This psychological crime film adapted from Thomas Harris' novel of the same name "The Silence of the Lambs" is full of elements - Freud and Jung's psychoanalysis, Hitchcock-style suspense, symbolic scene layout, The thinking of human nature, the skillful use of the Bible... No matter from which point of view, it seems to be able to talk about it, but to the author's surprise and confusion, there are many online interpretations of characters from psychoanalysis or interpretation of plots from the perspective of sociological human nature. There are not many film critics who analyze the characters and plots of the film from the perspective of women.
Isn't it worth noting that the heroine, Sterling, stands out from a group of male agents like a rose? Isn't the murder of brutal women in the movie worth thinking about? Is it all due to Dr. Hannibal that Sterling successfully rescued the victim? The author tries to interpret Sterling's dangerous road to solve the case and the setting of "female murder" from a female perspective, and dig out the forgotten or neglected details of this classic movie.
women's workplace
Taking a closer look at Sterling's relationship with her boss Crawford, her dialogue with Dr. Hannibal, and her communication with other colleagues, it is not difficult to find that she has always been in a relatively passive and humble position, alluding to the living conditions of women in the workplace in American society—— has been subjected to unreasonable injustice.
Sterling was selected by her boss and was appointed to follow Dr. Chilton to prison to persuade Hannibal, who was unwilling to cooperate, to provide information to the FBI. Sterling was molested the first time she saw Dr. Chilton: "A lot of agents have been here but I've never seen someone as beautiful as you, are you going to spend the night here tonight?" "Find someone like you. Beautiful girl to seduce Hannibal, Crawford is so smart." Sterling was also teased by the personable Hannibal: "Crawford is trying to promote you, he likes you, and you like him. You Have you ever thought that he has sexual fantasies about you?" In other words, Chilton and Hannibal both believed that the reason why Crawford would assign Sterling was just because of her beauty, and had nothing to do with her personal ability and personality. But in fact, Sterling is outstanding, not only a graduate of the University of Virginia with double honors in psychology and criminology, but also a top student at the FBI, and then in the "Buffalo Bill" case. , calm and wise, cut the wire and peeled the cocoon, approached the criminal step by step, and finally successfully rescued the victim. It is obviously very unfair to think that she won the "appreciation" of her boss by her beauty.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many outstanding women like Sterling were eager to try in the fields of American politics, economics, literature, art, education, etc., but their career paths were bumpy in the still male-dominated American society. Inequality, fertility discrimination, sexual harassment and other issues have prevented many women who are indeed better than men from gaining recognition. In the same period, the feminist movement set off a third wave, and one of the important reasons was that Clarence Thomas, the then-justice nominee, was accused of "sexual harassment" by former female assistant Anita Hill, but the case was finally closed...
There is such a scene in the movie - Sterling is investigating at a victim's home, surrounded by a group of male police officers, as if asked: "What are you doing here as a woman", Sterling accepts their innocence slightly embarrassed. Irony, helpless. The absence of women in key positions in the workplace has become a law: strength and agility are the patent of men, how can women be competent for jobs like secret agents and police officers? I can't help but think of Mrs Thatcher's pale blue heels submerged in black leather shoes in the British film "The Iron Lady" starring Meryl Streep; and Facebook COO Sheryl Sander Berg described the embarrassment of being the only woman in the senior leadership in "One Step Forward"...
violence against women
The setting of the "female victim group" in the movie is not groundless, but a true portrayal of the widespread violence against women in American society. In 2014, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States showed that 19% of women in the country admitted to having been raped, and 44% of women said they had experienced violence; data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the number of domestic violence in the United States is about 96% per year. 10,000 cases, of which 85% are female victims, an average of 3 women are killed by their partners every day, 4 women die of abuse, and about 2.1 million American women are attacked by men every year; The United States is one of the few countries that has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women... In the film, "Buffalo Bill" continues to brutally kill women and abandon their bodies in the wilderness in order to make a human skin garment. - Trapped them in a low hole like raising lambs, starved them for three days and three nights, killed them, skinned them and discarded their bodies. Although, in the final analysis, "Buffalo Bill" is an unfortunate mental patient, whose twisted childhood has made him the perverted killer he is today, trying to break the cocoon into a butterfly in a completely wrong and childish way, but he inhumanly mutilates women. is an indisputable fact.
When Hannibal asked Sterling, "This guy you're looking for, what did he do?" Sterling, who had just finished examining the victim's body, blurted out in pain: "He killed women," and Hannibal just said calmly. : "No, this is secondary..." Probably only women can feel unwilling for these victims from the bottom of their hearts, and probably only women can feel the suffering of these victims; Sterling is like God sent to the world Shepherdess, spare no effort to save a group of silent lambs to be slaughtered.
This work that won five Oscar awards that year is undoubtedly the leader of similar films. The application of psychoanalytic theory, gripping suspense, thriller with appropriate benefits, and ingenious and delicate lens design make the film well restore the essence of the original. Let the viewers enjoy the audition and also absorb its heavy connotation. Out of concern for female topics, the author was particularly attracted by the strength, self-esteem, bravery, keenness and wisdom of the female protagonist, Sterling, in the male-dominated workplace, and was also angry and saddened by the female victims in the film. All kinds of unkindness towards women in a male-dominated world does not mean that we are willing to be silent lambs, and our voice is only to be respected and treated fairly.
ps: I wrote such a serious essay for my homework... No doubt, I am a complete pseudo-feminist...
Written on Saturday 160618
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