He's always great... one of those character actors whose name most viewers will never know, but adds so much to every movie he's in. _Silence Of The Lambs... Heat... The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford... Shutter Island..._ and _so many_ more!
Honestly he scared me far more than Hannibal Lecter ever did. He looks and acts like how an actual serial Killer would behave. He’s scary because he’s so realistic. Kudos to the writers who seriously did their homework and Ted Levine is brilliant in the role.
Yeah. I always thought Hannibal Lecter would be an interesting friend and dinner companion (as long as he wasn't cooking the meal and as long as I could be cultured enough not to become the second course). But Jame Gumb is another story.
Hannibal is definitely scary, but I find his level of control in any of his interactions with Clarice weirdly takes him down a notch. There’s not the same ever present danger with him, because he has the ability to control himself and his darkness. Buffalo Bill’s danger is almost unavoidable and the way in which they switch from regular, almost pleasant man to a psychopathic serial killer shows that it exists at all times. Their motive is ever present within their own personal issues, wherein they is a perfect storm just waiting to descend upon our day to day lives. And they were likely to always be this bc they were shaped by their life at large.
I actually didn't see it as mocking on his part but an attempt to copy his victims feminine vocal screams. I perceived his smile and jovial characteristics as being excited that with this woman his woman suit would be closer to completion, and so would he. I see it as excited mimicry.
This movie had a dozen in-your-seat-moments! But mine was Clarice being inside Gumb's home, sees the moth and readies herself. She asks for his phone, and he looks at her and he knows. He knows that she knows. Man, that scene always gets my pulse rising!
@@DanielK1213th - To try to make him believe that she doesn't know, to give herself a couple more seconds to pull her gun in case he actually bought it and went for his phone. Not sure what you mean by "shabbier" though...
@@DanielK1213th you ask for the phone to get his mind to focus on something else than drawing a weapon--he can't have both in his hand. plus he was trying to leave the room to grab his revolver and you want the suspect where you can see their hands (more important than even seeing them or their face--all danger comes from the hands)
Fun fact: At 10:49 The part where Buffalo Bill began to crack a bit while the woman in the well was begging to be freed wasn’t in the script. Ted Levine was legitimately fighting tears because he and the actress grew rather close on set. Seeing her down there crying her eyes out genuinely choked him up and the director left it in because he felt it added to Bills character
It's interesting how someone with such a sweet and kind demeanour as Ted Levine is supposed to have is cast as a serial killer. He absolutely nailed it too. It really shows his empathy that he got choked up at the suffering of a fellow actor's character. What a wonderful man.
Ted Levine crushed this role so hard and was so convincing that he couldn't get another gig playing a role outside of the psycho killer genre. It was an Oscar-worthy performance for a supporting actor. Interesting how the happiest and funniest people play dark and disturbing characters so well.
Another great example of the happiest and funniest people playing dark and disturbing characters are both Bill Hader in Barry and Robin Williams in One Hour Photo.
The mysterious body in the bath tub was a detail from the movie I've always fixated on. Imagine being murdered and left to rot in a basement like that.
One of the best examples I've seen in any film of how to use silence masterfully to create suspense. And in a movie with such an amazing soundtrack, too. The night vision goggles scene is so tense, I can't even breathe while watching it!
What makes Buffalo Bill truly terrifying is that he represents how humans are the true monsters, which is in opposition of Hannibal Lecter who proves that monsters can be human. Ted Levine gives a deeply unsettling performance and the intro to his character when he "helps" the woman unloading stuff from her car and then kidnaps her is genuinely scary.
Is that what happens in the book? Ted Levine doesn't appear in a scene "help a woman unloading stuff"...what are you talking about? He pretends to need help loading HIS OWN PROPERTY, a sofa, into a van. He tricks a US Senator's daughter, Catherine Martin, into getting up into the van and pulling the sofa in, at which point he knocks her half-conscious.
You got it a little backwards. He was wearing a cast and feigning struggle loading a couch into his van, and she helped because she's a decent person. That scene did pretty much become a PSA for women everywhere though
@@jonathanperry8331 Yeah, Ted Bundy used that same technique. The way I read it buffalo Bill is meant to be a combination of 3 real life American psycho killers.
I think Bill is referring to the girl in the well scene as "it" when he demands things from her because he's trying to convince himself that he's not tormenting a human, making it easier for him to commit these horrific acts. Couple that up with lip quivering while the girl pleads for mercy, and you see a creature that, believe it or not, has a small bit of humanity within it that cannot best the monster.
I read elsewhere in the comments that that moment you’re actually describing, was not in the script, and it was one actor reacting to the other because they had grown close over the filming of those details or scenes, and the Director decided to leave it in because it made the killer look more believable
@@You_remind_me_of_the_babe No it’s mentioned in the movie the mother is saying her name over and over to humanize her to the killer. They never address him calling her it.
The most accurate summary is that Jame Gumb endeavored to become his mother because he believed that the only way for him to find love, was through the woman who gave him life.
That line from the book really stuck with me too, when "Buffalo Bill" asks Starling how it felt to be so beautiful. I read that way back in high school like 20 years ago.
The reason for me as to why he comes off so terrifying, outside the actual calibre of the performance and script, was how Lecter describes him to Clarice, shortly before his abduction scene of the Senator's daughter. In that Buffalo Bill's pathology is something far more terrifying. Like imagine Lecter describing someone like this. Givin the introduction we have to Lecter up to that point. This is what gives Buffalo Bill that aura of Symbian black and molasses.
Exactly. The audience doesn't have to figure out Bill's origin because Dr. Lecter paints a very clear, very disturbing picture. The background of Billy that Lecter divulges is far more terrifying than most of us could imagine. Add to that the clinical, even cadence Lecter uses when describing Billy (like he's reading from a patient medical chart) amplifies the gruesome character. Now, knowing his background, whenever Billy is on screen he is exponentially more terrifying.
And it's the fact Bill was made a monster, not born one. We all have predispositions towards things - introversion / extroversion, being sporty / more into reading or art etc. It becomes fascinating in that ... if you had the same experiences, would you have turned out the same?
They say comedy is harder to do than drama. So if an actor can nail comedy, then drama should be a piece of piss for them. That's certainly true of someone like Bryan Cranston.
Buffalo Bill's music montage and makeup scene gets me every time. Especially when he pans out from the camera lookin like an 80's rock star! 10/10 for the "tuck" job, too.
@@CellHeart It was during one of Bill's internal monologues when he was planning out his suit. Since he couldn't ask someone to "zip up the back". But he new of some secret clubs where he could wear his skin suit and be fawned over.
@@davidcanty7903 It's been years since I read the novel but it sounds like he is imagining that or meaning people will think he is a woman at such clubs.
The best part of these videos is that he starts talking along with the character on screen, to make it look like it's the character saying it. Comedy gold.
A detail that absolutely broke my heart from the book was that even after he kidnapped her, Fredericka still believed that he loved her, and she was pleading with him right up until the end to come to his senses.
Between the guy that dances around in front of a mirror with his Willy tucked between his legs, talking to himself while listening to Q Lazzarus, and the eloquent occasional cannibal… I shat myself more over the Willy tucker because that was something that I had never heard or seen before that movie and it was terrifying. Everyone knows about cannibalism, nobody knows much about a guy who jams to Q Lazzarus the way Buffalo Bill did.
