From the Hills and Hollers: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS with Dr. Tiffany Arnold

Watch Trailer Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Awards: Oscar - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay

Jodie Foster stars as FBI agent Clarice Starling who is tasked with investigating a string of murders involving overweight women that appears to be the work of an emerging serial killer. To gain insight into the psychological profile of the suspect, Starling pays a visit to Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, a highly-intelligent ex-forensic psychiatrist who himself has been incarcerated in a mental hospital for his predilection for killing (and eating) a series of victims. As the Starling inches ever closer to her quarry, she steps deeper into the Lecter’s sphere of influence and has to fight hard to stay out from under his spell.

Silence of the Lambs swept the Academy Awards upon its release in 1991, winning 5 of the top honors. Not only has it been recognized as one of the best films of all-time, the character of Clarice Starling (as portrayed by Foster) has been ranked as the “greatest heroine in film history” by the American Film Institute: Foster expertly conveys Starling’s back-story as a young woman with roots in rural West Virginia, showing that a person from Appalachia is capable of overcoming insurmountable odds.

About the Speaker

Dr. Tiffany Arnold is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the College of Health Sciences and Professions where she coordinates the Appalachian Studies Undergraduate and Graduate Certificate Programs. Additionally, she teaches Public Health and Environmental Health Courses Focused on Appalachian studies.

One of Dr. Arnold’s interests is the way that the Appalachian Region is portrayed in films and in the media, and she draws upon this interest to help others think critically about their own perceptions of the region and most importantly, where these ideas come from. She will be discussing both the common and unlikely ways that Appalachian culture appears in the film “The Silence of the Lambs”. A film that is not often thought of as a representation of Appalachia.

Check out the rest of our films for the Appalachian Stories series

This series is sponsored by the Ohio Honors Program, University Libraries, College of Health Sciences and Professions, The Department of Social and Public Health, GO Local, University College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Multicultural Center and The Black Student Cultural Programming Board, Center for Campus and Community Engagement, and The Women’s Center.