Jurassic Park Review

Click here to read my previous review of the Departed

So next on the list is a film I originally wasn't going to review, as I've already seen it.  However, I recently finished reading the book, so I thought I would watch and review the film adaptation.  Jurassic Park is number 309 on the top 1000 films of all time.

Based on Michael Crichton's 1990 novel of the same name, Jurassic Park is a theme park like no other.  It is run by John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) an eccentric, but kind-hearted billionaire who has funded the creation of genetically altered dinosaurs.  Just as the park is about to be opened to the public, Hammond's investors demand that it receives validation from paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum.) Little do they know that things are about to go terribly wrong when the disgruntled programmer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) sabotages the park's computer systems.  Making up the supporting cast are B.D Wong as Chief Geneticist Henry Wu, Samuel L. Jackson as engineer Ray Arnold and Martin Ferroro as the game warden Robert Muldoon.

One reason why I didn't like the novel as much as I thought I would, as I don't think it was paced that well.  I thought that the beginning was bogged down in exposition and character development and I was relieved when the film cut out most of these details.  On IMDB I read that writer David Koepp cut out most of the character exposition, as he couldn't care less about hearing about their lives and he didn't think the audience would care either.  I think this was a smart choice to make and it led to an improvement of the film's pace.

Spielberg did well in balancing the film's science and action scenes.  At no point did it feel like one was dominant over the other.  There was just enough science to provide necessary exposition and it was distributed evenly throughout the film, rather than being concentrated in one place.  The suspsnse built well with lots of small climaxes that helped progress the narrative.  From Genarro to Nedry's deaths to Sattler discovering Arnold's severed arm, the film isn't short on scares.

Another welcome change is John Hammond's character.  In the novel, he is portrayed as ruthless, uncompromising and antagonistic.  However, his film counterpart is much more lovable and sympathetic.  This is partly due to Richard Attenborough's portrayal of him.  He is selfish and unlikeable in the book, but within the film, it is difficult not to feel sorry for him.  In contrast to the text, he isn't motivated by material profit, but rather a desire to leave something behind for others to enjoy.

I also really liked the supporting cast.  Wayne Knight was great as the corrupt weak-minded software programmer, Denis Nedry.  In the novel, he is lazy, greedy and malleable.  From his workstation being a mess to his desktop background being a picture of a half-naked woman, these qualities translated well over into the film.

Samuel L. Jackson was an interesting choice for the role of Ray Arnold.  It was a vast contrast to his more action-based roles in Pulp Fiction and Star Wars. Yet, I think that the role suited him.  He was cool, calm and in control of the scene.  I also loved the close-ups of the cigarette that was continuously hanging out of his mouth.  This was a small, but very effective touch.

One thing I didn't like was how Henry Wu's character was simply reduced to an exposition piece before being written out completely.  In the novel, he becomes a key component in saving the park, yet he is very much marginalised in the film.  As the Chief Geneticist, I feel that he is too important of a character to be brushed aside.

Lastly, God, I hated the kids. Granted they were annoying in the book, but they were insufferable in the film.  From Tim's irritating over-enthusiasm to Lex, there were no two characters I wanted more to be tor apart by the velociraptors.  In fact, I think they should have been killed and better characters like Muldoon or Arnold should have been spared.

Rating: Awesome

A great summer block-buster.  Entertaining, iconic and action thrilled.  You don't need to be a scientist to understand it, but rather have an endelss amount of patience with two annoying children.  Jurassic Park was a great look into the life of the other great creatures who once ruled the Earth.

The Departed Review

Click here to read my previous review of the Great Dictator

Number 53 on the top greatest 1000 films of all time is Martin Scorsese's 2006 crime thriller: the Departed.

Set in Boston, the Departed focuses on the lives of two different characters: Billy Costigan (Leonardo Dicaprio) a rookie crop sent deep undercover to infiltrate Frank Costello's (Jack Nicholson) criminal organisation.  However, unknown to the polie, Costello has his own mole in the police force: Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) a rising star whom Costello has groomed from a young age.  When each side discovers that they have a traitor in their midst, both Costigan and Sullivan seek to unmask each other before they are killed.

