Of course, FosterвЂ™s performance contributes to this as well. Beset by killers on one side and chauvinist colleagues on the other (there are repeated shots of Starling surrounded by skeptical men in uniform), sheвЂ™s nonetheless given dignity by the camera in each scene. A number of characters are the subject of this shot in The Silence of the Lambs -Crawford, even Lecter-but none more so than Starling. Yet The Silence of the Lambs still stands apart for its attentiveness to its charactersвЂ™ emotional state, embodied by DemmeвЂ™s signature shot: an extreme close-up focusing as tightly on a face as possible, often to the point of making eye contact, so that we are forced to recognize the person as a human being. And you could argue-as members of the transgender community have since the filmвЂ™s release-that it doesnвЂ™t extend to Jame Gumb (Ted Levine), aka Buffalo Bill, whose blurred gender identity is part of the movieвЂ™s formula for freaking the audience out. This emphasis on human dignity was always DemmeвЂ™s trademark, but it might seem out of place in this genre. Her attention is DemmeвЂ™s attention-not just to the logistics, the вЂњfacts of the case,вЂќ but to the real human cost those things represent. (Demme also won an Oscar, as did Ted Tally for his screenplay adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel.)Д¬onsider an otherwise perfunctory scene, in which Starling and her FBI superior, Crawford (Scott Glenn), attend the funeral of another victim of the killer who has been dubbed вЂњBuffalo Bill.вЂќ When Crawford leaves Starling in the funeral parlor to have a powwow with the local cops, she peeks through a door to observe the grieving family.

But for me, the distinguishing factor is the sense of humanity director Jonathan Demme brings to this inhumane material. Both Jodie Foster (as Clarice Starling, the FBI trainee assigned to an urgent, unsolved case) and Anthony Hopkins (as Hannibal Lecter, the imprisoned, cannibal psychiatrist Clarice interviews for insights into the murders) won Oscars for their (truly great) performances.

In the end, all his excuses earned him was a ticket to PennsylvaniaвЂ™s death row at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh.Дespite appeals, Heidnik was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 1999.What elevated The Silence of the Lambs above your average, studio-produced serial-killer thriller, to the point of winning five Academy Awards?ДЇor Oscar voters, it was likely the acting. Is that the mind of someone whoвЂ™s psychotic? Who didnвЂ™t know what he was doing?вЂќ He got the young girl, with mental retardation, he got her, and she was in chains, he forced her to sign a note, sent it home to her mother in order to diffuse the family from trying to find that girl and save her. вЂњWhat kind of girls did he take? Girls that he knew he could force into submission. He planned what he was doing, he went ahead and did it, and he did it on purpose,вЂќ Gallagher later said.

вЂњFrom the eve of Thanksgiving 1986, up through March 1987, this man conducted repeated sadistic and malicious acts upon six defenseless victims. Heidnik, prosecutor Charlie Gallagher later said, had always acted crazy to get what he wanted. His legal team focused on HeidnikвЂ™s tentative grasp on reality, but the prosecution countered that the killerвЂ™s vile machinations were all carefully planned.

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Killer in silence of the lambs