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good morning dr lecter my name is
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clarice starling
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can i speak with you you're one of jack
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crawford's aren't you
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i am yes closer please
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closer
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i'm here to learn from you maybe you can
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decide for yourself whether or not i'm
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qualified enough to do that
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that is rather slippery of you agents
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darling
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jack crawford must be very busy indeed
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if he is recruiting help from the
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student body
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busy hunting that new one buffalo bill
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what a naughty boy he is
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while it holds a reputation as one of
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the best thriller slash horror films
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ever made
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the silence of the lambs lacks any
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significant jump scares has only a
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smattering of violent scenes
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and if anything plays out more like a
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police procedural than any major horror
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film prior to it or
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since but once it finishes all viewers
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feel the horror of its narratives sink
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in
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as we're left knowing that the world's
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most infamous psychologist dr hannibal
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lecter has got out scot-free
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it's hard not to feel a chill but the
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horror goes even deeper than that
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through its nonchalant ending with the
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unbelievably intelligent and somewhat
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respected dr lecter
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casually walking off to commit a brutal
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murder we're reminded that such people
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exist in the real world and they simply
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blend in
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if you didn't kill him then who danced
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her who can say
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best thing for him really his therapy
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was going nowhere
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hey guys what's happening niat here with
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film comics explained
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and it's voted for by everyone in last
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week's poll today we're going to be
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exploring
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the silence of the lambs i remember you
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from my
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seminar at uva yeah you grilled me
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pretty hard as i recall on the bureau's
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civil rights record in the hoover years
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i gave you an a a minus sir our eyes
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into the grim world the film portrays is
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chloe stalin
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a hugely talented and promising fbi
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trainee starling has one goal in mind to
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get her fbi badge and become a fully
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fledged agent
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but beneath the simple premise starling
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struggles with a number of tensions
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her past is dark and jaded consisting of
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lost parents
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and her living with distant relatives on
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a farm before running away in fear after
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stumbling across the spring lambs being
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culled
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you still wake up sometimes don't you
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wake up in the dark
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and hear the screaming of the lamb
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do you think if you saved poor catherine
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you could make them stop don't you
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i don't know her present is not much
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brighter with every man in the film
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ogling her
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suggesting a detour straight up putting
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her down for being a woman
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and what the film portrays as an
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overwhelmingly male male-dominated world
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of federal investigation
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when i told that sheriff we shouldn't
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talk in front of a woman that really
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burned you didn't
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it was just smoke starling i had to get
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rid of him it matters mr crawford cops
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look at you to see how to act
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point taken fortunately her temperament
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sees her deflect
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ignore and even manipulate all these
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male gazers to her benefit
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oh he's a monster pure psychopath so
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rare to capture one alive
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from a research point of view lecter is
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our most prized
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asset dr hannibal lecter is in many ways
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the heart of the silence of the lambs
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a census taker once tried to test me
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i ate his liver with some fava beans
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and a nice chianti
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the film holds the quintessential
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lecture portrayed by anthony hopkins
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a classy proper and unbelievably
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intelligent individual with psychopathic
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tendencies would see him kill
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and cannibalize countless victims before
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finding himself locked in a high
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security psychological institution
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we've tried to study him of course but
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he's much too sophisticated for the
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standard tests
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our final key player is james gum better
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known as buffalo bill
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an elusive abductor killer and mutilator
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of women
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it rubs the lotion on its skin or else
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it gets the hose again
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the narrative describes bill as a person
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who believes he needs gender
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reassignment surgery but has been
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rejected due to his psychological
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instability
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like starling his background is dark
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filled with trauma
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which coupled with his identity crisis
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have driven him to violence and cruelty
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a fact testified by lecter
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[Music]
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we begin with agent styling training
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hard seemingly harder than all her peers
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while the fbi is trying to identify and
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track down buffalo bill
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starling is tasked with interviewing
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hannibal lecter and is told to pay
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attention to everything he says
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alongside noting and remember this for
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later his many drawings in his cell all
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that detail just from memory sir
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memory agent styling is what i have