The fact that Buffalo bill is based of off real dudes like Ed Gein, the mere idea that it’s possible for a person like Buffalo Bill to exist at all, is actually terrifying.
except some of the stories about Ed Gein were exaggerated; he never wanted to kill women for their skin so he could be one. Lindsay Ellis did a video on this when talking of society's fears of Trans and gender nonconforming people.
@@watching7721 no, but for some weird reason, they tied Gein's skinning women to him being a secret pervert, which gave some inspiration for the Psycho film. Back then, the science of the time connected "sexual perversion" (in Norman's case, dressing up in his mother's clothes) with criminality. Saying there was a link between Norman's "queerness" with his relationship with his mother. It was a dated Freudian psychology at the time, when it was still a new thing. But that dated psychology is what lead to creation of the "Crossdressing Killer" stereotype. Lindsay Ellis explains it better on her video.
10:55 He doesn't wail at his victims to mock them. He notices the primal female nature of the scream and tries to impersonate it (and is seemingly pleased with the result). All part of his desire to transform. Also. I used to assume he got upset by her pleading because it was breaking through to his empathic side. Unfortunately, I've since met a psychologist who explained that this is not how it works when an infant that never learned empathy grows up. There is no empathic side. More likely, the reason is that he was tortured in a similar fashion himself as a child, and her screams and crying remind him of his own suffering, and that is what is upsetting him. I find that even scarier than the original hypothesis.
I don't think it's any kind of empathy or trauma, I just think that he was genuinely annoyed. Like a person working with a buggy computer. Outraged at the failures of what should be an inanimate object that fulfills orders perfectly.
@@kakashihatake6176it legitimately is a pseudoscience. I’m not saying that as an insult but because it’s often incredibly hard to weed out variables, meaning it often doesn’t rely on the common scientific methods to produce results. You can see this in the replication crisis that has recently been going on. Psychology related fields are some of the worst offenders, because oftentimes the researcher ends up just confirming their hypothesis by correlating unrelated details.
My favourite scene : Starling saving Senator’s daughter from Buffalo Bill’s trap . Jodie Foster is excellent as a FBI agent searching for BB in the darkened rooms of this messy house and then the scary “ click “ of the trigger behind her , so scared but so brave and in a flash she turns around and faces him in the dark and pulls the trigger first 😰 Great performance !
This movie was so good and two main villains were very scary, with no blood or gore. Just really bad people that get into your head and messes with it 😂
@@kbo572 Oh yeah, they did have a tv version. I could never understand who looked at a movie about the broken mind of a serial killer and thought "we need to edit this so we can put it on hallmark".
I remember my uncle gave me silence of the lambs dvd and a bottle of lotion in a basket for Christmas and when I took the lotion out, he yelled “put the lotion in the basket!”. After watching the movie, I found it funny but still terrifying
4:28 In the book he thought he could become his mother by killing women and making a skin suit out of them going about it far more violently than Psycho's Norman Bates.
Video ideas: - The Gang from Its Always Sunny In Philedelphia - Clay Puppington from Morel Orel - General Woundwart from Watership Down - Haytham Kenway from the Assassins Creed series - Negan or The Governor from The Walking Dead
What always got me was that after days of starving the girls to make the skin loose, he still gives them a last meal just before the kill. He gives them a little comfort before he kills them. He views the women as a means to an end, but the cruelty is a biproduct not the purpose.
I haven’t heard anyone mention flowers in the attic in over 20 years. Both of these suggestions are great though. Especially we need to talk about Kevin.
Pops had silence of the lambs on VHS and I wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid. When I finally saw the film and saw the actor who played the "chief?" from the show Monk playing a murderer, I really appreciated this actors talents. Good times.
I think Hannibal himself is truly the most terrifying because his evil is hidden behind a veneer of charm and sophistication, rather than being right on the surface
One of my personal favorite villains in cinema, fantastic stuff. I feel like Lincoln Clay from Mafia III would make for a fascinating video, or someone like Vic Mackey from The Shield.
I just finished rewatching this film for the 4th time and I was wondering when you’d drop the Buffalo Bill video. Well thank you Vile Eye sir, it’s always a pleasure to see your content in my feed!
It always puzzled my teenage mind why Jaime didn't just pull the trigger and kill Clarice when he had the chance. I never realized the fact that the same way "he covets what he sees everyday" would come into play again in the climax of the movie.
Yes i always thought this actor was great,but one of the most underrated parts in the film.I love the iconic moment when he slaps up like some cheap heavy metal star and dances to Q Lazarus!!
Ted Levine is so underrated. There's not one bad performance in the whole movie. When people mention a cinematic masterpiece this is the kind of movie their talking about.
That actor deserved more roles in other movies. Even as a supporting character. Nobody should be punished for successfully fulfilling their role in a movie.
It's amazing that he was able to clean his life up after being shot to what seemed to death and go on to be a detective and even work on cases with Monk
I definitely concur with everyone on the talent of Ted Levine . He can pull off playing an insane character like Buffalo Bill to playing police detectives and military officers
I feel Ted Levine’s performance in Silence Of The Lambs is often overlooked because he IS absolutely disgusting, in the most sinister and realistic way possible. Lecter might be a flashier performance, but Buffalo Bill is truly terrifying
This was one of your best!!! I'd be interested in seeing your analysis of Captain Spaulding, Madame Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Baby from The Devil's Rejects
At the very start I was expecting to hear Bill actually say 'it rubs the lotion on its skin'. I forgot Mr. Vile Eye never used film audio. Instead, the "Hello everyone" was so perfectly synced with Bill's facial movements that I woke my cat up laughing. Talking about Buffalo Bill's gender/orientation is just as spicy today as it was back then probably, albeit for different reasons, but I appreciate this take because I think it's closer to what Thomas Harris had in mind. Bill being trans is not the focal point of the horror; it's one part of the amalgamation of sheer badness that makes him up. Tons of serial killers had sexuality or identity crises or motives, and Bill is one killer stitched out of many real-life inspirations. Honestly, him _deciding_ to be trans to craft an identity for himself adds to the horror. Not only is it an intentional targeting of a vulnerable minority, but he's making himself _part_ of that minority, one where they're often told to just stop being like that. I've had trouble reconciling Hannibal's "He's not a real transsexual, but he thinks he is" in my brain for a long time, but I think I get it now. Don't like it.
Yeah, I feel like people who bring Buffalo Bill in trans discourse have missed the point. Anyone can be a serial killer, it's not identity that is terrifying, it's the actions.
@@zhenia2511 Given the anti-trans politics in the US, UK, and Russia, it's not surprising. JK Rowling wrote a novel under a male pseudonym about a serial killer who dressed as a woman to attack women. Multiple US states deny service to minors to let them figure out their gender. Puberty blockers have an established safety profile yet politicians act like it is experimental and mutilation despite it being used for decades as part of treatment to prevent early onset puberty.
After first watching "Silence of the Lambs," I reflected on the following: "Wow, Jodi Foster did such a great performance!" "OMG, Anthony Hopkins is AMAZING in this role!" "Buffalo Bill is a terrifying killer and a deeply troubled soul." Not once did I think of the actor and his "performance."
It's one of the highest compliments I could think of. He pulls you right into the moment whenever he's on screen, and feels completely twisted but also profoundly real. I've been watching this movie for years and only recently thought of him as an actor doing such a great job. :-) @@frannnie
He is an absolute master actor. And handsome too, sadly, he was always gonna be this character in the eyes of casting agents. This is his most iconic role as a result. Can’t imagine had he been given more of a chance in the industry how many more characters he would’ve mastered.
