Who knew Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs could be so funny?
Demme knew that he should keep the above bloopers on the cutting room floor, choosing to maintain the tense, dramatic tone of Thomas Harris’ best-selling novel instead of turning it into a flat-out comedy. These bloopers were shared on YouTube. It’s primarily just actors like Scott Glenn, Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster cracking each other up as scenes peter out. Needless to say, breaking the tension on set worked out pretty well for pretty much everyone involved.
I guess it’s just offsetting seeing comedy coming out of a movie that’s so very serious. Oddly enough, you don’t have to look too far to find similar blooper reels from dramatic fare. For example, Lambs beat Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte’s The Prince of Tides in the Best Picture race in 1992 … and THAT movie has a blooper reel, as well.
JFK and Bugsy, not so much.
Coincidentally, I was thinking about Lambs this morning as we combed over the box-office performance of Thor: The Dark World. Specifically, I was contemplating Hopkins’ portrayal of Odin in the Marvel franchise. It’s such a major role, and one that might define the career of an actor who didn’t already have an established legacy like Hopkins. But it speaks to his versatility and his resilience that Odin wouldn’t even make a Top 5 of Hopkins’ performances if one were attempting to rank them. And the list has to be topped by Hannibal Lecter, right?
Would you put some other character on top of that list? Do you like seeing blooper reels from dramas such as this? Share your thoughts with us below, as always!
