Silence of the Lambs

In class, we watched the beginning of Silence of the Lambs.

After watching the clip, we discussed why we think that the psychiatrist would send Clarice instead of going there himself, or sending someone who is trained.

People gave a number of interesting responses. Some looked at it from the angle of feminism. Clarice is a woman in a man's world, and one that is particularly unforgiving. She is ambitious and determined, qualities that are better suited to a man than a woman (in this world, anyway). Therefore Clarice must constantly try to prove herself and best those around her. It was also mentioned that she was sent simply because she is a woman, and Hannibal hadn't seen one in ages.

There were other angles, but I can't quite remember what they were. Anyway, when I first saw the movie, I saw it from a completely different angle. Instead, I saw it from a more psychological perspective. I assumed that Clarice was sent because the training that the usual agents get makes them too predictable. We see this when Hannibal says something along the lines of : "Oh no, you were doing so well. Do you truly believe you can dissect me with such a blunt tool?". Hannibal is a genius, or close enough; he's also a trained psychiatrist. It would make sense that he would possibly already be aware of the questionnaire Clarice was given. Even if he doesn't know of it, with his training, he'd see right through it.

My interpretation also relies on an idea that the RSA Animate video (the one we watched in class) brought up. The video mentioned that our education system essentially crushes lateral thinking; it makes us all think in the same ways, and respond alike. I assumed that it was because of this notion that Clarice was chosen; because she hadn't finished her training, and was still thinking laterally (compared to trained agents), she could "attack" Hannibal from new angles, or at least provide some degree of novelty to Hannibal. In short, Hannibal took a liking to Clarice because she wasn't repeating the same crap the other agents did.

Of course, her lady parts probably helped.