Gumb was, in fact, a composite of no less than six real life serial killers known for cruelty and brutality: Jerry Brudos: Like Gumb, he killed victims by strangling, wore their clothes and kept their shoes as souvenirs. Ed Gein: Like Gumb, he made trophies and clothing from his victims’ corpses Ted Bundy: Like Gumb, he pretended to be injured to lure victims close. Gary M. Heindik: Like Gumb, he kidnapped and raped victims, keeping them prisoner in a pit. Edmund Kemper: Like Gumb, he claimed to have killed his grandparents “just to see what it felt like”. Gary Ridgway (aka the Green River Killer, not identified or apprehended at the time the novel was written): Like Gumb, he dumped bodies of victims in rivers after sodomizing them with objects.
A very well drawn character, very commendable the way they gave the serial killer added dimensions contrasted to how they are generally depicted in movies. Buffalo Bill also has a dog which he loves which itself is unusual for these types of people, they usually tortured animals as kids.
I like how lector says the newspaper won’t say why he’s called Buffalo bill but in the first two mins we see newspaper headlines on a wall that says Buffalo Bill skins his fifth victim lol
The character is based on Ed Gein. Ed was making a mommy suit from grave robberies. His sickness was festered by his dominating mother. There's every reason to assume that Bills mother was no saint.
Awesome production, your video on Francis dolarhyde made me feel like watching the series in chronological order with a more psychological viewpoint and it didn’t disappoint. Keep them coming my man
You should do Next: Negan From the Walking Dead, Marlo Stanfield from the Wire, Legate Lanuis and Caeser from Fallout New Vegas and Homelander from the Boy's
The Wire has countless evil forces that warrant deep analysis. Marlo as you say, Snoop; Levy, Stringer, Avon, and Clay to name a few. Arguably Burrell too.
@@jakexdilla A mans world podcasts has some good ones and a few others but I'm curious what the vile eyes take would be multiple perspectives are always good
I don’t think Legate Lanius would be a good video. There’s really no build up to him as a villain; he’s just meant to be a big dude to fight in the end. We get next to no backstory on him. Caesar could be a great video though.
Thomas Harris writes books about empathy. And why the lack of it occurs. There is a clear feeling that the only villain in all of them is reality itself. Because it molds human beings into monsters.
I've always felt very, very sad for Jame Gumb. I don't know what it is about his persona that makes all my empathy and sympathy go bananas, but I just want to give that man a hug and tell him it will all be OK, even though I know it won't ever be OK for him. I want him to get help, I want to see him in a *great* psychological facility *(where he'd spend the rest of his life),* but where he would have a chance to fill in the blanks in his hunt for who he is. I know it's probably something most people would say is weird. But ever since I read the book and saw the film for the first time, I haven't been able to shake the feeling of deep sorrow when I think about him.
I know what you mean and I think much of that (in the film, at least) is due to Ted Levine’s performance. He plays Gumb as a child - not child-like or child-ish, but as an actual little boy. It’s particularly evident in the way he talks to Catherine Martin in the basement pit. The “puts the lotion on it’s skin” lines have unfortunately become a meme, but if you listen to him with fresh ears, it’s done in the cadence of a child’s game. James’ psyche is forever frozen in time as a terrified and confused little boy - with the tools and acumen of a ferocious, wounded, and powerful grown man.
@@Goldenspiderducck I've been spared that meme, so I have the sound of his voice fresh in my mind (mostly because I've watched and re-watched the movie countless times by now) and you are absolutely right! I haven't thought about it that way, I have seen him as very child-like (like someone who's been traumatized early in life often is, it doesn't really matter *when* in life your mind gets scarred by something, most people sort of stop evolving emotionally anyway when they get traumatized) but I never saw him as a literal *child* in a mans body, since he had such a sexual manner. But that is completely logical too, now that I think about it. If you've been sexually abused, some people get overly sexual, and sometimes that shows in kind of "weird" ways - I'm not pointing at him seeing himself as either gay or transsexual as weird, hell I'm bisexual myself, but I mean it in the way he chooses to show his sexuality. He doesn't know who he is, so he tries a bit of everything. And everything he does has a tone of both child-like play and sexuality to it, and that reads as weird in an eerie way. At least it does to me.
If he had succeeded in creating that full bodysuit he intended, it wouldn't have worked as it wouldn't have made him satisfied or happy or whole. Jame Gumb would have looked for something else to want and gone after it.
I've read all 4 books and they are pure art. But I absolutely cannot wait till you do one on Francis Dolarhyde!!! I've always said that was easily the most underrated villain of all time. The books version of him is absolutely terrifying. A guy built like Brock Lesnar being commanded by a biblical painting of a dragon to evolve himself by killing entire families (main focus was on the wives), sheesh. I could go on and on but you get the idea. Feinnes did a good job in the movie but was half the size of the version in the book. Tom Noonan from Manhunter, well, I'll be nice and not say anything lol. No disrespect, he just wasn't Francis Dolarhyde in my eyes. Dolarhyde was an instrument of pure fear, terror and madness yet cool and calm, able to hide it at the same time. Anyway your videos are always a delight man, keep it up 🙂
Mason was the worse for me, a true evil, spoilt rotten pig. Margo wasn't much better neither. Did you watch the Hannibal series, Richard Armitage was excellent IMO.
@@LilLadyAy Oh my gosh yes Verger was purely disgusting. Knew he'd get away with his sh!t too because of his family. I actually did watch a great deal of the show. The way they portrayed Graham kinda upset me a bit. Forgive my cluelessness but isn't armitage the one they had play Dolarhyde?? Sorry I'm terrible with names sometimes lol
@@Tylerdurdensoapman yes, he played the red dragon who shows up in S3 and is the main opposition. I wasn't too keen on everything, like the OTT effort to make Will more likeable and the gender swapping but it still manages to be a great adaptation by those who have clearly read the books.😊
@@LilLadyAy Ahhh yes ok I thought that's what you meant. Well, pure honesty, he was decent. He did a good job acting but I'm probably biased in how shy Feinnes made him, which mirrors the book. Acting wise I can't bash him because ultimately he delivered. I'm a bodybuilder so I still wish we could have a BIG guy for it lol. For a TV show I'll take it. As for Will, he was a whiny bitch in the show lol. In the books he was just a smart f*cking cop who could think certain ways. It was said he viewed his work as "intellectual exercise". The show presents him so bad I thought honestly. Biggest thing that saved the series was Mikkelsen ❤️
@@LilLadyAy And yeah Lounds being a woman lol unnecessary I thought. Robs us of getting to see the wheelchair races on fire lol. Especially when he's like a fatter, more slovenly guy. Huge stretch from the origin.
This is a really good way of explaining this! I'm transgender and every time I tell someone that I love silence of the lambs I have to explain how I could love a movie that's transphobic. And then I have to explain "no, it's not transphobic. He's not actually trans, he's actually himself a transphobe because he's essentially co-opting and mocking our experience in using it to act out his deranged fantasy" (given his Nazi paraphernalia, it kinda seems like he himself is a bigot). The character of James Gumb is based very closely on Ed Geene, a real life serial killer who tried to make a "woman suit" in an effort to become his mother, with whom he was totally obsessed. Gumb is doing the same thing. He's not trans. He just hates himself and has major mommy issues. I wish the filmmakers had made that a little more obvious because in making it more subtle, a lot of people missed the point of Gumb's attempted metamorphosis and DID take away a transphobic message from the movie (one which has unfortunately propagated a lot of unfortunate and horrible trans stereotypes. However that doesn't mean that the movie itself is transphobic. It's certainly not trans positive, but given the time in which it came out, that the movie even attempted to NOT be transphobic was an act of transpositivity in itself (which is really sad). I still love Silence of the Lambs. Even if it inadvertently propagated some dreadful stereotypes, it's still a brilliant work of feminist filmmaking. And it's not the filmmakers' fault people were too stupid to listen when Hannibal said 'he's not actually trans'.