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instead of a view
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she's also instructed to under no
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circumstances give lecter any personal
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information that he could use to worm
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his way into her brain
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believe me you don't want hannibal
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lecter inside your head but lecture is
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too much
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he gets under his skin and breaks her
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along with lecture's neighbor mix who
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chucks seaman at starling as she's about
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to leave
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an act which causes lecter to
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psychologically break mix
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resulting in his death although skimmed
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over this point
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is important as it underpins the liking
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elector has for styling
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but whether this liking is genuine or
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purely for leverage
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that's for you to decide people will say
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we're in love
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interviewed lead styling to a
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self-storage facility that contains
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lectures old belongings
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including a preserved severed head of an
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old patient who lecture later says was
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killed by buffalo bill
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most serial killers keep some sort of
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trophies from their victims
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i didn't no no you ate yours
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returning for another interview lecter
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agrees to help stalin capture bill
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but only in exchange for personal
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information after this quid pro quo deal
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starling finds herself equipped with a
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bunch of information that proves useful
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there's no correlation in the literature
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between transsexualism and violence
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transsexuals are very passive
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billy is not a real transsexual billy
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hates his own identity is he meanwhile
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bill has taken another victim
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the daughter of a senator the fbi
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quickly authorized a somewhat sketchy
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meeting between
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lecter and the senator where lecter
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provides more information about the
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supposed killer
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but clarice is quick to notice the name
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is fake and is an anagram for iron
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sulfite also known as fool's gold while
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held on the other side of the country
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lecter manages to lure in the offices
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guarding him killing them both and
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skinning one office's face to wear it
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over his own
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allowing him to be ferried out of the
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building by the police themselves
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and once he's in the ambulance he kills
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the paramedics and finds his freedom
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meanwhile following a lead about moths
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that were found in the mouths of victims
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the fbi amounted full-scale assault on a
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suburban house of chicago that received
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a shipment to the same rare moths used
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in the murders
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only to find it completely empty at the
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same time
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starling going door-to-door to find
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answers and doing old-fashioned
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detective work
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winds up at bill's exact front door in
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belvedere ohio
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she goes in and after piecing the clues
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together confronts and kills the
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troubled buffalo bill
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clarice is then rewarded with her fbi
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badge and a phone call from lecter
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exclaiming that he means her no harm
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and that is having an old friend for
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dinner that old friend of course being
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dr chilton
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the psychologist who kept him locked up
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for years and subjected him to
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questionable torment
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while the narrative flows seamlessly
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there's still a few questions left
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ambiguous
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namely how does lecter know quite so
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much while this is explained in the film
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through lecter's knowledge of bill's
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friend who was found head severed in the
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storage facility
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it's clear that the story goes deeper
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hester muffett
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it's an anagram isn't it doctor esther
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moffatt the rest of me
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miss the rest of me meaning that you
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rented that garage
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the first time clarice meets lecter she
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asks him about his drawings
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in that conversation lecter explains one
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is the duomo scene from the belvedere
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belvedere being the exact name of the
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town where starling would eventually
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find bill
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this led to a recent fan theory
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suggesting that maybe lecturer turned
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villain to a killer in order to have
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leverage over the police forces which
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had him detained
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this could have come about if bill was a
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patient of lectures something which is
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plausible due to buffalo bill's dark
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childhood
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as his doctor lecter could have easily
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manipulated bill's ticks in order to
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increase his murderous tenancies
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instead of trying to solve them
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something we know hannibal the cannibal
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loves to do
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this would mean that in effect lector
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had created his own get out of jail free
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card
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and well with his cold cunning demeanor
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this isn't quite so far fetched
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while the silence of the lambs is known
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for many things it's undoubtedly best
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known for hannibal lecter
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most films are known for their
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protagonists their narrative arcs their
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redemptions
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and triumphs but here we find the film
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best known for a malicious
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manipulative mandible many scholars have
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written about this
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boiling the idea down to the fact that
