one through years of systamatic abuse. He hated his own identity, and now identifies himself as a transsexual, which he actually isn't.

Lecter, reminiscing on the past, recalls a conversation with Benjamin Raspail, in which Raspail explains Klaus's death at the hands of Raspail's jealous former lover, James Gumb, who then used Klaus's skin to make an apron. Raspail also points out that Gumb was obsessed with butterflies and moths. Lecter's pleasant ruminations are interrupted when Chilton steps in. A listening device allowed him to overhear Starling's conversation, and Chilton has found out that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers one of his own – If Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if Chilton gets credit for getting the information from him. Lecter insists that he'll only give the information to Senator Ruth Martin in person, in Tennessee. Chilton agrees. Unknown to Chilton, Lecter has managed to fashion and conceal a handcuff key. He knows that once he is outside the asylum, he will be in the custody of police officers who will use handcuffs on him, rather than strait-jackets.

In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying the woman's anguish, but eventually gives her some information about Buffalo Bill – his name is William Rubin, (changed to Louis Friend in the movie), and he has elephant ivory anthrax, a knifemaker's disease. This information in hand, the FBI races off to save Catherine.

The next day, with Lecter held in a makeshift cell, Clarice Starling confronts him. She suspects that Lecter has misled everyone about "Billy Rubin". Their conversation continues from before, with Lecter giving clues as to Buffalo Bill's identity in exchange for stories about Starling's childhood. One night at the ranch, she awoke to hear lambs screaming, as they were being slaughtered, and tried to save one by carrying it away. She was soon caught and the lamb returned to slaughter. Hannibal asks if she can still hear the lambs crying and wonders if she imagines that saving Catherine will finally give her some peace. Lecter now understands Clarice Starling, but Chilton interrupts the conversation, preventing Lecter from transmitting to her a parallel understanding of Buffalo Bill. Starling is escorted from the building. She is further ordered by Justice Department deputy Paul Krendler to return to Quantico and study like she's supposed to; failure to do so will result in her flunking out. Krendler later figures prominently in the plot of the sequel Hannibal.

That evening, Lecter uses his makeshift handcuff key to free himself, beats both guards to death with a truncheon, outmaneuvers the Tennessee PD and SWAT teams, and escapes to the airport in an ambulance.

Starling's shock at all these events is put on hold when she realizes that Lecter has left some further clues for her. With the help of her roommate, Starling realizes that there is something significant in the way Buffalo Bill's first victim, Frederica Bimmel, was killed. She was killed first but found third, suggesting that Bill wanted to hide her body. Starling surmises that she knew Bill in personal life, as Lecter had told her that the needs which Bill serves by killing those women is his eager desire; he had coveted those women and their identities. She accepts that she will flunk out of Quantico and Crawford sends her to Bimmel's home town, Belvedere, Ohio. There, Starling discovers that Bimmel was a tailor. Dresses in her closet have star shaped templates on them, identical to the patches of skin removed from Buffalo Bill's latest victim. Recalling Lecter's summary of Buffalo Bill's motivem, "He wants a vest with tits on it", Starling realizes that Buffalo Bill is a capable tailor who wants to make himself into a woman by fashioning himself a "woman suit" of real skin. She telephones Crawford, who is already on the way to make an arrest. Lecter's transsexual-surgery theory has yielded a positive ID from Johns Hopkins – a "Jame Gumb" just outside Chicago. Crawford is leading a strike on Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois, while Chicago SWAT takes a home address. Starling is to continue interviewing Bimmel's friends.

Starling learns (from Bimmel's friend "Stacy") that Bimmel once worked for a woman named Mrs. Lippman. At Lippman's house, however, the door is answered by Jame Gumb. Starling has no idea who he is, but when she spies a Death's Head Moth flapping around in the background, she knows whom she is dealing with. Starling attempts to arrest Gumb, who flees into the basement. She follows him down. She manages to make contact with Catherine Martin, fortunately still alive, and is hunting Bill when the lights go out, leaving her in darkness. Gumb, wearing night vision goggles, creeps up behind Starling and cocks his gun. Starling hears the click and fires back, killing him. Starling calls for back up, and Catherine Martin is finally rescued.