Hell yeah this video is the only good analysis of this character online everyone else is just talking about how transphobic this film is which is absolutely wrong
I’m also transgender and love this film. They specifically say that “transsexuals” are not violent and that Buffalo Bill isn’t actually trans. Seems like people didn’t bother to actually watch the film.
@@FemcelFurio right?! I don't love the use of "transsexuals", since I think when Clarisse said it she was using it as a blanket term for all trans people, even though not all of us are transsexual, but it was the 80s and they kind of used that as a blanket term for trans people of any sort. (for anyone who doesn't know, transsexuals are trans people who have chosen to undergo what we call "bottom surgery". Ergo, their sex equipment is different from what it was originally. It's different from transgender which is a person who identifies as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. )
still one of those antagonists that i find myself thinking about late at night. 😓dude is downright terrifying, especially in that scene where he's wailing at the governor's daughter! easily one of my favorite horror/crime films of all time
Some are better than others but I got to say I really love this series much more than most other stuff on RUclips They are very well done keep up the good work brotha!!
Someone suggested looking into AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and that does seem like a good idea to make a video about him. Especially with the game that came out afterwards that fleshed him out more as well as his victims. This is villain who won't give you a moments rest to continue to torture you, for all eternity if possible.
Ted Levine acted his heart out in this film, and then just never got offered a role close to this caliber ever again. Really a shame.
At least he later had Monk and Shutter Island
He's had dozens of huge rolls
Ted Levine is a underrated actor. It's such a shame that Hollywood never got to exploited his Talent 💯% 😔
He was amazing in this. I agree.
He had the voice role of the trucker in Joy Ride as well.
Ted Levine played the hell out of this role. He was also great as the Warden in Shutter Island.
As well as the chief in Monk!
@@sexualyeti7023 WOW!! I would NEVER have picked up on that!! Well spotted!!
He's always great... one of those character actors whose name most viewers will never know, but adds so much to every movie he's in.
_Silence Of The Lambs... Heat... The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford... Shutter Island..._ and _so many_ more!
@@Jimmy1982Playlists I forgot that he was in Heat.
wtf, this guy was the warden in Shutter Island? These are the types of actors that are truly amazing in their craft
Honestly he scared me far more than Hannibal Lecter ever did. He looks and acts like how an actual serial Killer would behave. He’s scary because he’s so realistic. Kudos to the writers who seriously did their homework and Ted Levine is brilliant in the role.
Hannibal Lecter never really clicked with me but Bill absolutely did. He’s horrifying in his bizarre behavior and I love him
Jame Gumb is like a real serial killer in every way but gender. Most real ones are cisgender straight guys.
Yeah. I always thought Hannibal Lecter would be an interesting friend and dinner companion (as long as he wasn't cooking the meal and as long as I could be cultured enough not to become the second course). But Jame Gumb is another story.
Hannibal is definitely scary, but I find his level of control in any of his interactions with Clarice weirdly takes him down a notch. There’s not the same ever present danger with him, because he has the ability to control himself and his darkness. Buffalo Bill’s danger is almost unavoidable and the way in which they switch from regular, almost pleasant man to a psychopathic serial killer shows that it exists at all times. Their motive is ever present within their own personal issues, wherein they is a perfect storm just waiting to descend upon our day to day lives. And they were likely to always be this bc they were shaped by their life at large.
@@hkazu63 I always felt that behind Lector's calm demeanor was a raging animal caged in!!
The part where he mockingly laughs at the girl in the well is still one the scariest things I've ever seen in a movie.
That's literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this video posted... absolutely _horrifying!_ 😨😱
I actually didn't see it as mocking on his part but an attempt to copy his victims feminine vocal screams. I perceived his smile and jovial characteristics as being excited that with this woman his woman suit would be closer to completion, and so would he. I see it as excited mimicry.
@@Pirated89 that's exactly how I interpreted it too
Autogynephiles be like that lol
@@Pirated89 I could definitely see that. Makes perfect sense!
This movie had a dozen in-your-seat-moments! But mine was Clarice being inside Gumb's home, sees the moth and readies herself. She asks for his phone, and he looks at her and he knows. He knows that she knows. Man, that scene always gets my pulse rising!
Why would she ask for a phone inside of a killers house? She messed up bad. An FBI agent would be shabbier than this
@@DanielK1213th - To try to make him believe that she doesn't know, to give herself a couple more seconds to pull her gun in case he actually bought it and went for his phone.
Not sure what you mean by "shabbier" though...
@@DanielK1213th you ask for the phone to get his mind to focus on something else than drawing a weapon--he can't have both in his hand. plus he was trying to leave the room to grab his revolver and you want the suspect where you can see their hands (more important than even seeing them or their face--all danger comes from the hands)
I KNOW!!!
Omg that scene was so intense my sister and I actually had to get it and run around the room, we were THAT on edge 😂😂😂
Fun fact: At 10:49 The part where Buffalo Bill began to crack a bit while the woman in the well was begging to be freed wasn’t in the script. Ted Levine was legitimately fighting tears because he and the actress grew rather close on set. Seeing her down there crying her eyes out genuinely choked him up and the director left it in because he felt it added to Bills character
It's interesting how someone with such a sweet and kind demeanour as Ted Levine is supposed to have is cast as a serial killer. He absolutely nailed it too. It really shows his empathy that he got choked up at the suffering of a fellow actor's character. What a wonderful man.
@@chymira182Actors acting is amazing. 😂
Awesome. I hadn’t heard that. I love stories like that from behind the scenes.
Thank you.
Her pleading to be let out is gut wrenching. Kudos to both on a job well done!
Ted Levine crushed this role so hard and was so convincing that he couldn't get another gig playing a role outside of the psycho killer genre. It was an Oscar-worthy performance for a supporting actor. Interesting how the happiest and funniest people play dark and disturbing characters so well.
Was he even nominated?!? Some actors don't get the acclaim they deserve because they literally disappear into their characters.
I've heard the same for Anthony Heald, "Dr. Chilton".
Another great example of the happiest and funniest people playing dark and disturbing characters are both Bill Hader in Barry and Robin Williams in One Hour Photo.
@@jakexdilla Robin Williams was far from happy.
@@steelerfreak1977 never - ever?
The mysterious body in the bath tub was a detail from the movie I've always fixated on. Imagine being murdered and left to rot in a basement like that.
I always thought that was the old lady he'd bought the house from.
@@selenedm999 damn that would actually make a lot of sense. I like that lol
I hit on this comment right at the exact moment they showed that part, it's Mrs. Libman, the lady who took in alterations!
@@widowrumstrypze9705 So...the lady he bought the house from!
He was leaving them, not to rot, but for the epidermis layer to stiffen like leather for his “projects”
The climax where he's wearing night vision glasses, following Clarice around his chamber of horrors is one of the greatest horror movie scenes ever .
One of the best examples I've seen in any film of how to use silence masterfully to create suspense. And in a movie with such an amazing soundtrack, too. The night vision goggles scene is so tense, I can't even breathe while watching it!
Suspense done right.
That scene is also taken a bit from Wait Until Dark (1967) minus the goggles.