The Departed provides a raw and brutal perspective into Irish organised crime.  I am writing my dissertation on the Godfather, which I would count as my favourite book/film, so I have a strong interest in Italian American organised crime.  I found it refreshing to watch a film about a different sort of crime.  Similarly, to Goodfellas, Scorsese is unrelenting in his depiction of the viciousness of crime and what this can do to a person.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Leonardo Dicaprio's character, Billy Costigan.  Dicaprio is great in this role.  He portrays the terror that Billy feels upon the stresses of working undercover.  If Billy is discovered, then he will be killed.  The pressures of his role really begin to take their toll, as Billy slowly begins to break down under the strain.

Like any good crime film, the Departed blurs the distinction between hero and villain.  Billy Costigan's superiors Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Staff Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlburg) effectively blackmail him into going undercover.  In how Colin Sullivan's character is a mole for Costello, he becomes a hero of sorts having to balance his real and fake identities.

Jack Nicholson is terriying as the psychotic mob boss Frank Costllo.  A very far cry from the sage and collected Vito Corleone, Costllo is volent, unrpedictable and despicable.   This is partly due to Nicholson's great portrayal of the character.   Nicholson reportedly made many bizarre suggestions to develop Costello's character.  One of these was showering hookers with cocaine and another is arranging to meet Sullivan in a porn theatre and surprising him with a strap-on.  Nicholson made these suggestions to add to the unpredictability of Costello's character.  This unpredictability made Costello all the more scarier of a villain.  I would argue that Nicholson is better in this villainous role than as Jack Torrence in the Shining or as the Joker in Batman.

One thing I really didn't like were Queenan and Dignam's characters.  For me, they bordered too closely on the good cop/ bad cop stereotype and they didn't seem very well-developed.  I really hated Dignam.  Granted, he is supposed to be an arsehole, but I think that Whalberg overplayed it to the extant that Dignam became a caricature of himself.

The film also isn't the easiest to follow and you do have to pay close attention to it.  This isn't really a problem until the end where four characters die in quick succession.  To quickly summarise, when Costigan finds out that Sullivan is the rat, he lures him to an empty apartment to arrest him, with another cop as backup.  However, before Billy can make the arrest, he and the other detective are shot dead by another police officer who is also one of Costello's moles.  Sullivan rewards this cop for preventing his arrest by killing him.  Upon returning home, Sullivan is then shot dead by Dignam, who has figured out that he was the rat.  Whilst Billy's death was an unexpected and good plot twist, it was slighly undone by how he was killed by such a minor character.  When the other police officer (whose name I still can't remember) walked onto screen, I was left scratching my head over who this character was and why he was so important.  This isn't helped by how he is killed immediately afterwards.

Rating: Awesome.

These shortcomings notwithstanding, the Departed is a powerful film that focuses on the darkest aspects of organised crime.  Similarly, to Goodfellas, the Departed is a crime film of Jurassic proportions.

The Returned the Horde Review

The Horde has absolutely everything you could want from a season finale-well except for providing any answers or giving any closure at all.  Other than this,the finale was powerful, evocative, heart-breaking and thought-provoking.

So, who are the Horde exactly? This question is answered in the flashback opening the episode.  Thirty-five years earlier, after the original dam burst, we see Mrs Costa talking to Victor's parents.  Mrs Costa talking warns Victor's mother that those who died will return to take their revenge.  However, what is more satisfying is that we finally find out something about Victor- his real name is Louis.  This aside, Mrs Costa's words seem to ring true.  Following this flashback, there is another from just one week ago.  We see Camille waking up after her accident and trying to return home.  However, in a chilling, but beautiful shot, we see that she is being slowly silently pursued by the Horde.

