It's a grisly story, the stuff of nightmares. But, the talent in front and behind the camera is stunning and at the top of their respective games. Yes, Silence...won Best Picture, but also, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, and Best Writing for a Screenplay Based on Previously Published Material.
A portion of Ted Tally's Oscar-winning screenplay is below, but you'll notice it's different from what is presented on-screen. Tally chose to illustrate Starling's flashback story with sequences that showed what she was talking about. Director Jonathan Demme chose, instead, to just shows his actors...in startling, invasive, and immersive close-ups (on a full theater-screen, the effect is chilling), probably because he knew the talent that he had to utilize, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. He probably thought that he couldn't improve on the power of the sequence by cutting away in distraction.
The sequence is book-ended by agitated activity—pacing and struggle revolving around the calm, demented center of Lecter, but once the tale of Foster's childhood starts rolling, everything stills...except for a slow, steely-push-in with the cameras to frame the faces of the two people locked in the telling of the tale...they're facing each other, but like so much of The Silence of the Lambs, they're also staring at us, the audience, making us part of the conversation— witnesses, accomplices, by-standers—as we learn just what the title of the movie means, and why it is a desire that might never be realized or satisfied. The movie leaves us with no peace. No silence.
Yes, the goal of the movie—what attracted Foster to the movie is the concept of a victimized woman being saved by another woman—may be accomplished, but it brings no peace. No solace. Because wolves have been released. And the screaming will continue.
BOYLE: Go ahead.
MOVING ANGLE - WITH CLARICE
as she crosses the big, spare, white octagonal room. 
A
massive, temporary iron cage has been installed; Officer
Boyle sits facing its barred door. 
He rises, nods, moving
away to allow her privacy.
INSIDE THE CAGE:
a cot and a small table, each bolted to the floor, and a
flimsy paper screen, hiding a toilet. 
Dr. Lecter sits at the
table, his back to her, studying the Buffalo Bill case file.
He now wears a green prison jumpsuit. 
A small cassette player
is chained to the steel table.
DR. LECTER
(without turning): Good afternoon, Clarice.
She stops at a striped police barricade, before his bars.
CLARICE:
I thought you might want your drawings
back... 
CLARICE: Just until you get your view.
DR. LECTER: How very thoughtful... 
DR. LECTER: Or did Crawford
send you here for one last wheedle -
Dr. LECTER ...before you're both booted off the
case?
CLARICE:
Nobody sent me. I came on my own. No, I came because I wanted to.
He spins in his swivel chair, stops neatly. A coy smile.
DR. LECTER
People will say we're in love. 
(beat)
DR. LECTER: "Anthrax Island." That was an especially nice touch, Clarice. 
DR. LECTER Yours?
CLARICE: Yes.
DR. LECTER Yeah...
Dr. LECTER That was good. Pity you tried to fool me, isn't it?
Pity for poor Catherine. Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock...
He spins again in his chair, playfully.
MOVING ANGLE - FAVORING CLARICE as she circles the cage, trying to keep his face in sight.
CLARICE: Louis Friend? Iron-sulfide. Better known as "fool's gold?" 
DR. LECTER: Oh, Clarice, you're problem is you need to get more fun out of life.
CLARICE:
Dr. Lecter, you find out everything.
You couldn't have talked with this
"William Rubin", even once, and come
out knowing so little about him...
You made him up, didn't you?
DR. LECTER Clarice... you're hardly in a position to accuse me of lying.
CLARICE:
I think you were telling me the truth
in Baltimore, sir - or starting to. Tell
me the rest now. Please continue now.
DR. LECTER: I've studied read the case file, have
you...? 
DR. LECTER: Everything you need to find
him is right in these pages. Whatever
his name is.
CLARICE:
Then tell me how.
DR. LECTER: First principles, Clarice.
DR. LECTER: Simplicity.
Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each
particular thing, ask: What is it,
in itself, what is its nature...?
What does he do, this man you seek?
