More Like Sterile-ing! Detective Starling in Silence of...

Silence of the Lambs can be placed within many genres. One of which is the â€Å"Thriller† genre. A huge contribution to why Silence of the Lambs is a thriller film is the character of deranged genius Hannibal Lecter. Played by Anthony Hopkins whom won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, Lecter holds the key to the case Detective Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster whom also won the Academy Award for Best Actress, is determined to solve. With such a situation, interrogation is essential as many other films within the thriller subgenre of Crime Thriller also show. By comparing Clarice Starling’s behavior within the interrogation setting to other detectives and women of thriller films, it is revealed that although Lecter†¦show more content†¦Two common tropes of the psychological thriller are mind games and obsession, both of which are at the forefront of Silence insofar as Detective Starling being held mentally captive to the manipulative genius of Hannibal Lecter. Lecter’s exposing of Starling as vulnerable is crucial to the film in regards to how she overcomes it. Another thriller that falls into these two thriller subgenres and even replicates the Hannibal versus Starling situation almost identically is Christopher Nolan’s 2008 release The Dark Knight. In The Dark Knight, Batman, like Starling, is held mentally captive by his maniacal arch-nemesis the Joker whom, like Lecter, is in physical captivity. Inconveniently, the Joker has important information regarding the physical captivity of two figures important to Batman as well as Bruce Wayne: Harvey Dent, a key political player that the Batman needs and Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne’s ex-lover. The way the Joker and Hannibal Lecter tease the detectives with their leverage is kindred to say the least. Both find decadent satisfaction in toying with their respective interrogators. Moreover, to the detectives’ dismay, as long as the deranged du o withholds