Inspiration on Film

41. Hannibal Lecter's Speech

Inspiration on Film
Compiled by Fox-Trot-9

41. Hannibal Lecter's Speech
From Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Delivered by Anthony Hopkins

Hannibal Lecter: Oh, Agent Starling, you think you can direct me with this blunt little tool?

Clarice Starling: No! I ... I thought that your knowledge—

Hannibal Lecter: You're so ambitious, aren't you? You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube, with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. Who's your father, was he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? Oh and how quickly the boys found you ... all those sticky, tedious fumblings in the back seats of cars ... while you could only dream of getting out ... getting anywhere ... getting all the way to the FBI.

Clarice Starling: You see a lot, doctor. But can you point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don't you – why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you're afraid to...

Hannibal Lecter: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti. [He approaches the glass and lets go with a slurping sound.] You fly back to school now, little Starling. [He turns his back on her and speaks in a whisper] Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly.

Clarice Starling: [Clarice stands up, picks up her bag, and walks away.]

(To be continued...)

A/N: Out of all the scenes in The Silence of the Lambs, this is probably Hannibal Lecter's most psychologically intimidating impression of a madman who has enough of his shit together to psyche out someone. Even though he's incarcerated, he clearly has the upper hand in this exchange, which reminds me of an important observation from the Transcendentalists. You can imprison the body, but you can't imprison the mind.