What makes Buffalo Bill truly terrifying is that he represents how humans are the true monsters, which is in opposition of Hannibal Lecter who proves that monsters can be human. Ted Levine gives a deeply unsettling performance and the intro to his character when he "helps" the woman unloading stuff from her car and then kidnaps her is genuinely scary.
Is that what happens in the book? Ted Levine doesn't appear in a scene "help a woman unloading stuff"...what are you talking about? He pretends to need help loading HIS OWN PROPERTY, a sofa, into a van. He tricks a US Senator's daughter, Catherine Martin, into getting up into the van and pulling the sofa in, at which point he knocks her half-conscious.
You got it a little backwards. He was wearing a cast and feigning struggle loading a couch into his van, and she helped because she's a decent person. That scene did pretty much become a PSA for women everywhere though
What makes it even more terrifying is he was based on a real person
@@jonathanperry8331 Yeah, Ted Bundy used that same technique. The way I read it buffalo Bill is meant to be a combination of 3 real life American psycho killers.
@@jonathanperry8331 Classic Ted Bundy.
I think Bill is referring to the girl in the well scene as "it" when he demands things from her because he's trying to convince himself that he's not tormenting a human, making it easier for him to commit these horrific acts. Couple that up with lip quivering while the girl pleads for mercy, and you see a creature that, believe it or not, has a small bit of humanity within it that cannot best the monster.
I see it the other way, he calls her it because he legitimately doesn't see her as human.
He is the less dangerous versión of the T's
Consider how they rape more Kids than any other human group
I read elsewhere in the comments that that moment you’re actually describing, was not in the script, and it was one actor reacting to the other because they had grown close over the filming of those details or scenes, and the Director decided to leave it in because it made the killer look more believable
They say that in the movie, homie
@@You_remind_me_of_the_babe No it’s mentioned in the movie the mother is saying her name over and over to humanize her to the killer. They never address him calling her it.
PUT THE FUCKING LOTION IN THE BASKET!!!!
i absolutely love this movie and ted levine’s performance. it’s one of my favorite movies
Oh you beat me to it
Was she a big huge fat person?
@@dpc107 You can have a basket too
"I'm playing Lambs"
@@EvanSchatz😂 Cartman is sick!
The most accurate summary is that Jame Gumb endeavored to become his mother because he believed that the only way for him to find love, was through the woman who gave him life.
So Ed Gein
All he had 2 do is wsit a few years he would've been happily assigned any surgery he wanted now.......
yeah, he was just looking for love, what a romantic. thank you dr freudenstein
@@TheRealBatCave Seeing that the book takes place in the 80s…. No. He couldn’t.
@@kman9884 never 2 late....lol
That line from the book really stuck with me too, when "Buffalo Bill" asks Starling how it felt to be so beautiful. I read that way back in high school like 20 years ago.
The reason for me as to why he comes off so terrifying, outside the actual calibre of the performance and script, was how Lecter describes him to Clarice, shortly before his abduction scene of the Senator's daughter.
In that Buffalo Bill's pathology is something far more terrifying.
Like imagine Lecter describing someone like this. Givin the introduction we have to Lecter up to that point.
This is what gives Buffalo Bill that aura of Symbian black and molasses.
Exactly. The audience doesn't have to figure out Bill's origin because Dr. Lecter paints a very clear, very disturbing picture. The background of Billy that Lecter divulges is far more terrifying than most of us could imagine. Add to that the clinical, even cadence Lecter uses when describing Billy (like he's reading from a patient medical chart) amplifies the gruesome character. Now, knowing his background, whenever Billy is on screen he is exponentially more terrifying.
And it's the fact Bill was made a monster, not born one.
We all have predispositions towards things - introversion / extroversion, being sporty / more into reading or art etc.
It becomes fascinating in that ... if you had the same experiences, would you have turned out the same?
For me, I did not fear Lecter because he was not a threat to Clarice, Jame Gumb was. The ending left me shaking the first time I watched this movie.
Say what you will about our little Billy…
His music taste was on point.
Saw SotL when I was like 14, & I still listen to Goodbye Horses as a grown man.
@@goodlordyogurt Hip Priest.
Jay and Silent Bob would agree lol!
I’d f me
Alone by Colin Newman is also a great track!
This movie is a timeless masterpiece, all actors were splendid in with their craft, both vilains were no exceptions.
It is shocking, how good the actor is playing this character and also being a comical police lieutenant in Mr.Monk TV series.
First fast and furious also
I know! My mind literally blew apart when I realised they were one and the same
They say comedy is harder to do than drama. So if an actor can nail comedy, then drama should be a piece of piss for them.
That's certainly true of someone like Bryan Cranston.
Talk about range!
Ted Levine 150% deserved a best supporting actor nomination for this role. He was so convincing as a complete and utter psychopath.
Buffalo Bill's music montage and makeup scene gets me every time. Especially when he pans out from the camera lookin like an 80's rock star!
10/10 for the "tuck" job, too.
Looking like David Lee Roth
@@rucianapollard7098 I couldn't figure out who he looked like. Spot on, mate! A winner is you!
The song is goodbye horses by Q lazzarus. Excellent song.
The scariest part was that Buffalo Bill supposedly knew certain clubs where he could wear his skin suit openly.
Vito Spatafore knew clubs where he could openly wear his leather chaps.
WTF? Where, did the novel say that? I don't recall anything like that
@@CellHeart It was during one of Bill's internal monologues when he was planning out his suit. Since he couldn't ask someone to "zip up the back". But he new of some secret clubs where he could wear his skin suit and be fawned over.
@@davidcanty7903 It's been years since I read the novel but it sounds like he is imagining that or meaning people will think he is a woman at such clubs.
Where did you get that info?? I read the book several times and saw the movie several times! I don't recall what you are talking about!
12:55
“Sowed (sewed) evil…”
Well done, Vile.
I love the two entomologists playing bug chess. It is such an iconic scene even though it is brief and definitely not evil.
The best part of these videos is that he starts talking along with the character on screen, to make it look like it's the character saying it. Comedy gold.
The first time I watched his videos that surprised me so much
Still can’t believe this is the same guy who played that mercenary in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. Great actor
He was also in Heat
And Shutter Island
A detail that absolutely broke my heart from the book was that even after he kidnapped her, Fredericka still believed that he loved her, and she was pleading with him right up until the end to come to his senses.
Between the guy that dances around in front of a mirror with his Willy tucked between his legs, talking to himself while listening to Q Lazzarus, and the eloquent occasional cannibal… I shat myself more over the Willy tucker because that was something that I had never heard or seen before that movie and it was terrifying. Everyone knows about cannibalism, nobody knows much about a guy who jams to Q Lazzarus the way Buffalo Bill did.
The fact that Buffalo bill is based of off real dudes like Ed Gein, the mere idea that it’s possible for a person like Buffalo Bill to exist at all, is actually terrifying.
except some of the stories about Ed Gein were exaggerated; he never wanted to kill women for their skin so he could be one.
Lindsay Ellis did a video on this when talking of society's fears of Trans and gender nonconforming people.
@@sammyvictors2603 ngl, I don't think it was the fact that he was gender nonconforming that made Ed Gein infamous
@@watching7721 no, but for some weird reason, they tied Gein's skinning women to him being a secret pervert, which gave some inspiration for the Psycho film.
Back then, the science of the time connected "sexual perversion" (in Norman's case, dressing up in his mother's clothes) with criminality. Saying there was a link between Norman's "queerness" with his relationship with his mother.