From here things begin falling into place for the episode's conclusion.  The shot cuts to Julie, Laure and Victor who after being unable to escape from town have camped out in Laure's car.  Here the episode steps into full horror mode.  There are hand-prints on the car window, as Victor explains that the Horde come to take him in the night, but he refused to go with them.  Although, I am a little confused as to what stopped the Horde from just stealing him away.  In the last episode, what was presumably, more returnees stopped Toni and Serge from leaving by pulling the latter under the water.  Meanwhile, Toni is not doing too well with his brother's disappearance.  He is only saved from jumping to his death by Laure and the others who are then chased away by the Horde who are approaching from out of the mist.  This was another chilling, but great shot, which looks like it is straight out of an episode of the Walking Dead.  When Laure threatens to call the Horde in, she and Julie begin fighting.  This is only broken by Toni, prompted by a hallucinated Serge, shoots himself in the stomach.  Victor makes Toni see this hallucination.  Seriously, what is up with this kid? I have gone back and forth over whether Victor is cute or creepy, but he is definitely creepy here.  Gwilym Mumford from the Guardian wrote in his review that he had thought that Victor "forced [his victims] to relive a significant traumatic event from their pasts – Julie being attacked by Serge; Pierre standing impotently by as the burglar shot Victor" (http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/jul/28/the-returned-recap-season-one-episode-eight) I would agree with this.  I see Victor as a weird type of vigilante dealing out his own personal justice to those who deserve it.  He confronts them with their own feelings of guilt.  Fr example, he makes Toni confront his own feelings of guilt from murdering his brother, inadvertently leading his mother to die of grief, by making him shoot himself.

This sets the stage for what Gwilym Mumford labelled as one of the episode's standout scenes.  After Tony shoots himself, Laure drives him to the Helping Hand, where Julie operates to save him.  Despite her best efforts, she is unable to.  This is where Serge appears and with no explanation to his whereabouts or how he got to the helping Hand desperately and pointlessly tries CPR on his older brother.  This sequence is great, as it demonstrates the loyalty between the brothers.  Even though, Toni killed Serge, he is still loyal to his big brother.  Meanwhile, Julie recognising who Serge is quickly pushes him away, when he tries to hug her out of grief.  The pained confusion on Serge's face says it all.  Serge's motivations as a serial killer have never been revealed, but Guillaume Goux's boyish features suggests Serge's youth and naivety.  I have often wondered whether Serge has any mental health problems.  

From here the scene cuts to Adele and Chloe who is only second to Victor in terms of creepiness.  Adele discovers Chloe's drawings of Simon's suicide and her own attempted suicide.  Adele, fearing Chloe will do something rash, locks her in her room.  However, Simon who was broken out of prison by Lucy, kidnaps Lucy.  A panicking Adele calls Thomas who tells Adele to meet him at the Helping Hand.  The stage is almost set for the show's 

Meanwhile, things are far from well at the Helping Hand.  Whilst, Pierre is adamant that the Returned mean no harm, others are not so sure.  Public opinion has turned very much against Camille after the Koretsky's suicide was discovered.  Not only does the Returned comment on themes such as loss, redemption and the past, it also engages with the idea of difference.  Should Camille be treated any differently just because she's dead? As we see by her love for Frederic, she is just a normal teenager with a normal teenage problems.  There is no reason for everyone to be afraid of her.  Yet what the Returned does so well is capitalise on our fear of the unknown and how this fear can cause us to do hateful things.  

Nowhere is this fear of the unknown more present than the episode's ending.  Lucy, who has become the leader of the Horde, leads them to the Helping Hand, where all of the characters are gathered.  Both pierre and Thomas go out to talk to her.  Throughout the series, I have been unsure of who the true villain is.  I have constantly gone back and forth between Pierre and Thomas.  However, whilst Pierre is certainly naive, he is ultimately well-intentioned.  In this scene, Thomas emerges as the true villain: a man willing to rip apart other families to protect his own.  Lucy offers to return Lucy to him, if Mrs Costa, Victor and Camille all go witht eh Horde.  This is where the most disturbing and gut-wrenching scene appears, as police officers attempt to rip Julie away from Victor.  In the end, she elects to go with him.  This was a lovely moment.  I have adored the pair's relationship and have often cited it as the best part of the show.  The two need each other and it is perfectly logical that Julie refuses to leave him.

This moment is paralleled in how Camille is similarly ripped away from her family.  In another beautiful shot, Camille, Lena and their mother, Claire, are all hiding behind Jerome who staunchly refuses to step aside.  This shot is so powerful as it demonstrates Jerome's loyalty to his family.  Jerome has very much been usurped as his family's patriarch by Pierre who Claire left him for.  Even len a lost respect for her father.  However, it is Jerome who states "Not a chance," when Thomas tells him to step aside.  Meanwhile, Pierre and the others are just looking on helplessly.  This once again exhibits how well this show engages with character relationships.  In the end, Camille elects to accompany Camille with the Horde.  Julie refuses to abandon Victor, whilst Camille's family refuse to abandon her.

