Posted on 02/15/2026 5:02:44 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
Thirty-five years after its theatrical release, the creative team behind one of cinema’s most celebrated psychological thrillers is doing something that has become all too common in Hollywood: apologizing for a film that won the industry’s top honors and captivated millions of viewers.
“The Silence of the Lambs,” which hit theaters on Valentine’s Day 1991, became the year’s fifth-highest-grossing title and made history as just the third film to sweep the “big five” Academy Awards: best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay. The film starred Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling tracking serial killer Buffalo Bill while consulting with the infamous Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins. Its cultural impact was immediate and enduring, cementing phrases like “It rubs the lotion on its skin” into the American lexicon and establishing Hannibal Lecter as the American Film Institute’s top screen villain.
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But there’s a larger question at play: should artists apologize for creating compelling, psychologically complex villains? Buffalo Bill was never presented as a hero or role model. He was depicted as precisely what he was meant to be—a deeply disturbed, violent criminal. The film’s protagonist, Clarice Starling, was a groundbreaking female character navigating a male-dominated FBI, and the story’s feminist themes were revolutionary for mainstream cinema at the time.
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Thirty-five years after its release, “The Silence of the Lambs” continues to be studied in film schools, watched by new generations, and referenced in popular culture. Its lasting impact suggests that most viewers understood exactly what the film was: a gripping psychological thriller with complex characters, not a social commentary on any particular community. The unnecessary apologies say more about our current cultural moment than they do about the film itself.
(Excerpt) Read more at basedunderground.com ...
For me, it was “The Exocist”. I’m reluctant to bring the DVD into my house fearing it would invite the demon in.
To the best of my understanding, Ancient Greece introduced true democracies - of the “Liberals”. The Liberals were the Free People. Ancient Greece ran on its Slaves. They had no vote.
That is the way that I think of the word, “liberal”.
Michael Caine did it first in “Dressed to Kill.”
I thot manhunter a much better version
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/
Hannibal Lecter: I have to go now...I’m having an old friend for dinner.
The Film will go down in infamy as deeply offensive to the Homosapianphagian Community. /s
It was a sick movie. Pretty disgusting. I watched it at the time, won’t ever watch it again.
He appears to be spot on. Many retailers have dumped the pride crap. And we have anti-ICE riots in the bigger, leftist-controlled cities.
Typical liberal.F this f that.
I think they should apologize for just about every movie made in the last 35 years. Including this piece of garbage.
Hollywood’s best picture.
I would never have watched that movie but the company I worked for was doing an inventory count so some of us were secluded in a laser lab with nothing to do, so someone brought it in for us to kill some time. (No pun intended, ha) Anyway, it was really creepy in a lab with white walls, no windows and the lights off.
I have a picture somewhere of my mother with Anthony Hopkins. Not sure how that happened.
In 1991, The Rocketeer was ten times better than that filth. Fun, entertaining, patriotic. I always thought a little bit less of Anthony Hopkins for even playing that role. His acting in that film with with Alec Baldwin, “The Edge “was far far better. Not even close.
Try ‘House of a 1000 corpses’.
Yes, and multiple killers dumped their victims in rivers, Joel Rifkin and Wayne Williams.
And, THAT is the reason for the apologies. Most mass shooter atrocities now are by mentally ill trans — like the monster in the film.
Oops.
They need to put the lotion on their skin.
LOL! I read, RED Dragon and watched Manhunter a number of times. Somebody needs to apologize for getting me hooked on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
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