CLARICE:
He kills w-
DR. LECTER
(sharply, as he stops): No! 
DR. LECTER: That's incidental.
CLOSE ANGLE - TWO SHOT as he rises, pained by her ignorance, and crosses to the bars.
DR. LECTER: What is the first and principal thing
he does, 
DR. LECTER: ...what need does he serve by
killing?
CLARICE:
Anger, social resentment, sexual
frus-
DR. LECTER: No!
DR. LECTER: He covets. 
DR. LECTER: That's his nature.
DR. LECTER: And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? 
DR. LECTER: Do we seek out things to covet? Make
an effort to answer now.
CLARICE: No. We just -
DR. LECTER: No. Precisely. We begin by coveting
what we see every day. Don't you
feel eyes moving over your body,
Clarice? I hardly see how you
couldn't. 
DR. LECTER: And don't your eyes move
over the things you want?
CLARICE:
All right, yes. Then tell me how -
DR. LECTER: No. It's your turn to tell me,
Clarice. You don't have any more
vacations to sell, on Anthrax Island. 
DR. LECTER: Why did you run away from that ranch?
CLARICE:
Dr. Lecter, when there's time I'll - Doctor, we don't have any time for this now...
DR. LECTER: But, we don't reckon time the same way, do we, 
DR. LECTER: ...Clarice? This is all the time you'll
ever have.
CLARICE:
Later, listen, now please listen to me, we only five...I'll
DR. LECTER: No! I will listen...now. 
DR. LECTER: After your father's
murder, 
DR. LECTER: ...you were orphaned. You were
ten years old. You went to live with
cousins, on a sheep and horse ranch
in Montana. And - ?
CLARICE:
And - one morning I just - ran away...
She turns from him. He presses closer, gripping the bars.
DR. LECTER: Not "just," Clarice. What set you
off? You started what time?
CLARICE:
Early. Still dark.
DR. LECTER: Then something woke you, didn't it? What? Did
you Was it a dream...? What was it?
IN FLASHBACK: The 10-year old Clarice sits up abruptly in her bed, frightened. She is in a Montana ranch house; it almost dawn. Strange, fearful shadows on her ceiling and walls... a window, partly fogged by the cold; eerie brightness outside.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I heard a strange noise sound...
DR. LECTER (V.O.)
What was it?
THE CHILD RISES: crosses to the window in her nightgown, rubs the glass.
CLARICE (V.O.)I didn't know. I went to look...
HIGH ANGLES (2ND STORY) - THE CHILD'S POV Shadowy men, ranch hands, are moving in and out of a nearby barn, carrying mysterious bundles. The mens' breath is steaming... A refrigerated truck idles nearby, its engine adding more steam. A strange, almost surrealistic scene...
CLARICE (V.O.)
Screaming! Some kind of - It was...screaming. Some kind of screaming. Like a child's voice...
THE LITTLE GIRL: is terrified; she covers her ears.
DR. LECTER (V.O.)
What did you do?
CLARICE (V.O.)
Got dressed without turning on the
light. I went downstairs... outside...
THE LITTLE GIRL: in her winter coat, slips noiselessly towards the open barn door. She ducks into the shadows to avoid a ranch hand, who passes her with a squirming bundle of some kind. He goes into the barn, and she edges after him reluctantly.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I crept up to the barn... I was so
scared to look inside - but I had
to...
THE LITTLE GIRL'S POV as the open doorway LOOMS CLOSER... Bright lights inside, straw bales, the edges of stalls, then moving figures...
DR. LECTER (V.O.)
And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?
A SQUIRMING LAMB is held down on a table by two ranch hands.
CLARICE (V.O.)
Lambs. 
CLARICE: The lambs were screaming... 
DR. LECTER: They were slaughtering the spring
lambs?
CLARICE:
Yes...! And they were screaming.
DR. LECTER:So And you ran away...
CLARICE:
No. First I tried to free them... I
opened the gate of their pen - but
they wouldn't run. They just stood
there, confused. They wouldn't run...