Although, am I the only one who find it really sad that nobody was the least bit concerned about Mrs Costa's departure.  Even though, she has always had a minor role in the show, her character is the saddest.  Despite how Victor had nobody to return to, he finds Julie.  Camille returns to her family, yet when Mrs Costa returns to her husband, he, unable to cope with her return kills himself.  This leaves Mrs Costa very much alone.  Nobody cares when she, along with Victor and Camille, is forced to join the ranks of the Horde.

However, this is not where the story ends.  Lucy claims that there is one missing: Adele, who is pregnant with Simon's child.  This raises even more questions.  Not only is it possible for the dead to still have sex, but also to father children.  Anyway, Thomas refuses to give her up and shepherds everyone into the Helping Hand.  He orders for the place to be locked down, while, he Laure and the other police officers prepare to fight of the Horde.  This scene is made only more dramatic by how the audience doesn't see the battle happen.  Instead, they are with the survivors listening to gunshots wondering what the hell is going on.  I think this was a clever decision by the directors Frederic Mermoud and Fabrice Goubert.  By solely alluding to the fight sequences, this allows the viewer's imagination to conjure up scarier images than the eye ever could.  The morning after the survivors leave the Helping Hand to find the police officers and the Horde have vanished.  In a wonderful sweeping shot, it revealed that Annecy has been flooded, reminiscent of how it was flooded thirty-five years ago.  The episode ends with Chloe holding onto Adele's stomach suggesting that all this could have been avoided if Thomas had simply given her up.

As a finale, the Horde raises more questions than it answers.  Why didn't the Horde want Serge? What was the significance of Lena, Camille, Victor and Simon's scars? What happened to the police officers who vanished? Why did the Horde give up so easily? Even if I don't receive answers to these questions I'm not too bothered, as I love the Returned.  It is beautifully shot, brilliantly acted, has well-realised characters and a gorgeous setting.  It is different to your average zombie film, I would definitely recommend the Returned.  As long as you're patient and understanding, I think you'll agree that it is well worth your time.

The Great Dictator Review

Click here to read my previous review of the Silence of the Lambs

At number 52 on top 1000 films of all times, we have the Greate Dictator: arguably one of Charlie Chaplin's most political films.

Released in 1940 and set during the 30's, The Great Dictator is a vicious and biting satire of the rise of Hitler.  Charlie Chaplin plays two roles: Adenoid Hynkel, an obvious parody of Hitler and also an unnamed Jewish barber who becomes an unlikely leader of a resistance movement.  Other famous people parodied are Benzino Napolini, Garbistch and Herring who are all parodies of Mussolini, Goebbels and Goring.

What struck me the most about this film, especially watching it after Modern Times and City Lights, was its increasingly dark tone.  Obviously this is to be expcected in a film concerning Hitler, but it was still a surprise to see it in a Chaplin film, especially since he is regarded as a comic actor.  However I think that Chaplin balanced the dark tone with the comic elements well.  For example, just as the Jewish barber characyer is about to get lynched, he is saved at the last minute by a German officer whom he had fought with in the First World War.  However, the Jewish Barber is suffering from amensia and cannot remember who his saviour is.  The exchange that ensues between them is very funny.

Chaplin is best known for his silent films, but the Great Dictator was his first proper speaking film.  Whilst the physical comedy, which I will discuss later, was great, so too was the vocal comedy.  Chaplin reduces Hitler to a complete farce, by delivering speeches in German-sounding gibberish.  In another hilarious moment, when Stormtroopers demand that the Jewish Barber salutes Hilter, he replies "who?

This farce continues into the physical comedy of the film.  After Hilter gives one of his speeches, he then falls down the stairs.  To ensure that Napolini knows who is in charge, he is given a far smaller chair than Hilter.  Later, Hilter and Napolini aim to resolves their differences by having a food fight.  All of these scenes are ridiculous, but hilarious to watch.  I also really liked Joseph Goebbels' parody Garbistch.  He is strict and severe and a stark contrast to the more irreverent and illogical Hilter.  All credit to Henry Daniell for his great portrayal.

