Buffalo Bill returned this week, but the serial killer took a backseat once more to an iconic movie monster.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
“The Silence of the Lambs” hit theaters anew for its 35th anniversary, reminding audiences why it swept that year’s Oscar ceremony and remains one of the greatest horror films ever.
It hasn’t aged a day.
Yet some have attacked “Lambs” in recent years for a very modern reason. They argue the film’s Buffalo Bill is an affront to the trans community.
How?
No spoiler alerts for movies as old as “Lambs.”
Buffalo Bill kidnaps husky women in order to steal their skin and create a female bodysuit to call his own. He’s a man but he thinks he’s trapped in a woman’s body.
That reflects a modern sentiment regarding select members of the trans community, at least at first blush. The film’s critics argue that making Buffalo Bill a trans killer demeans the entire community.
It’s absurd on its face. A single movie uses someone from a specific community as the killer. That isn’t meant to besmirch the entire community. What if Buffalo Bill were a gay Asian man?
Would that immediately tell audiences to steer clear of gay Asian men? Of course not.
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Trans representation at the time was dramatically small, but storytellers are still allowed to create characters from any group they please. Had Buffalo Bill been part of a crush of trans movie killers, then the argument would hold water.
Yet the line of attack is much worse after rewatching the movie. A critical scene finds fledgling FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) discussing Buffalo Bill with Lecter (a mesmerizing Anthony Hopkins)
He explains the killer’s ghoulish behavior, and she counters that trans individuals are generally meek, not violent.
Right there, the film actually defends the trans community.
Lecter continues, saying that Buffalo Bill isn’t actually trans. He just thinks he is due to childhood trauma. He’s creating this female persona, along with skin to call his own, out of a twisted attempt to ape a trans identity.
Here’s the full exchange, courtesy of IMDB.com:
Clarice Starling: There’s no correlation in the literature between transsexualism and violence. Transsexuals are very passive.
Hannibal Lecter: …Billy is not a real transsexual. There are three major centers for transsexual surgery… I wouldn’t be surprised if Billy had applied for sex reassignment at one or all of them and been rejected… Billy hates his own identity you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual.
The film literally says that Buffalo Bill is not trans. Period.
That hasn’t stopped the criticism. Nor did it prevent Ted Levine, who portrayed Buffalo Bill in the film, from apologizing for the non-connection.
“It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f—ing wrong. And you can quote me on that,”
“I didn’t play him as being gay or trans… I think he was just a f—ed-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing.”
That’s because the script literally called him that, in so many words.
Even “Lambs” producer Edward Saxon apologized for Buffalo Bill.
“From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.”
Maybe Levine and Saxon caught the 35th anniversary re-release of their landmark film. If so, they may want to retract their apologies.
