Clarice Starling – The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
The character of Clarice Starling – adapted by Ted Tally from the Thomas Harris novel The Silence Of The Lambs – is worthy of note as one of the most well-written characters in cinema, and for good reason. Though she is saddled with the usual ‘overcoming a traumatic childhood event’ story, it is her actions and choices in the present that define her.
As Starling is training for the FBI at Quantico, she is called in by the Behavioural Science Unit to help them with a serial killer case. The active case is that of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) – a murderer of women whose tendency to skin the corpses of his victims is baffling those attempting to catch him. In order to gain insight, senior FBI agent Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) sends Starling to question the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), who is a former psychiatrist and an incarcerated, vicious cannibal.
As she endeavours to identify and locate Buffalo Bill, who is known to have taken another victim, the young and inexperienced Starling is surrounded by men far more powerful than her, contradicting each other – her superior at the FBI, the doctor supervising the facility housing Dr. Lecter, and Dr. Lecter himself. She trusts her instincts, however, and ultimately finds herself – albeit accidentally – in the home of Buffalo Bill.
As the terrifying serial killer hunts her, in the dark, through his dank basement, Clarice Starling once again employs her instincts and manages to put the predator down. She leaves the film’s final act a changed woman, because she now has the confidence that comes from being able to trust herself – and there is a vast amount of power in that.