It was also interesting to see Chaplin in a more serious role, compared to hs usual comedic Tramp persona.  I think he did very well in this role. The obvious example of this is the film's standout scene.  I am of course talking about Chaplin's famous speech.  The speech is powerful, evocative and visceral.  Chaplin's delivery is impassioned and striking.  This was a definite departure away from the Tramp character which he is famous for.  The speech is as relevant now, as it was seven decades ago.

If I were to criticise this for something, then it would be its length.  The Great Dictator was two hours long, but I think it would have been much better if it had only been 90 minutes, like City Lights and Modern Times.  I felt that the narrative grew thin in places and Chaplin compensated by drawing out the comedic sequences.

I also didn't like the very end of the film.  After Chaplin delivers his famous speech, the camera then cuts to Hannah (Paulette Goddard,) Chaplin's love interest.  Through voiceover, he addresses her and tells her to look to the light.  The film ends with her gazing thoughtfully into the distance.  I felt that this was disppointing and quite anticlimactic.  I think it would have been much more powerful if the film had ended on Chaplin's famous speech.  The message would have been far stronger and more prominent.

All in all though, I did enjoy this film.  It was dark, but it was also funny.  It had some ridiculous moments but also hilarious ones.  However, the humour did wear a little thin in places.  For this reason, I am giving the Great Dictator a rating of awesome.  Charlie Chaplin might have long since departed our company, but his legacy lives on in films like these. 

The Returned Episode Seven Adele Review

Seven episodes in and I think we're finally starting to see some type of endgame with this show.  What I mean by this is that throughout the show so far, whilst there have been a multitude of narratives and characters, I don't think that there has been one overarching storyline linking everything together.  I've been having trouble seeing what everything is building up to, but I think that this episode remedies that.

Adele (Clotilde Hesme) is the titular character of this episode and we learn some deep secrets about her past.  Only one year ago, we find out that she tried to kill herself.  Of course we don't know why.  Perhaps it is some link to Simon (Pierre Perrier.)  After all he killed himself too.  This revelation was dark and shocking, but I also think it will become very important within the final episode.  In the present day, Adele and her daughter Chloe (Brune Martin) find themselves to be neighbours with Julie and Victor who are in hiding with Laure.  When Victor (Swann Nambotin) and Chloe are playing together on the trampoline, Victor makes Chloe see her mother's suicide attempt.  I thought it was really interesting and long overdue about having Victor and Chloe together in one scene.  They are the only children in the show and I think that the pair should have been put together sooner.  I think that Swann Nambotin and Brune Martin worked really well together.  It was a great scene and the two played off each other well.  This is interesting considering the dark, twisted nature of the scene.  Chloe decides to tell Victor that her father, Simon, is dead and Victor then reveals to her that he is also dead.  This is before he makes her see her mother's suicide attempt, which again shows him to be the show's creepiest character. 

As I have said throughout this season, I think that they've developed Julie's (Celine Salette) character beautifully.  This episode continues to prove it.  Julie and Laure (Alix Poisson) continue to rekindle their lost love, as more is revealed about Julie's past.  Julie reveals to Laure that she has felt dead ever since her attack.  She says that she is not afraid of being dead, but rather being alive.  This scene is understated, subtle and very touching.  It is shot as a close-up with the camera focusing entirely on Celine Sallette and Alix Poisson.  The scene is incredibly intimate and you really get inside Julie's head.  However, the emotional intimacy is broken by Victor who secretly reveals to Julie that, similarly, to Lena, he has an inexplicable rash/scar on his arm.  Julie, panicking, tells Laure to drive them out of the town, which Laure agrees to, even though it will cost her job.  However, the trio are unable to escape. They drive around the border of the town time and time again, until the message is clear.  They cannot leave.  The episode ends on a master shot of Laure's car on a mountain road, emphasising how small all of the characters are in the wider meanings of the show.  What are these wider meanings? We will find out in the final episode, where all of these plot points will be explained, I hope.