Life returns to normal for Starling. She is not going to flunk out, but the FBI is cutting her very little slack. With her roommate's help, she plans to graduate. She has approval where it counts, though – from Crawford, from some of her instructors, and of course from Catherine and Ruth Martin.

In a St. Louis hotel room, we find Lecter writing farewell letters. He is planning some self-administered cosmetic surgery to keep his anonymity, but for now he has some loose ends to tie up. To Chilton, he promises horrible retribution and tells Starling that he is having an old friend "for dinner", implying Chilton. To Barney, a nurse at the ward who was civil, Lecter appends a generous tip. Finally, to Starling, he sends a promise that he will not come after her, "the world being more interesting with you in it". He also reminds her that she owes him an answer in future; he would like to know about it, should she ever defeat her inner demons, and find herself in the silence of the lambs.

Production

The majority of the film was shot in southern Ohio because it has many different landscapes and architecture. This variety made it easier to display many different parts of the country.

Both the scene of Lecter in his cage and the Baltimore jail scene were filmed in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

None of the action of the film takes place in Pennsylvania; however, the registration stickers on the windshields of all of the vehicles indicate a Pennsylvania residency.

Despite the acclaim garnered for the role, Anthony Hopkins is only in the film for a little over 16 minutes.

Gene Hackman was originally slated to play Hannibal Lecter.

John Lithgow was the producers second choice to play Hannibal Lecter

Differences from the book

Starling's struggles as an FBI trainee are downplayed, with only occasional hints at difficulties, often based on sexism. It is not directly suggested that she was in danger of flunking out.

Crawford's subplot, regarding the death of his wife, is eliminated for simplicity (neither Crawford nor his wife were in Hannibal either, and no mention of Crawford's wife is made in Manhunter). Likewise, Klaus is removed, with Raspail's head in the jar instead. Lecter's relation to Gumb is as his former therapist.

Lecter's red herrings are altered to include anagrams – Clarice is told to investigate "Miss Hester Mofet" (AKA "miss the rest of me") and his false Buffalo Bill name becomes "Louis Friend" (iron sulfide, i.e. fool's gold); however, the novel has the false name Billy Rubin, which is a play on bilirubin, the pigment found in feces.

Bimmel's hometown is depicted as Belvedere, Ohio, the same as Gumb's. On Starling's first visit to Lecter, she comments on one of his sketches, which the doctor informs her is "The Duomo seen from the Belvedere." Some interpret this as Lecter having given Buffalo Bill's whereabouts to Starling from the get go.

Lecter never tells Starling that Buffalo Bill wants "a vest with tits in it." Starling deduces this specific motive of Buffalo Bill on her own after seeing a dress in Bimmel's closet.

After escaping from his cell in Memphis, Lecter is next shown at the end of the movie contacting Starling by telephone immediately following her graduation ceremony from the FBI Academy. Lecter, who informs Starling he is "having an old friend for dinner" is shown ostensibly on a Caribbean island while his nemesis Chilton nervously deplanes nearby.

Influences

Jame Gumb is evidently based on five real-life serial killers:

Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who robbed graves and murdered women in order to flay their bodies and make clothing out of them. Gein was also the inspiration for Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Psycho.

Ted Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s, often luring victims by pretending he was injured with a cast on his arm, a technique Gumb used to lure Catherine Martin into his van. Similar to Lecter, Bundy also offered to help investigators find other serial murderers by "giving insights" into their psychology while he was in death row, specifically about the Green River Killer.

Ed Kemper, who killed his grandparents when he was an adolescent, just like Gumb.

Gary Heidnik, who held women captive in a deep hole in his basement.

Robert Mawdsley

Hannibal Lecter bears some similarities with Andrei Chikatilo (a Russian serial killer), in that during their childhoods both experienced a sibling being cannibalised during a famine. (It is not known however how true the story of Chikatilo's experience is). He has also been compared to the infamous cannibal and child murderer Albert Fish.

