When Buffalo Bill starts running and she doesn't shoot him? Seriously you're supposed to be an FBI agent a man who you know is a psycho killer is running (probably going for his gun) and you just let him go? God she sucks.
"I really wish Gia and Claire had became Tanner" - Honeybeefine
For one thing she was still a trainee. She had already, earlier in the film, made the mistake of not covering all her corners during a training procedure where she did end up "dead."
She probably wanted to take him alive, and she didn't know if Catherine Martin was in the house or not. Why shoot, and possibly kill him before saving the victim. On top of that FBI agents if they can will take the suspect alive to learn from them.
((Damn the remakes, Save the originals.))
What messed up the situation is that she made it look so obvious that she figured out who he was. He picked up on her demeanor and started chuckling and she was wide eyed and stiff and not behaving naturally.
sharePut yourself in her shoes. You have ZERO idea it is the serial killer until you see the moth. You are without backup, without help, as you did not at all ever suspect the knocking on the door to begin with was the door of the serial killer.
You have not completed training yet, and yeah you would be a bit shocked inside to realize holy *beep* you are in fact standing and talking to the serial killer you are hunting. You also have no idea if he has weapons close by, nothing. She was not really wide eyed. ONCE she realized he was Bill she unsnapped her gun discreetly. Her voice was not as naive to the situation, but she was calm, and had asked to use his phone, once he offered her up the business card. HE then knew she was on to him. SHE pulled the gun to arrest and he ran. She was behaving as naturally as she possibly could given the situation. She simply asked to use the phone and then he was acting weird after that.
I mean honestly, you are a trainee, this is the first major case of your FBI life and you did NOT expect to be the one to have to take down the violent serial killer. You have no idea about weapons close by, you have no idea if the Catherine is alive. Your objective was simply to ask around to understand the victim to then try and understand the serial killer, but you come face to face with him instead.
((Damn the remakes, Save the originals.))
((Damn the remakes, Save the originals.))
I thought the entire situation not very realistic. She is not actually expecting to run into Bill, but she would not be going there alone even to interview someone. Lecter's jibe about Crawford getting help from the student body seems appropriate here. But a nice tense scene if you ignore the unlikeliness.
As somebody remarked up the thread, in Hannibal her career is in a tailspin because she shot someone she should not have. Here, she should have shot and did not.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
... But the males in the movie who flaunt their incompetence and bad decisions repeatedly, who all could have made a better / alternate, more favourable choice at some point... don't deserve punches themselves.
shareYou're only allowed to shoot someone in self defence. You can't shoot someone just for running away whether he's crazy or not.
shareAnd Bill was pretty quick and slippery with how he distracted her when he darted through that doorway. Within the context of all the questionable and scandalous police shootings in recent history, the scenario makes even more sense pertaining to professional conduct, especially for someone who was still a trainee.
As far as she knew, Crawford was in the process of capturing Bill; she was there at his orders just to gather background info. It makes perfect sense she would be somewhat relaxed, unsuspecting until that split-second epiphany when she saw the moth alighting on the sewing equipment. Those were the two most specific clues in the case that she had uncovered.
I agree that what happened was a realistic and natural reaction, but at the same time Clarice seemed kind of inexperienced at controlling her emotions considering she's trying to be an FBI agent. If I were her, I would calmly sneak down there and look for Buffalo Bill and check every area precisely without making much of a panic. She seemed way too scared and unnerved.
shareBy definition she was inexperienced, because she was still a trainee. She acted how an inexperienced person might act in an unexpected and extremely dangerous situation, because that's exactly what was going on. Considering, she handled herself as well as could be expected.
shareThe book explained more about Buffalo Bill's criminal background and how he'd held up hostages before when he was younger and ended up killing them to spite the police officers if I remember correctly. Clarice knew this, and therefore acted the way she did in order to prevent him from doing the same to Catherine Martin.
shareShe was suppose to be fallible and very amateurish even though she's driven by ambition, and as Dr. Lector pointed out she is driven by a deep underlying psychosis of getting those lambs to stop crying.
shareyou cannot shoot someone without a probably cause. a hunch over some butterflies is not enough.
shareMy understanding is the FBI allows shooting only in self-defense or in defense of another, so if this is so, it would have been out-of-policy for her to shoot.
shareC&P from the FBI's website
What is the FBI’s policy on the use of deadly force by its special agents?share
FBI special agents may use deadly force only when necessary—when the agent has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the agent or another person. If feasible, a verbal warning to submit to the authority of the special agent is given prior to the use of deadly force.
What she really should have done was immediately withdraw and call for backup before engaging Buffalo Bill.
share