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despite lecture being a societal outcast
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filled with
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malice and beastly tendencies he's hard
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to write off as an unredeemable beast
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he's an incredibly intelligent
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perceptive and capable person who
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commits his murders with careful
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forethoughts and
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ingenuity more subtly he's well kept
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educated
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proper and on occasion extremely
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respectful
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he won't come after me oh really he
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won't
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i can't explain it he he would consider
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that
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rude he's not the typical of the hand or
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murderous maniac who lives in squalor
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like
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migs who we see in the neighboring cell
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and in fact he even helps the fbi catch
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a killer
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even if he may have created him meaning
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he doesn't quite fit the mold of a
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typical antagonist
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while this topic also surfaced in my
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recent video on american psycho
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which i'll be leaving a link to below
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hannibal also fits a different mould
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on reviewing the film certain
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psychologists have noted that hannibal's
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personality suggests
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antisocial personality disorder also
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known as aspd
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aspd is characterized by fearlessness
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remorselessness
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callousness brutality and viciousness
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things that we most certainly find in
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lecture
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interestingly aspd is thought to be one
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of the most common mental disorders
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shared among serial killers
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but given hannibal's ability to shelter
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some of these tendencies behind his
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organized cell
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his seemingly good conscience pure
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intellect and reasonable tempo
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we still find it hard to disregard him
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as a pure antagonist
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of course this is not to say that we
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empathize with hannibal but given the
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cultural fascination with hannibal since
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the 90s
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it's fair to say that we're pretty
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obsessed with him on the other hand we
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have buffalo bill
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who we immediately disregard as a
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psychopathic killer who is far
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far beyond redemption interestingly we
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never feel the same ambivalence towards
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bill
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as we do for lecter even when lecter
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directly explains that bill's tenancies
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are a direct result of years of abuse
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in other words we're told that we
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shouldn't blame bill but that we should
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blame the culture and people who failed
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to nurture him
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but we don't and we all feel a fair bit
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of satisfaction when we see his corpse
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writhing on the floor once he's filled
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with lead
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what happened to your drawings
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punishment you see
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for migs just like that gospel program
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when you leave they'll turn the volume
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way up our protagonist as already
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mentioned is an ambitious career-driven
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woman
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carving out her path in a hegemonically
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masculine line of work
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starling's presentation goes further
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than first and second wave forms of
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feminism
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she's not presented in contrast to the
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men on screen as overtly being the only
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woman proving that she can be a man
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instead she retains all of her
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personality as an individual
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while more than proving that she is
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worthy of being part of the fbi
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nowhere is the sentiment more present
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than in a single shot near the film's
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opening where she steps into an elevator
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stuffed with male recruits and she
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doesn't paid any mind
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despite being talked down to hit on at
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every turn stared out repeatedly and
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even having semen launched at her face
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by mix
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starling manages to keep her composure
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in other words
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darling can not only make it on her own
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but she can be the best of the best
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single-handedly besting buffalo bill and
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outsmarting her superiors at the fbi
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there's no one here jack
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clarice through the film's explorations
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of psychology
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psychopathy sexuality and justice by the
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time the credits roll
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the darkness to film presents is likely
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to have nestled itself deep down into
00:12:01
your psyche
00:12:01
just like the way that lecter weasels
00:12:03
his way into people's minds
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the lack of onscreen scares and explicit
00:12:07
violence may be exactly part of the
00:12:09
reason for this
00:12:10
it's a widespread theory that horror
00:12:11
films bring viewers a great sense of
00:12:13
catharsis by providing a safe place to
00:12:15
fill fear and see deplorable acts
00:12:17
but here there is no real catharsis
00:12:19
whatsoever we're never outrightly scared
00:12:22
in fact we always know what is about to
00:12:24
happen before bill reveals his skin suit
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we've been told about it
00:12:27
before lecter kills the guards in his
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cells we see and prepare for it
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before clarice confronts bill we know
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exactly what it looks like
00:12:34
not only do we never have the chance to
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feel truly scared we also don't feel a
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chance for resolution
00:12:40
we don't see the woman bill kidnap
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return home safely we barely see bill
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being shot due to the darkness
00:12:45
and we end not knowing the world is safe
00:12:47
but that hannibal lecter
00:12:48
perhaps the most evil cunning and
00:12:50
dangerous of them all has slipped into
00:12:52
anonymity
00:12:53
about to commit another murder thus
00:12:55
while probing the silence of the lambs
00:12:57
for themes of antagonists
00:12:58
sexuality and feminism may be rewarding
00:13:01
nothing can deplete the sense of dread
00:13:02
the film leaves us with
00:13:04
a dread that suggests murder death and
00:13:06
psychopathy on screen should not be a
00:13:07
form of catharsis but that it should be
00:13:09
a deep cause for concern
00:13:10
because out there in the real world
00:13:13
there are people just like
00:13:14
lecter who can slip anonymous into a
00:13:16
crowd just waiting for the moment to
00:13:18
commit the ultimate crime
00:13:20
[Music]
00:13:50
[Music]
00:13:56
you