Trivia

Three of the characters from this film (Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, and Frederick Chilton) also appeared in an earlier film, Manhunter, though portrayed by different actors. Though there is no evidence to suggest that any of the three actors were asked to reprise their role in The Silence of the Lambs, some argue that The Silence of the Lambs is a sequel to Manhunter, but the fact that Orion was willing to produce the film without the rights to the three characters that previously appeared in Manhunter suggests that it was never intended to be a cinematic follow up to Manhunter. In Ted Tally's second-draft script, he notes – "For legal reasons, the names of three of Tom Harris's characters have had to be changed. It is my hope, and certainly Tom's, that the original names can be restored in time for the making of this movie. For the purposes of this draft, however, Jack Crawford has become 'Ray Campbell,' Frederick Chilton has become 'Herbert Prentiss,' and Dr. Hannibal Lecter is called 'Dr. Gideon Quinn.'" Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis saw little future potential for the characters and allowed Orion to use the characters of Lecter, Crawford and Chilton for free. Further distancing The Silence of the Lambs from Manhunter is the fact that Frankie Faison and Dan Butler appear in both films, but as completely different characters. This matter was settled in 2002 when Manhunter was remade as Red Dragon, in which Hopkins and Heald reprised their roles from The Silence of the Lambs, firmly establishing itself as the official adaptation of the book as it relates to the other two Hopkins films. It should also be noted that, in Manhunter, Lecter's last name is officially spelled "Lecktor", and no mention is ever made of cannibalism. He is stated to have killed young women, in effect condensing Lecter and another character mentioned in Red Dragon for time's sake. In addition, the events of Red Dragon are mentioned several times in the novel The Silence of the Lambs, but were all omitted in the screenplay.

Gene Hackman bought the rights to The Silence of the Lambs and was planning to direct the film as well as taking on the role of Jack Crawford , but he withdrew after watching a clip of himself in Mississippi Burning at the The 61st Annual Academy Awards, which made him uneasy about taking more violent roles. When Jonathan Demme took over as director, he offered the role of Clarice first to Michelle Pfeiffer and also to Meg Ryan.

Michael Keaton was considered for the role of Jack Crawford.

John Hurt was considered for the role of Hannibal Lector.

Louis Gossett Jr. was also considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter.

Robert Duvall was considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter, and Jeremy Irons turned it down.

Jack Nicholson was considered for the part of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Robert De Niro was considered for the part of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter , passed on Silence of the Lambs because Manhunter had flopped. He gave the rights away free to Orion Pictures.

Then Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole's, Washington, D.C. office doubled for that of the F.B.I. director's office in the movie.

The Tobacco horn worm moths used throughout the film were given celebrity treatment by the filmmakers. They were flown first class to the set (in a special carrier), had special living quarters (rooms with controlled humidity and heat) and were dressed in carefully designed costumes (body shields bearing a painted skull and crossbones)

A large part of the shoot took place in Pittsburgh. The city was chosen for its variety of landscapes and architecture, which was necessary to portray various parts of the country. Some of the film's interior, including the Baltimore jail scene in the beginning and the ballroom scene of Lecter in his cage, were shot in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial located on Fifth Avenue in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.

The events in this film occur after the events in Manhunter. Although there are several characters common to both films, there are only two actors who appear in both movies.  Ironically, both actors play different characters in both movies. Frankie Faison plays Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney in Silence of the Lambs, and Dan Butler plays an FBI fingerprint expert in Manhunter and an entomologist in Silence of the Lambs.

The auto jack that Clarice uses to pry up the storage door is not the type of jack found in a Ford Pinto. The Ford Pinto uses a scissors type jack.

Like Casablanca, this movie contains a famous misquoted line: most people quote Lecter's famous, "Good evening, Clarice," as, "Hello Clarice."

Both Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) and Ted Levine (Jame Gumb) have played astronaut Alan Shepard: Glenn in the film The Right Stuff and Levine in the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon".

Anthony Hopkins described his voice for Hannibal Lecter as, "a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn."

After the shootout with Gumb, Starling has partially burned gunpowder buried in the skin on the side of her face, the result of a near-miss. One name for this type of injury is "coal miner's tattoo" – a clever reference to the character's background.

Scott Glenn's character of Jack Crawford was based on real-life detective John Douglas. Douglas spent time with Glenn to coach him.