It was a dated Freudian psychology at the time, when it was still a new thing.
But that dated psychology is what lead to creation of the "Crossdressing Killer" stereotype.
Lindsay Ellis explains it better on her video.
@Greg Elchert the Feigning Helplessness tactic is older than Bundy.
Classic stories of Femme Fatales and Vamps have used that.
Speaking of sick serial killers, I recommend looking up Albert Fish, AKA “The Gray Man.” That guy was a real jerk.
Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill was a real shock for those who grew up watching him on Monk
Oh shit he stottlemeyer.
10:55 He doesn't wail at his victims to mock them. He notices the primal female nature of the scream and tries to impersonate it (and is seemingly pleased with the result). All part of his desire to transform.
Also. I used to assume he got upset by her pleading because it was breaking through to his empathic side. Unfortunately, I've since met a psychologist who explained that this is not how it works when an infant that never learned empathy grows up. There is no empathic side. More likely, the reason is that he was tortured in a similar fashion himself as a child, and her screams and crying remind him of his own suffering, and that is what is upsetting him. I find that even scarier than the original hypothesis.
I don't think it's any kind of empathy or trauma, I just think that he was genuinely annoyed. Like a person working with a buggy computer. Outraged at the failures of what should be an inanimate object that fulfills orders perfectly.
In the book he's annoyed that she's loud
Psychotherapy is nonsense
@@no_peace because....?
@@kakashihatake6176it legitimately is a pseudoscience. I’m not saying that as an insult but because it’s often incredibly hard to weed out variables, meaning it often doesn’t rely on the common scientific methods to produce results.
You can see this in the replication crisis that has recently been going on. Psychology related fields are some of the worst offenders, because oftentimes the researcher ends up just confirming their hypothesis by correlating unrelated details.
My favourite scene : Starling saving Senator’s daughter from Buffalo Bill’s trap . Jodie Foster is excellent as a FBI agent searching for BB in the darkened rooms of this messy house and then the scary “ click “ of the trigger behind her , so scared but so brave and in a flash she turns around and faces him in the dark and pulls the trigger first 😰 Great performance !
This movie was so good and two main villains were very scary, with no blood or gore. Just really bad people that get into your head and messes with it 😂
I mean, to be clear, there is like, a ton of blood and gore in silence of the lambs
Dude, Bill makes human skin suits... What movie did you watch?
uuummm, Lecter's escape had one of the guards crucified with his guts hanging out, That was pretty gory.
@@coolcatjack7169Maybe OP only watched the safe, edited for TNT version
@@kbo572 Oh yeah, they did have a tv version. I could never understand who looked at a movie about the broken mind of a serial killer and thought "we need to edit this so we can put it on hallmark".
I remember my uncle gave me silence of the lambs dvd and a bottle of lotion in a basket for Christmas and when I took the lotion out, he yelled “put the lotion in the basket!”. After watching the movie, I found it funny but still terrifying
4:28 In the book he thought he could become his mother by killing women and making a skin suit out of them going about it far more violently than Psycho's Norman Bates.
Ala Ed Gein...
11:42 He felt some guilt for what he was doing to his victims but tried to suppress it by calling them "it" and treating them like objects.
Video ideas:
- The Gang from Its Always Sunny In Philedelphia
- Clay Puppington from Morel Orel
- General Woundwart from Watership Down
- Haytham Kenway from the Assassins Creed series
- Negan or The Governor from The Walking Dead
Excellent suggestions
I would love one on the Watership down villain. Just corrupt community leaders in general are just great to read on.
I second General Woundwart!
Maybe he should make mini analyses of each gang member, then make a big video about them in general.
Clay is a monster 👹
Still can't get over the fact this boys name was "JAME GUM" lmao
Lmao James Gunn
@@georgecastanza6712 it shoves the last name down its throat or it gets the hose again
Never had a chance from birth💀🤣
It is stated that the unusual spelling of his name is due to a clerical error on his birth certificate "that no one bothered to correct".
What always got me was that after days of starving the girls to make the skin loose, he still gives them a last meal just before the kill. He gives them a little comfort before he kills them. He views the women as a means to an end, but the cruelty is a biproduct not the purpose.
Not giving up until you analyze Kevin from We Need to Talk about Kevin and the grandmother from Flowers in the Attic.
I haven’t heard anyone mention flowers in the attic in over 20 years. Both of these suggestions are great though. Especially we need to talk about Kevin.
Yes, Kevin, especially!!
Flowers in the Attic was also based on a disturbing true story.
Ooooh, good ones!! Especially the grandmother from Flowers In The Attic
Pops had silence of the lambs on VHS and I wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid. When I finally saw the film and saw the actor who played the "chief?" from the show Monk playing a murderer, I really appreciated this actors talents. Good times.
It'd be amazing to see you analyze Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter from the Hannibal show.
Mads is superior to Hopkins Hannibal. It isn't even close.
Nor EVEN close brother. Mikkelsen´s Hannibal is the greatest psychopath of all time.@@eroldcroft3045
Buffalo Bill was such a depraved, depressing, and memorable character.
Ted Levine was both terrifying and mesmerizing in this role! Like you want to look away, but you can't. He deserved an award for this!
he was my crush for a while... don't know why, I just found him interesting.
He played the idea of being trans better and more realistically than anyone ever
@@CiriOfcentra-eq4kqnope, ur wrong
Personally, I think he is the most terrifying antagonist in the Hannibal movies.
Definite top contender. My vote goes to Mason Verger
Francis Dolarhyde for me. Dude is scary af.
@@mitchellmahurin3465 I’d say Mason is the most evil, Bill is the most terrifying.
I think Hannibal himself is truly the most terrifying because his evil is hidden behind a veneer of charm and sophistication, rather than being right on the surface
The old pedophile is the most evil imo
"Was she a big fat girl?" The way BB asked Jodie Foster that question has always made me chuckle. Even now and I'm just typing on a keyboard.
One of my personal favorite villains in cinema, fantastic stuff. I feel like Lincoln Clay from Mafia III would make for a fascinating video, or someone like Vic Mackey from The Shield.
I had forgotten Vic Mackey. Good idea, Brandon!
I just finished rewatching this film for the 4th time and I was wondering when you’d drop the Buffalo Bill video. Well thank you Vile Eye sir, it’s always a pleasure to see your content in my feed!
Tony soprano: if buffalo bill wanted to pursue that lifestyle he shoulda done so quietly!
Silvio dante: well he was, wasn’t he?
It always puzzled my teenage mind why Jaime didn't just pull the trigger and kill Clarice when he had the chance. I never realized the fact that the same way "he covets what he sees everyday" would come into play again in the climax of the movie.
Yes i always thought this actor was great,but one of the most underrated parts in the film.I love the iconic moment when he slaps up like some cheap heavy metal star and dances to Q Lazarus!!
FINALLY, a villain I've wanted to see analyzed on this channel, thank you!😃
IT PUTS THE LOTION ON IT'S SKIN
Ted Levine is so underrated. There's not one bad performance in the whole movie. When people mention a cinematic masterpiece this is the kind of movie their talking about.
That actor deserved more roles in other movies. Even as a supporting character. Nobody should be punished for successfully fulfilling their role in a movie.
