Silence of the Lambs Opening Credits Analysis

In this film opening we begin with credits, this is accompanied by ominous music, setting the tone for the film. We then have a series of establishing shots where we can see the location of our film, lots of woodland areas. This mise-en-scene shows a very rural area which denotes a less populated setting, perfect for something thrilling to happen. There is a lot of mist and foggy weather which denotes that it is the early hours of the morning and connotes the idea of concealment and makes the viewer feel uneasy as they are unsure of what may appear out of nowhere. The bare trees add to the eerie effect and emphasize the lack of life.

We then meet the first character, who is also the main character. She is a female and to introduce her there are several shots of her running through the woodland area. At first it is unclear whether she is running from something or someone, however it soon becomes clear that she is training on an assault course, revealing that she is not a typical female character or femme fatale. This part of the scene also might be to portray a possible foreshadowing effect where we might see her later in the film running the same path but under different circumstances.

When she goes indoors, it becomes apparent that she is singled out as a female, with a very masculine environment containing guns and gadgets. However the audience are aware of her being able to take care of herself as she is unlike other typical female characters who are objectified as she is portrayed as unglamorous, sweaty and quite masculine in her ways. She stands out as she is much smaller and dressed in blue compared to all the large men who are dressed in red. In the office setting, things take a more serious tone, with props such as documents, folders and newspaper extracts on the walls. It is apparent that she is respected by those around her by the way her boss talks to her, showing that she is successful in what she does.There are some enigma codes which appear throughout this opening, such as why is she running at the beginning, who is Crawford and why does he want to speak to her and who is Hannibal.

There is a substantial use of diagetic sound, such as heavy breathing, gun shots, running through leaves, helicopters and birdsong. The main genre characteristics, within this film sequence are lone character, that are victims or heroes, police or F.B.I, photographs and clippings on the wall, eerie tension building music. The titles are quite small and simple, white in colour. They come and go, without any special editing.