The butterfly in the posters for the movie appears to have a human skull at its center. However, upon close inspection, this "skull" turns out to be at least three naked women (clearly seven in some versions of the poster) and is very similar to a 1951 photograph by Philippe Halsman, inspired by a 'Salvador Dali?' drawing and gouache painting. Upon even closer inspection, the moth's wings appear to have a re-colored image of William Blake's Great Red Dragon, which is creased and folded.

A 'Bon Appetit' magazine can be seen in Hannibal Lecter's temporary cell.

'Thomas Harris' , author of the novel "The Silence of the Lambs", has never watched the film because he is afraid it will influence his writing.

At least six directors have roles in this film: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Kasi Lemmons, Roger Corman, Dan Butler (who directed episodes of Frasier), and a cameo by George A. Romero.

Almost all the scenes in Hannibal's original cell have either a reflection of Hannibal or Clarice, depending on the camera's point of view.

The third EMS attendant treating "Sgt. Pembrie" is Jeff Busch, a paramedic in real life and owner of an emergency vehicle company in Pittsburgh that detailed all of the emergency vehicles for the film.

Cameo: Roger Corman – the veteran filmmaker and president of New World Pictures played the FBI Director.

Cameo: Jonathan Demme – wearing a blue cap at the end of the film.

Cameo: George A. Romero – the bearded man who accompanies Chilton and the two guards who forcibly remove Clarice Starling after her final meeting with Lecter.

Cameo: Edward Saxon – head in jar

Cameo: Kenneth Utt – the producer appears as the coroner.

In his first meeting with Clarice Starling, Lecter describes the drawing on his cell wall as "the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere" in Florence, Italy. Starling later finds Buffalo Bill living in Belvedere, Ohio. Lecter, in fact, gives her Buffalo Bill's location in their first meeting.

Michael Keaton, Mickey Rourke, and Kenneth Branagh were all considered for the role of Jack Crawford.

In Hannibal's last words to Clarice before Dr. Chilton has her removed, he stresses the word "simplicity". This was not just an urging to her to keep things simple, but was a reference to the dress pattern company Simplicity.

When Jonathan Demme filmed the scene where Lecter and Starling first meet, Anthony Hopkins said he should look directly at the camera as it panned into his line of sight. He felt Lecter should be portrayed as "knowing everything."

Brooke Smith gained 25 pounds for her role as Catherine Martin.

Brooke Smith (Catherine Martin) and Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) were actually very close on the set, making Jodie Foster refer to Brooke Smith as "Patty Hearst" (meaning a woman that is actually close with her kidnapper).

Anthony Hopkins invented the fast, slurping-type sound that Hannibal Lecter does. He did it spontaneously during filming on the set, and everyone thought it was great. Director Jonathan Demme became annoyed with it after a while, but denied his irritation.

The character of Hannibal Lector was inspired by serial killer Albert Fish.

The filmmakers had completely prepared to go to Montana to shoot a flashback sequence depicting Clarice's runaway attempt. But after filming the dialogue between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme realized it would be pointless to cut away from their performances and announced, "I guess we aren't going to Montana."

Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme and Scott Glenn – and a few other cast and crew members – did a great deal of research at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. They studied under criminal profiling agents, learned about firearms and agent training, and sat in on a number of classes.

The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim's throats was made from a combination of "Tootsie-Rolls" and gummy bears, so that if she swallowed it, it would be edible.

The film originally was going to be released in the fall of 1990. However, Orion pictures, which distributed the film, decided instead to delay its release until January 1991 so that it could concentrate all their efforts in promoting Dances with Wolves for Oscar consideration.

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.

With a little over 16 minutes of screen time, Anthony Hopkins's performance was the shortest ever to win a leading acting Oscar.

Note Lecter's mention of having consumed a victim's liver with, specifically, fava beans and chianti. Liver, fava beans, and wine all contain a substance called tyramine, which can kill you if you're talking a certain class of antidepressant drugs known as MAO inhibitors. MAO inhibitors were the first antidepressant drugs developed, and were used primarily on patients in mental institutions ... and Lecter both worked in, and was committed to, a mental institution.