It's amazing that he was able to clean his life up after being shot to what seemed to death and go on to be a detective and even work on cases with Monk
I definitely concur with everyone on the talent of Ted Levine . He can pull off playing an insane character like Buffalo Bill to playing police detectives and military officers
I feel Ted Levine’s performance in Silence Of The Lambs is often overlooked because he IS absolutely disgusting, in the most sinister and realistic way possible. Lecter might be a flashier performance, but Buffalo Bill is truly terrifying
He's a mix between Ted Bundy, Ed Gein and Gary Heidnik, and all three of them were nightmarish enough on their own
Watching "Monk", I couldn't stop thinking, "Buffalo Bill is playing a cop" whenever Ted Levine's character was around!
This was one of your best!!!
I'd be interested in seeing your analysis of Captain Spaulding, Madame Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Baby from The Devil's Rejects
Hear me out; Eric Cartman from South Park.
If it doesn't get done he will kick you in the nuts.
At the very start I was expecting to hear Bill actually say 'it rubs the lotion on its skin'. I forgot Mr. Vile Eye never used film audio.
Instead, the "Hello everyone" was so perfectly synced with Bill's facial movements that I woke my cat up laughing.
Talking about Buffalo Bill's gender/orientation is just as spicy today as it was back then probably, albeit for different reasons, but I appreciate this take because I think it's closer to what Thomas Harris had in mind. Bill being trans is not the focal point of the horror; it's one part of the amalgamation of sheer badness that makes him up. Tons of serial killers had sexuality or identity crises or motives, and Bill is one killer stitched out of many real-life inspirations.
Honestly, him _deciding_ to be trans to craft an identity for himself adds to the horror. Not only is it an intentional targeting of a vulnerable minority, but he's making himself _part_ of that minority, one where they're often told to just stop being like that.
I've had trouble reconciling Hannibal's "He's not a real transsexual, but he thinks he is" in my brain for a long time, but I think I get it now. Don't like it.
Hannibal even says it in the film he’s not a real transsexual. He’s a man with autogynephilia.
He used audio in Nurse Ratched video.
Yeah, I feel like people who bring Buffalo Bill in trans discourse have missed the point. Anyone can be a serial killer, it's not identity that is terrifying, it's the actions.
@@zhenia2511 Given the anti-trans politics in the US, UK, and Russia, it's not surprising. JK Rowling wrote a novel under a male pseudonym about a serial killer who dressed as a woman to attack women. Multiple US states deny service to minors to let them figure out their gender. Puberty blockers have an established safety profile yet politicians act like it is experimental and mutilation despite it being used for decades as part of treatment to prevent early onset puberty.
After first watching "Silence of the Lambs," I reflected on the following:
"Wow, Jodi Foster did such a great performance!"
"OMG, Anthony Hopkins is AMAZING in this role!"
"Buffalo Bill is a terrifying killer and a deeply troubled soul."
Not once did I think of the actor and his "performance."
lol i can’t tell if this is a compliment or an insult
It's one of the highest compliments I could think of. He pulls you right into the moment whenever he's on screen, and feels completely twisted but also profoundly real. I've been watching this movie for years and only recently thought of him as an actor doing such a great job. :-) @@frannnie
@@DUANEYAISER i totally agree!!! sorry for making that assumption you’re absolutely correct, i wish hollywood would cast him in more films :(
This movie could not be made today. It would be considered transphobic.
It already is, I'm surprised it hasn't been canceled
tell me you don't have media literacy without telling me you don't have media literacy
They literally say Jame isn’t trans in the movie: he just has insane mommy issues
@@ahkarivae stop using stupid phrases from 5 years ago, try new material.
@@an-animal-lover no it isn’t lol. Most are mentally unstable
He is an absolute master actor. And handsome too, sadly, he was always gonna be this character in the eyes of casting agents. This is his most iconic role as a result. Can’t imagine had he been given more of a chance in the industry how many more characters he would’ve mastered.
Gumb was, in fact, a composite of no less than six real life serial killers known for cruelty and brutality:
Jerry Brudos: Like Gumb, he killed victims by strangling, wore their clothes and kept their shoes as souvenirs.
Ed Gein: Like Gumb, he made trophies and clothing from his victims’ corpses
Ted Bundy: Like Gumb, he pretended to be injured to lure victims close.
Gary M. Heindik: Like Gumb, he kidnapped and raped victims, keeping them prisoner in a pit.
Edmund Kemper: Like Gumb, he claimed to have killed his grandparents “just to see what it felt like”.
Gary Ridgway (aka the Green River Killer, not identified or apprehended at the time the novel was written): Like Gumb, he dumped bodies of victims in rivers after sodomizing them with objects.
"How many James are in this video?"
"Oh, just the one. Just one Jame"
A very well drawn character, very commendable the way they gave the serial killer added dimensions contrasted to how they are generally depicted in movies. Buffalo Bill also has a dog which he loves which itself is unusual for these types of people, they usually tortured animals as kids.
I would say Bill was a complete psychotic with profound personality disorder issues rather than a psychpath.
Jame reminds me so much of Chris Chan
JULAYYYYY
I like how lector says the newspaper won’t say why he’s called Buffalo bill but in the first two mins we see newspaper headlines on a wall that says Buffalo Bill skins his fifth victim lol
“This one skins his humps” is why he’s called Buffalo Bill.
Lector can't be right about everything.
Well Lector probably isn't very well versed in the lore of Buffalo Bill, and maybe none of the papers described the exact origin.
Maybe lecter is reading outdated newspapers
I think he knew he just wanted Clarisse to say it
FUN FACT: The actor who does the voice of Chris in "Family Guy" based Chris's voice on Gumb.
"Was she a great big fat person?"
You should do Begbie from trainspotting
Fookin' brand new, baby.
He's not evil. He's just unhinged and crazy
The character is based on Ed Gein. Ed was making a mommy suit from grave robberies. His sickness was festered by his dominating mother. There's every reason to assume that Bills mother was no saint.
By far the scariest antagonist i have ever experienced. Great work Vile
Another brilliant video! You deserve a million subscribers!!!
Awesome production, your video on Francis dolarhyde made me feel like watching the series in chronological order with a more psychological viewpoint and it didn’t disappoint. Keep them coming my man
I love your analysis to my favorite character, I would love if you do all 8 main characters from The Hateful Eight.
Absolutely brilliant analysis, could listen to you for hours.
You should do Next: Negan From the Walking Dead, Marlo Stanfield from the Wire, Legate Lanuis and Caeser from Fallout New Vegas and Homelander from the Boy's
The Wire has countless evil forces that warrant deep analysis. Marlo as you say, Snoop; Levy, Stringer, Avon, and Clay to name a few. Arguably Burrell too.
@@jakexdilla A mans world podcasts has some good ones and a few others but I'm curious what the vile eyes take would be multiple perspectives are always good
The boys isn’t over, he’s stated this before he can’t do Homelander until the boys is finished
I don’t think Legate Lanius would be a good video. There’s really no build up to him as a villain; he’s just meant to be a big dude to fight in the end. We get next to no backstory on him. Caesar could be a great video though.
@@Garrus1995 "Hello, and welcome to this episode of Analyzing Evil, featuring Edward Sallow, Caesar, from Fallout: New Vegas."
Thomas Harris writes books about empathy. And why the lack of it occurs. There is a clear feeling that the only villain in all of them is reality itself. Because it molds human beings into monsters.
I've always felt very, very sad for Jame Gumb. I don't know what it is about his persona that makes all my empathy and sympathy go bananas, but I just want to give that man a hug and tell him it will all be OK, even though I know it won't ever be OK for him. I want him to get help, I want to see him in a *great* psychological facility *(where he'd spend the rest of his life),* but where he would have a chance to fill in the blanks in his hunt for who he is. I know it's probably something most people would say is weird. But ever since I read the book and saw the film for the first time, I haven't been able to shake the feeling of deep sorrow when I think about him.