Whilst Julie, Laure and Victor are trying to escape town, so are Serge (Guillame Goux) and Toni (Gregory Gadebois.) After Toni shoots at police coming to arrest his brother, the pair also decide to leave town.  Firstly, they try to leave the woods, but are inadvertently led around in circles.  The pair, both experienced hunters and woodsmen, identify that something is wrong and instead decide to head down to the lake and swim to the other side.  However, halfway across, something pulls Serge under the water and he disappears out of sight.  In another master shot, paralleling Victor, Laure and Julie's escape from town, Toni is left quite literally treading water, confused and frightened by his brother's disappearance.  Even though, this sequence is shot well, I am still sceptical about Toni and Serge's relationship.  In the episode dedicated to the pair, it is revealed that Toni buried Serge alive to stop him from killing anyone else.  Now that Serge has come back to life, I find it difficult to believe that Toni is now so willing to help his brother escape.  There is something very jarring about how in one episode Toni goes from killing his brother to helping him hide from the police.

Finally, we have found out about Pierre's (Jean-Francois Silvadier) endgame.  I have always had an uneasy feeling about the man and have long suspected him to the be the series protagonist.  This episode confirms it.  In one of the episode's most unsettling sequences, he reveals to Claire that he believes that the Returnees are a sign of the coming apocalypse.  An apocalypse he has prepared for.  He has enough tinned food to last a millennium, enough guns to wipe out all the walkers in the Walking Dead and a surgical room that looks like it should belong in a Saw movie.  Out of all the revelations in this episode, this is one of the most shocking ones and one most likely to kick start things for the season finale.

One character who has taken a bit of backseat hitherto is Mrs Costa who died thirty-five years earlier although she refuses to say how.  In Adele, she takes a larger role interacting directly with Camille.  Mrs Costa reveals some important information about the town's history and also lays down some foreshadowing for the final episode.  Mrs Costa says that she starved to death when the dam originally burst flooding the town, but Camille quickly calls her out, claiming that Mrs Costa has been telling many different stories about how she died.  After this, Mrs Costa tells Camille to look in the store cupboard, where she finds the bodies of the Koretskies who killed themselves to be with their son Esteban.  Esteban died in the coach with Camille.  However, in the last episode, Camille pretends to have communicated with him to bring peace to his parents.

Camille's (Yara Pillartz) reveal as a returnee was initially met with disdain and resentment, yet she grew to become accepted due to her work as a medium.  However, this is all undone when the Koretskies' suicide was discovered.  Camille is even accused of telling the pair to kill themselves.  After their suicide is discovered, a memorial service is held for them.  I found out it quite funny that Frederic and Lucha were there, considering that in the last episode, they were put in jail for digging up Camille's grave.  This is a definite error, but a permissible one compared to this far bigger error: Lena's (Jenna Thiam) clunky and unrealistic return to her family.  Lucy ended with Lena becoming lost in the nearby woods surrounding Serge's house.  After hours of wandering around the woods in the dark, she stumbles upon a Jonestown-esque cult all gathered around a campfire.  The cult look at her eerily and the episode ends.  In this episode, Lena is first seen showering back in her own home. She doesn't explain her disappearance to her family nor do they ask.  Her absence is simply addressed by Camille asking "where the fuck have you been" and it isn't mentioned again.  I think this is a little clumsy of the writers, as I think this plot point is too important to be overlooked.

Whilst it isn't explained who the people that Lena encounter are, I think it is logical to assume that they are returnees like Camille and Victor.  Why they haven't integrated back into society remains to be seen, perhaps they have nobody waiting for them, but their introduction seems like one of the more dramatic revelations.  What is even more interesting is how Lucy (Ana Giradot,) who has done very little in this episode, appears to assume leadership over the Horde.  The next episode is called the Horde, so I assume that this is what this wave of Returnees is called.  For an inexplicable reason, the Horde have gathered in The Lake Pub, where Lucy goes to confront them.  The camerawork is great in this scene.  The Horde are kept in darkness, remaining mere silhouettes, whilst a bright light is spotlighting Lucy highlighting her position of strength over the group.  Meanwhile, the Horde remain nameless and faceless.  It's almost as if they're in a state of purgatory.  They're not dead, but they don't have any lives to return to.  The introduction to the Horde looks like a new dramatic subplot and one I can't wait to see resolved in the season finale.

