Sir Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs helped reshape genre expectations, making an impression despite minimal screen time, as an eloquent and calm-headed psychopath. It is often considered to be among the best Oscar-winning actor performances of all time, and Hopkins won the award in the Best Actor category despite his limited screen time. However, Hannibal Lecter isn’t the only trend-setting character in the movie that has left an indelible mark on pop culture in general and on horror filmmaking in particular, by becoming the third film to win the Big Five Oscars.

Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee who is suddenly thrust into the sinister world of serial killers after she is surprisingly pulled out of the academy and sent on active duty before she has graduated. Her experiences focus just as much on catching the killer as they do on the casual misogyny a woman in her position has to face every day. Foster won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Clarice. Despite being a trailblazing character, there is a fundamental flaw in Clarice Starling’s story, as an ex-FBI officer pointed out.

A Major Detail In Silence Of The Lambs Is Wrong, According To An Expert

Clarice Wouldn’t Have Been ᴀssigned To This Case In Real Life

Retired FBI profiler John Douglas inspired the character of Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), who is Clarice’s boss in the movie. Douglas worked closely with both novelist Thomas Harris and director Jonathan Demme for the novel and its film adaptation, respectively. However, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed that he would never do what Jack Crawford did when he pulled Clarice Starling out of the academy and sent her on an ᴀssignment before she had even graduated.

“We don’t send people out alone; you work with partners. And it would be very unusual to pull someone out of the Academy, the way Crawford does with Starling.” – John Douglas (via EW)

While pointing out the issue with Clarice being pulled out of the academy, Douglas also drew attention to the fact that Clarice Starling would never have been working alone in the real world. Not only would she need to have graduated, but she would also have a partner. These seem like gross oversights on the part of the filmmaker and his writers, considering Douglas was consulted for the movie adaptation. However, the issue may not be that simple, despite the obvious impulse to call this a fatal flaw in the film.

Silence Of The Lambs Wouldn’t Have Worked If Clarice Starling Wasn’t Working Alone

The Iconic Sequences Later Would Lose Their Sting If She Had A Partner

The Silence of the Lambs is one of only seven horror movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and is still the only horror film that has won the award. One of the choices that helped win was to make Clarice Starling work alone. The uphill battle she fights every time she wants to be taken seriously in the male-dominated workplace wouldn’t have hit as hard if she had a male partner in her corner, which is statistically most likely to have happened. It wouldn’t work either if she were a seasoned officer who could take it in her stride.

Similarly, the filmmaker ensures we are always in Clarice’s shoes throughout the film, so that others’ dialogue is directed at the camera while she is off-center when talking, and this wouldn’t have worked well if she had a partner playing a significant role in her quest to find and stop Buffalo Bill. Jodie Foster’s performance changed Hollywood’s representation of working women because she is framed in tension against all her colleagues in most of the film’s sH๏τs. A partner would need to share some of the space, and that would undercut the force of the narrative.

Moreover, the climactic sequence where Clarice is being hunted by Gumb alone wouldn’t have the same intensity and horrifying sense of tension if she were sharing screen space with another person on her side. The hunter-and-prey dynamic is what sets the scene apart, especially because Clarice turns it around right at the moment when she’s about to die. So, even if it is a major flaw by FBI standards, and far removed from reality, the decision to have Clarice work alone works in favor of The Silence of the Lambs.