When Ted Tally was writing the screenplay for the film, he suggested Jodie Foster for role of Clarice Starling. Foster had been lobbying hard for the part from the start but when Jonathan Demme was hired to direct the film, he felt she was wrong for the part and wanted Michelle Pfeiffer instead. Pfeiffer turned the part down because she felt the film was too violent. Demme then agreed to meet Foster and hired her after only one meeting because he said he could see her strength and determination for the part that he felt was perfect for the character of Clarice.

The song heard playing while "Buffalo Bill" does his little mirror dance is "Goodbye Horses" by Psyche.

Emma Thompson was the third choice to play Clarice Starling. After she turned the role down, it was offered to Jodie Foster.

The inspiration for the Silence of the Lambs was the real life relationship between University of Washington criminology professor and profiler Robert Keppel and real life serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy helped Keppel in his investigation of the Green River Serial Killings in Washington. While Bundy was executed 24 January 1989, the Green River Killings went unsolved until 2001 when Gary Ridgway was arrested. On 5 Novemer 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder in a King County, Washington (Seattle) courtroom.

Anthony Hopkins studied videotapes of serial killers as part of his research for the film. After noticing that Charles Manson hardly ever blinked when he spoke, he did the same for Hannibal Lecter. (He did, however, blink at least once during Lecter's conversation with Clarice in his "open-plan" cell.)

In preparation for their roles, homemade audio tapes that serial killers had recorded while torturing and killing captured victims were made available to both Jodie Foster and Scott Glenn. Foster declined to listen to the tapes, and Glenn regretted having done so because he couldn't forget what he had heard.

Despite being recently declared bankrupt, Orion still managed to stump up $200,000 for the film's Oscar campaign.

The first film to win the Best Picture Oscar that was widely available on home video at the time of the ceremony.

The movie's line "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." was voted as the #21 movie quote by the American Film Institute

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, which he began interviewing its patrons as Bill was also a crossdresser.

One of only three films (the others being It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) to win the top five Oscars – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Adapted).

Clarice Starling was chosen by the American Film Institution as the sixth greatest film hero, the highest ranked female on the list; Hannibal Lecter was chosen as the #1 greatest film villain.

The FBI was very impressed by the film's accuracy in depicting criminal investigations, serial killers and their victims. However, they protested against the fact that Clarice discovers Buffalo Bill on her own, since inexperienced agents are never sent out alone on dangerous assignments. When Jonathan Demme explained to them that he wouldn't change it because it would be the psychological climax of the movie, they agreed, saying that it would be the most improbable course of action of all time, never to be repeated again.

In an early version of Ted Tally's screenplay, Lecter's ingenious and horrific ruse to escape from captivity in the courthouse is given away by the head of SWAT team (when the top half of the body on the top of the elevator swings down), by recognizing the body. In the final edit we cut straight to the ambulance and Lecter's unmasking.

Error: Nearly all the vehicles used in the film have inspection stickers in their windshield indicating registration in Pittsburgh, PA, where none of the action in the film takes place.

Error: Clarice claims to have double-majored in criminology and psychology at the University of Virginia. Criminology has never been a major offered at UVa.

Continuity Error: Jack Crawford's collar pops in and out of his vest during a conversation with Clarice Starling.

Error: When Clarice goes into the first girl's room, her father says that the room has been left the way it was when she died. But, there's a Deborah Harry "Def, Dumb and Blonde" poster on the wall; that album was released in 1989, 3 years(?) after the girl died.

Error: A forensics expert's opinion of the autopsy scene: over 8 errors were made. Among them: the body was fingerprinted without collecting evidence under the victims fingernails, and the ink would have destroyed the evidence. You cannot get fingerprints off a body if it is in that condition.

Error: The killer looks right into the headlights of Catherine Martin's car with his night-vision goggles on when she drives into the parking area and is not blinded. In fact, goggles at the timeframe of this movie might have been permanently damaged. Newer goggles do have automatic protection mechanisms.

Continuity Error: As Hannibal escapes, he kicks the cell door onto the guard, causing the door to be in between Hannibal and the guard. Yet in the very next shot, the guard is right in front of Hannibal so he can bite him.

Continuity Error: When the cop holding the flowers is at the front door of the house in Illinois, shadows change direction on the doorframe between shots.

Error: The red herring house is supposed to be in Calumet City, Illinois, and in the background, mountains can be seen. There are no mountains in the vicinity of the actual Calumet City.