Lastly, we have come to Simon.  Similarly to Lucy, he also takes a backseat in this episode.  He searches for some type of spiritual meaning at the local church, but the parish priest rats him out to the police.  Simon is then arrested and put in a cell to be questioned by the police captain Thomas.  This is where he finds out, that similarly to Victor, Lena and now Camille, his flesh has begun decaying on his stomach.  Out of curiousity, he rips off some of the flesh on his body and then eats it when the police come to question him in the episode's most disgusting scene.  What do these scars mean? Victor, Lena, Camille and now Simon all seem to be decaying in some way.  It isn't just restricted to the dead, as Lena, who is very much alive, is affected.  

This episode sets up a lot: new plot-points and new characters, secrets and revelations are revealed and question upon question upon question is raised.  What happened to Serge? Why can't Julie and co leave town? What do the scars mean? Who exactly are the Horde? So many questions...so few answers.

The Silence of the Lambs Review

Click here to read my previous review of the Green Mile

So I've been putting off watching number 29 on the top 1000 films of all time, until I had finished the novel.  Now that I have finished it, I thought it was about time that I watched the Silence of the Lambs.

Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is an FBI agent in training.  However, her training is cut short when Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) recruits her to track down the serial killer called Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb (Ted Levine.) To aid her investigation, Starling turns to Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) a brilliant, but psychotic psychiatrist and serial killer.

Just as he is in the last film, Anthony Hopkins is magnificent in this installment.  From his first appearance to every line of dialogue, he is utterly sinister.  I remember when Clarice Starling is walking through the prison to interrogate him and all of the other prisoners are going crazy, but Hannibal Lecter is standing perfectly still in anticipation.  This was so scary but also very engaging.  In arguably the film's most iconic scene, Lecter presses Starling for information about her past.  In return, he will aid her investigation of Buffalo Bill.  Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins were both captivating in this sequence.  The scene was shot well with an extreme close-up of Anthony Hopkin's eyes, which seemed to reach through the camera lens and draw the viewer in.  I think Anthony Hopkins was a great choice for Hannibal Lecter.  He effortlessly conveys all of the sophistication, finesse and culture of the character.

Jodie Foster was also great as feisty female with a sensitive side, Clarice Starling.  She is an interesting choice for the role, yet she did well.  Her character arc was intriguing to watch and it translated well to screen.

Anthony Hopkins was so great in his role that I think he stole the show from Buffalo Bill who is the true antagonist of the film, although this can be disputed.  This notwithstanding, Ted Levine is terrifying as Buffalo Bill.  Buffalo Bill is a transvestite who after being rejected for sexual reassignment surgery decides to take matters into his own hands.  He kidnaps women to skin them and essentially create a human suit to wear.  Ted Levine brings this frightening character to life.  In the film's scariest scene, Buffalo Bill's latest would-be victim notices a human nail embedded in the walls of her vcell.  She begins screaming in terror and Buffalo Bill cruelly mocks her.  I found this sequence particularly scary and I was surprised I could be so scared by something as little as a fingernail.

The Silence of the Lambs was criticised for being trans and homophobic.  It was criticised as unfairly portraying transsexxuals as psychotic serial killers.  I think the novel would have been criticised for the same reasons, if it wasn't for a passage addressing this very issue.  When Jack Crawford realises the suspect is a transvestite he approaches the head of a sexual reassignment clinic to ask for a list of patient names.  The head staunchly refuses arguing that if people found out that a transgender person is a serial killer, it would destroy all of the good work he has done in showing that transsexuals are nothing to be afraid of would be destroyed.  I really think that film should have included this scene to at least avoid accusations of transphobia.

I was also very disappointed with Scott Glenn who played Jack Crawford.  Compared to Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon or Laurence Fishburne in NBC's Hannibal, he lacked the ruthlessness that I would expect from a Behaviour Science Unit Chief.

These criticisms aside I would give the film a rating of awesome,  It was tense, horrific and included some masterful performances by Hopkins and Foster.  I just don't think that Scott Glenn's Jack Crawford will become a Great Dictator any time soon.