DR. LECTER: But you could. And you did, didn't you?. 
DR. LECTER (V.O.)
Where were you going, Clarice? 
CLARICE: I thought - if I
can even save just one... but he got was so heavy. 
CLARICE: So heavy...
The tiny figure stops, and after a few moments sinks to the ground, hunched over in dispair.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I didn't get more than a few miles
before the sheriff's car picked me up found me. 
CLARICE: The rancher was so angry he sent me
to live at the Lutheran orphanage in
Bozeman. I never saw the ranch
again...
DR. LECTER (V.O.)
But what became of your lamb?
(no response)
Clarice...? 
CLARICE: They killed him.
BACK TO SCENE: as the adult Clarice turns, staring into his feverish eyes. She shakes her head, unwilling - or unable - to say more.
DR. LECTER: You still wake up sometimes, don't
you? 
DR. LECTER: Wake up in the dark, and hear the screaming of the lambs. with the
lambs screaming?
CLARICE:
Yes...
DR. LECTER: Do And you think if you saved poor Catherine,
you could make them stop, don't you...? Do you
think, if Catherine lives, you won't
wake up in the dark, ever again, to
the awful screaming of the lambs? Do you...?
CLARICE:
Yes! I don't know...! 
CLARICE: I don't know.
DR. LECTER
(a pause; then, oddly
at peace)
Thank you, Clarice. Thank you.. 
CLARICE:
(a whisper)
Tell me his name, Dr. Lecter.
DR. LECTER: Dr. Chilton, I presume... 
DR. LECTER: I believe you know
each other?
NEW ANGLE: as Clarice turns, startled, and the fuming Chilton seizes her elbow. Pembry and Boyle are beside him, looking grim.
CHILTON:
Out. Okayyy. 
CLARICE: It's your turn, Doctor...
CHILTON: Out.
CLARICE: Tell me his name.
PEMBRY: Sorry, ma'a m - we've got orders to have you put on a plane. Clarice struggles, pulling free of them for a moment.
DR. LECTER: Will you will let me know
if ever the lambs stop screaming, won't you?
CLARICE: Tell me his name, doctor!
CLARICE:
(moving closer to the
bars)
Yes. I'll tell you.
DR. LECTER:
Promise...?
(she nods. He smiles) Clarice!
DR. LECTER: Then why not take your case file? I
won't be needing it anymore.
He holds out the file, arm extended between the bars. 
She
hesitates, then reaches to take it.
VERY CLOSE ANGLE - SLOW MOTION
as the exchange is made, his index finger touches her hand,
and lingers there, just for a moment.
DR. LECTER'S EYES widen, crackling at this touch, like sparks in a cave.
DR. LECTER: Good-bye, Clarice.
CLARICE:
hugging the case file to her chest, stares back at him as
the men crowd in on her, pushing her away. 
HER POV - MOVING
as Dr. Lecter, head cocked in a smile, slowly recedes...
The Silence of the Lambs
Words by Ted Tally
Pictures by Tak Fujimoto and Jonathan Demme
The Silence of the Lambs is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Video and the Criterion Collection.
The Set-Up: FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) has been set up to fail by her male masters at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Tracking a serial killer they've dubbed "Buffalo Bill"—for his practice of skinning his victims—she has been pushed into using a highly unusual resource—the imprisoned killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychologist known for eating his victims. The trail has turned cold, but "Bill" has struck again, this time the missing woman is the daughter of a member of the U.S. Senate. Lecter begins playing the FBI against the head of his prison Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) for information about the missing girl. What he wants from Chilton is a transfer; what he wants from Starling is personal information. Starling makes one last visit to Lecter (without Chilton's knowledge) to try to find out what Lecter knows. Time is running out...tick-tock.
Action.
Action.
Excisions from the script have been marked with a "strikethrough" and replaced with what was filmed.