Subbed
I know what you mean and I think much of that (in the film, at least) is due to Ted Levine’s performance. He plays Gumb as a child - not child-like or child-ish, but as an actual little boy. It’s particularly evident in the way he talks to Catherine Martin in the basement pit. The “puts the lotion on it’s skin” lines have unfortunately become a meme, but if you listen to him with fresh ears, it’s done in the cadence of a child’s game. James’ psyche is forever frozen in time as a terrified and confused little boy - with the tools and acumen of a ferocious, wounded, and powerful grown man.
@@Goldenspiderducck I've been spared that meme, so I have the sound of his voice fresh in my mind (mostly because I've watched and re-watched the movie countless times by now) and you are absolutely right! I haven't thought about it that way, I have seen him as very child-like (like someone who's been traumatized early in life often is, it doesn't really matter *when* in life your mind gets scarred by something, most people sort of stop evolving emotionally anyway when they get traumatized) but I never saw him as a literal *child* in a mans body, since he had such a sexual manner. But that is completely logical too, now that I think about it. If you've been sexually abused, some people get overly sexual, and sometimes that shows in kind of "weird" ways - I'm not pointing at him seeing himself as either gay or transsexual as weird, hell I'm bisexual myself, but I mean it in the way he chooses to show his sexuality. He doesn't know who he is, so he tries a bit of everything. And everything he does has a tone of both child-like play and sexuality to it, and that reads as weird in an eerie way. At least it does to me.
Here are some suggestions bro
- Lorne Malvo from Fargo
-Marlo Stanfield from the wire
-Kanan stark from the power universe
If he had succeeded in creating that full bodysuit he intended, it wouldn't have worked as it wouldn't have made him satisfied or happy or whole. Jame Gumb would have looked for something else to want and gone after it.
No matter what you put on or tear off, you’re still you.
I've read all 4 books and they are pure art. But I absolutely cannot wait till you do one on Francis Dolarhyde!!! I've always said that was easily the most underrated villain of all time. The books version of him is absolutely terrifying. A guy built like Brock Lesnar being commanded by a biblical painting of a dragon to evolve himself by killing entire families (main focus was on the wives), sheesh. I could go on and on but you get the idea. Feinnes did a good job in the movie but was half the size of the version in the book. Tom Noonan from Manhunter, well, I'll be nice and not say anything lol. No disrespect, he just wasn't Francis Dolarhyde in my eyes. Dolarhyde was an instrument of pure fear, terror and madness yet cool and calm, able to hide it at the same time. Anyway your videos are always a delight man, keep it up 🙂
Mason was the worse for me, a true evil, spoilt rotten pig. Margo wasn't much better neither.
Did you watch the Hannibal series, Richard Armitage was excellent IMO.
@@LilLadyAy Oh my gosh yes Verger was purely disgusting. Knew he'd get away with his sh!t too because of his family. I actually did watch a great deal of the show. The way they portrayed Graham kinda upset me a bit. Forgive my cluelessness but isn't armitage the one they had play Dolarhyde?? Sorry I'm terrible with names sometimes lol
@@Tylerdurdensoapman yes, he played the red dragon who shows up in S3 and is the main opposition. I wasn't too keen on everything, like the OTT effort to make Will more likeable and the gender swapping but it still manages to be a great adaptation by those who have clearly read the books.😊
@@LilLadyAy Ahhh yes ok I thought that's what you meant. Well, pure honesty, he was decent. He did a good job acting but I'm probably biased in how shy Feinnes made him, which mirrors the book. Acting wise I can't bash him because ultimately he delivered. I'm a bodybuilder so I still wish we could have a BIG guy for it lol. For a TV show I'll take it. As for Will, he was a whiny bitch in the show lol. In the books he was just a smart f*cking cop who could think certain ways. It was said he viewed his work as "intellectual exercise". The show presents him so bad I thought honestly. Biggest thing that saved the series was Mikkelsen ❤️
@@LilLadyAy And yeah Lounds being a woman lol unnecessary I thought. Robs us of getting to see the wheelchair races on fire lol. Especially when he's like a fatter, more slovenly guy. Huge stretch from the origin.
I see silence of the lambs, I click
The inspiration for Chris Griffin's voice.
This is a really good way of explaining this! I'm transgender and every time I tell someone that I love silence of the lambs I have to explain how I could love a movie that's transphobic. And then I have to explain "no, it's not transphobic. He's not actually trans, he's actually himself a transphobe because he's essentially co-opting and mocking our experience in using it to act out his deranged fantasy" (given his Nazi paraphernalia, it kinda seems like he himself is a bigot). The character of James Gumb is based very closely on Ed Geene, a real life serial killer who tried to make a "woman suit" in an effort to become his mother, with whom he was totally obsessed. Gumb is doing the same thing. He's not trans. He just hates himself and has major mommy issues. I wish the filmmakers had made that a little more obvious because in making it more subtle, a lot of people missed the point of Gumb's attempted metamorphosis and DID take away a transphobic message from the movie (one which has unfortunately propagated a lot of unfortunate and horrible trans stereotypes. However that doesn't mean that the movie itself is transphobic. It's certainly not trans positive, but given the time in which it came out, that the movie even attempted to NOT be transphobic was an act of transpositivity in itself (which is really sad). I still love Silence of the Lambs. Even if it inadvertently propagated some dreadful stereotypes, it's still a brilliant work of feminist filmmaking. And it's not the filmmakers' fault people were too stupid to listen when Hannibal said 'he's not actually trans'.
Hell yeah this video is the only good analysis of this character online everyone else is just talking about how transphobic this film is which is absolutely wrong
I’m also transgender and love this film. They specifically say that “transsexuals” are not violent and that Buffalo Bill isn’t actually trans.
Seems like people didn’t bother to actually watch the film.
@@FemcelFurio right?! I don't love the use of "transsexuals", since I think when Clarisse said it she was using it as a blanket term for all trans people, even though not all of us are transsexual, but it was the 80s and they kind of used that as a blanket term for trans people of any sort. (for anyone who doesn't know, transsexuals are trans people who have chosen to undergo what we call "bottom surgery". Ergo, their sex equipment is different from what it was originally. It's different from transgender which is a person who identifies as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. )
Much appreciated and much anticipated
What scared me the most is how he said hello everyone 😂
The similarities between chris chan and buffalo bill should have an entire section of this video
still one of those antagonists that i find myself thinking about late at night. 😓dude is downright terrifying, especially in that scene where he's wailing at the governor's daughter! easily one of my favorite horror/crime films of all time
I think he's kind of cute but it's a bit awkward when he's making weird noises.
One of the few characters that gave me an uncomfortable feeling
The pure sound of Bill’s revolver hammer and Clarice’s gunshots made that last scene so incredibly tense. I thought that she got killed in that scene.
Can he do a study of Chris chan?
Some are better than others but I got to say I really love this series much more than most other stuff on RUclips They are very well done keep up the good work brotha!!
“It puts the lotion on the skin or it gets the hose.”
*again"
Someone suggested looking into AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and that does seem like a good idea to make a video about him. Especially with the game that came out afterwards that fleshed him out more as well as his victims. This is villain who won't give you a moments rest to continue to torture you, for all eternity if possible.
Wish,
Granted.
Finally & Thank you
The man who took autogynephilia to a pathological level.
Thank you we need to start calling these men what they are and not trans