Analysis of 'The Silence Of The Lambs'

In class we watched 'The Silence of the lambs' as an example of an opening sequence.

The 'Silence of the Lambs' has elements of crime and horror genres.In the opening scene an establishing shot is used to show the audience where the film is set. The location is in a forest and looks gloomy and scary which hints at the genre of the film which is a psychological horror.We then see the female protagonist Clarice starting an assault course by climbing up a hill using a rope.

Throughout this scene you see the female doing a challenging assault course, which suggests she is countering the typical gender stereotype of a female. She is also wearing casual clothes which again suggests she is not a typical female. Furthermore the incidental tense music denotes that the film is a thriller.

When Clarice is stood in the lift with many males, it again shows that she is not a typical female and it also suggests that she perhaps has a job that is dominated by men. She then enters the behavioral sciences lab, which connotes that the film is based around a psychological thriller and also hints that the female is very intelligent. Furthermore the display board covered in newspaper cuttings and photos of a distressing case stresses the idea that the film is about crime horror.