'The Silence of the Lambs'-- Part 1

"The Silence of the Lambs"  (1991)

Raise a glass of nice Chianti to this spellbinding masterpiece.  A twisted buddy movie, this story of fresh-faced FBI trainee Clarice Sterling (Jodie Foster) using the help of the brilliantly warped inmate Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to catch a serial killer was a rare critical and commercial hit.  It won the top five Oscars, including Best Picture.

My thoughts on the movie:  "Man, that was some kind of weird.  And, that Hannibal was some kind of smooth."

That's unusual for any movie, let alone a macabre one.  "I remember gripping the armrests [at the first screening] because it was so intense!" says Brooke Smith, 53, who played feisty kidnapping victim Catherine Martin.  "I got sucked in like everyone else."  She says the psychological thriller made its mark because "the hero was a woman in a role that's usually played by a nab.  And, she saves another woman.

--Cooter