THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, released on this day
Released on this day--14 Feb.--in 1991, Jonathan Demme's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Jodie Foster is an FBI trainee who finds herself on the trail of a serial killer and engaged in a battle of wits with the diabolical Hannibal Lecter, played with scenery-chewing relish by Anthony Hopkins. This was the 2nd Lecter movie but unlike its predecessor MANHUNTER, it became a mega-hit, spawning a franchise that ran for 24 years without producing a single good project, until the excellent HANNIBAL tv series in 2013.
SILENCE was also a critical darling. It became the first horror movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and swept most of the major categories that year, Foster taking Best Actress, Demme Director, Hopkins Actor and, adapted from Thomas Harris' novel, it won Best Adapted Screenplay. The nomination of Hopkins for Best Actor, rather than Best Supporting Actor, was rather questionable--he's only in the movie for 16 minutes--but he won, becoming only the 2nd actor to ever win in the category for a horror movie (the previous one had been Frederic March, who won way back in 1932 for DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iB21hsprAQ