Error: At the end of the film when Hannibal is telling Clarice about having "an old friend for dinner" a camera crew can is reflected in Hannibal's sunglasses.

Error: When Clarice is talking to Buffalo Bill in his back room, a moth is filmed landing on a cotton reel. After the moth has settled, a thread is visible attached to it. Presumably the shot was filmed in reverse, and the moth 'yanked' off the reel.

Error: When Clarice is researching Lecter in Quantico by reading old newspaper articles on microfilm, the same text regarding developments at some vague governmental conference appears over and over again surrounding the Lecter articles in all four separate newspapers she views.

Error: Sgt Tate tells an officer to call in the SWAT team. Memphis has no SWAT team, it has a related unit called the TACT team.

Error: The plane carrying agents to Calumet City banks over mountainous terrain, resembling nothing in the vicinity of northern Indiana

Error: Jack Crawford says that Clarice graduated "magna" (magna cum laude) from UVA, but this is impossible because UVA does not award such a distinction to psychology majors

Continuity Error: When the FBI team is preparing to deliver the flowers, the ribbon is on both the upper and lower sections of the box. In the next shot, the ribbon appears only on the upper section of the box.

Continuity Error: When Hannibal is imprisoned in Memphis, the sign outside of the Shelby county courthouse is shown in dim light to be a museum.

The ending scene continues throughout the entire credits.

This film has been released on DVD at least 3 times. The first two times were released by Orion Home Vidoe, and by the Criterion Collection. Both of these are based on earlier releases made for VHS or laserdisc and, as such, have a full-screen (4:3) picture signal, even in the wide-screen release. This means that the image, whether wide-screen or full-screen, was made to fit into a 4:3 image. The MGM DVD, for the first time, gave the picture an anamorphic (16:9) transfer.

The scene where Miggs throws sperm at Clarice is shown from the different angle in the TV network version, so the audience can't really see what Miggs is throwing.

For the TV network version, Miggs says to Clarice 'I can smell your scent' instead of 'I can smell your c*nt'. Lecter's reply "I myself cannot" is omitted.

Criterion's Special Edition on DVD features outtake footage not included in the theatrical version, including:

A longer version of the scene where Clarice discovers Raspail's head inside Your-Self Storage;

A longer version of the scene where Lector explains to Clarice how to identify Buffalo Bill from his rejected applications for sex change surgery. The dialogue is longer and is taken almost verbatim from Thomas Harris' novel, and plays over a scene where the camera moves inside Buffalo Bill's cellar, stopping at the edge of the pit where Senator Martin's daughter is held. This is the same scene that appears in the theatrical version, right after Starling's visit to the enthomologists Roden and Pilcher, with no voiceover but with music and sound effects and Katherine Martin's screams coming from the pit;

A brief new scene where Starling is given a gun from instructor Brigham right before her departure for West Virginia;

An alternate version of the car scene where Starling and Crawford are talking after the Elk River victim's autopsy. In the theatrical version, Crawford apologizes to Starling for humiliating her in front of the state troopers; the alternate take has Starling revealing that a bug cocoon was found in Benjamin Raspail's throat. In the theatrical version this information is not revealed until later, when Starling mentions it during one of her encounters with Lector;

A longer version of the telephone conversation between FBI Director Burke, Paul Krendler and Crawford after the phony offer to Lekter has been discovered; Crawford tries to convince Krendler not to accept Lector's help;

A new scene showing a meeting with Starling, Crawford, Paul Krendler and and FBI Director Burke; Krendler blames Starling and Crawford for Lector's escape and Burke suspends them both from the case;

The DVD also features the complete video monologue from performance artist Jim Roche as the TV Evangelist; in the theatrical version Roche appears on a TV put in front of Lector's cell, as punishment for Miggs' death.

This film was originally released by the now-defunct Orion Pictures Corporation. After Orion went bankrupt, all their films, as well as many sequel rights, were acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which produced the sequel, Hannibal, and prequel, Red Dragon. When The Silence of the Lambs was re-issued on video in 1999, and on DVD in 2001, it was released by MGM home video. As a result, their corporate logo now precedes the Orion Pictures logo.