INT. HISTORICAL SOCIETY ROOM - 5TH FLOOR
Pembry, at a desk by the door, looks up from examining the unrolled pile of Dr. Lecter's drawings.
PEMBRY
CLARICE:
Yes, Lieutenant Boyle Officer Pembry. I've questioned
him before.
He waves her on her way, but retains the drawings for now.
INT. HISTORICAL SOCIETY ROOM - 5TH FLOOR
Pembry, at a desk by the door, looks up from examining the unrolled pile of Dr. Lecter's drawings.
She stops at a striped police barricade, before his bars.
He spins again in his chair, playfully.
MOVING ANGLE - FAVORING CLARICE as she circles the cage, trying to keep his face in sight.
CLARICE: Your anagrams are showing, doctor.
DR. LECTER Clarice... you're hardly in a position to accuse me of lying.
DR. LECTER: First principles, Clarice.
CLOSE ANGLE - TWO SHOT as he rises, pained by her ignorance, and crosses to the bars.
DR. LECTER: No!
CLARICE: No. We just -
She turns from him. He presses closer, gripping the bars.
IN FLASHBACK: The 10-year old Clarice sits up abruptly in her bed, frightened. She is in a Montana ranch house; it almost dawn. Strange, fearful shadows on her ceiling and walls... a window, partly fogged by the cold; eerie brightness outside.
THE CHILD RISES: crosses to the window in her nightgown, rubs the glass.
CLARICE (V.O.)
HIGH ANGLES (2ND STORY) - THE CHILD'S POV Shadowy men, ranch hands, are moving in and out of a nearby barn, carrying mysterious bundles. The mens' breath is steaming... A refrigerated truck idles nearby, its engine adding more steam. A strange, almost surrealistic scene...
THE LITTLE GIRL: is terrified; she covers her ears.
THE LITTLE GIRL: in her winter coat, slips noiselessly towards the open barn door. She ducks into the shadows to avoid a ranch hand, who passes her with a squirming bundle of some kind. He goes into the barn, and she edges after him reluctantly.
THE LITTLE GIRL'S POV as the open doorway LOOMS CLOSER... Bright lights inside, straw bales, the edges of stalls, then moving figures...
A SQUIRMING LAMB is held down on a table by two ranch hands.
A third cowboy stretches out the lamb's neck, raises a bloody
knife. Just as he's about to slice its throat -
BACK TO THE ADULT CLARICE staring into the distance, shaken, still trembling from the child's shock. We see Dr. Lecter, over her shoulder, studying her intently.
BACK TO THE ADULT CLARICE staring into the distance, shaken, still trembling from the child's shock. We see Dr. Lecter, over her shoulder, studying her intently.
DR. LECTER:
CLARICE: Yes. I took one lamb. And I ran away, as
fast as I could...
IN FLASHBACK: a vast Montana plain, and crossing this, a tiny figure - the little Clarice, holding a lamb in her arms.
IN FLASHBACK: a vast Montana plain, and crossing this, a tiny figure - the little Clarice, holding a lamb in her arms.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I don't know. I had no food or water.
It was very cold. Very cold.
The tiny figure stops, and after a few moments sinks to the ground, hunched over in dispair.
BACK TO SCENE: as the adult Clarice turns, staring into his feverish eyes. She shakes her head, unwilling - or unable - to say more.
NEW ANGLE: as Clarice turns, startled, and the fuming Chilton seizes her elbow. Pembry and Boyle are beside him, looking grim.
PEMBRY: We found her.
CHILTON: Let's go.
PEMBRY: Sorry, ma'a m - we've got orders to have you put on a plane. Clarice struggles, pulling free of them for a moment.
PEMBY: C'mon now...
DR. LECTER: Brave Clarice.
DR. LECTER'S EYES widen, crackling at this touch, like sparks in a cave.
The Silence of the Lambs
Words by Ted Tally
Pictures by Tak Fujimoto and Jonathan Demme
The Silence of the Lambs is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Video and the Criterion Collection.
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