February 14, 1991: "The Silence of the Lambs" Premieres

February 14, 1991: The film The Silence of the Lambs premieres, based on the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris. It premieres on Valentine's Day, but it's no love story.

The lead character is FBI Agent Clarice Starling. Jodie Foster read the book just after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in The Accused, but director Jonathan Demme didn't think she was right for the role. But he was turned down by Michelle Pfeiffer, with whom he had made Married to the Mob, and Meg Ryan, and the studio, Orion Pictures, flat-out turned down his next choice, Laura Dern. Foster was bankable and she wanted the role, so he gave it to her.

The other main character is Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist, a genius, a sophisticate, a Holocaust survivor (as is found out in later films)... and a cannibalistic multiple murderer. Demme first offered the role to Sean Connery, the Scottish actor known for playing James Bond, who turned it down. Demme then remembered Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins in his role as a psychiatrist in The Elephant Man.

When Hopkins's agent told him that a script was on his way titled The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins responded, "Is it a children's story?" He called his agent back after reading the first 10 pages and said, "This is the best part I've ever read." He accepted the role after having dinner with Demme. Hopkins developed his portrayal of Lecter by drawing inspiration from the HAL 9000 computer, as voiced by Douglas Rain in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and from the vocal patterns of writer Truman Capote.

Ironically, Hopkins admitted to being intimidated by Foster, who had just won an Academy Award, and initially felt scared to talk to her.

Lecter isn't the main villain of the film. The details of him, Jamie Gumb, a.k.a. Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine), and his crimes, are too gruesome to list here. Suffice it to say that Lecter helps Starling figure out how to find him, before breaking out of his dungeon at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Horror film directors Roger Corman and George A. Romero have roles, as FBI Director Hayden Burke and a jailer, respectively.

It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and became the 3rd and most recent film, after It Happened One Night in 1934 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, to sweep the 5 major Oscars: Best Picture (and it remains the only horror film to win that), Best Director for Demme, Best Actor for Hopkins (even though he was onscreen for only 25 minutes), Best Actress for Foster, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Ted Tally.

The 2001 film sequel Hannibal saw Hopkins return as Lecter, but Demme didn't want to direct, and Foster didn't want to star. Ridley Scott directed, and Starling was played by Julianne Moore. There would be 2 prequels: Red Dragon in 2002, with Demme directing, but no appearance by the Starling character; and Hannibal Rising in 2007, directed by Peter Webber, with Gaspard Ulliel as a young Lecter.

Previously, in 1986, Manhunter had been adapted by Michael Mann, from the 1981 novel of Red Dragon that introduced the character. In the script, the character is listed as "Hannibal Lecktor," and was played by Scottish actor Brian Cox.

In 2003, the American Film Institute named Lecter the Number 1 film villain of all time, and Starling 6th among film heroes, behind Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird), Indiana Jones in his movies (Harrison Ford), James Bond in his movies (with Connery being the 1st of several), Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca) and Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper in High Noon).

Due to a legal quirk, there's been an NBC TV series titled Hannibal, set before the events of Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, starring Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, but it couldn't use the character of Clarice Starling; and a CBS series titled Clarice, set after the events of Silence of the Lambs but before those of Hannibal, but it couldn't use the character of Hannibal Lecter. Each was allowed to use any other character in the Lecter novels' canon, including either of the two main opponents, but not both of them. Allusions to the Silence of the Lambs case were made in Clarice, but Lecter was not mentioned. And Hannibal was a prequel, so there was no reason to mention Starling.

In a 2014 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Lecter, against British comedian Dan Bull, who played Jack the Ripper.

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February 14, 1991 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Chicago Bulls, 102-92 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Orlando Magic, 102-90 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Miami Heat beat the Denver Nuggets, 141-112 at the Miami Arena.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Washington Bullets, 129-117 at The Summit in Houston. The arena is now the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch."

* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-97 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Tom Chambers scored 37 for the Suns.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-94 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors, 128-112 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Chris Mullin scored 35 in defeat for the Warriors.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-81 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Lionel Simmons scored 38 for the Kings.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The New Jersey Devils played the Winnipeg Jets, 3-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Quebec Nordiques, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium. Jeremy Roenick scored the winning goal with 3:34 left in overtime.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Brett Hull scored his 61st goal of the season, 2:46 into the 3rd period, and that was the winning goal.

February 9, 1976: "Taxi Driver" Premieres

February 9, 1976: The film Taxi Driver premieres, directed by Martin Scorcese. Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran who drives a taxicab in New York City.

I consider the film part of a series that shows the decline of New York City. In 1961, Breakfast at Tiffany's showed a New York that was still classic and magical. By 1969, Midnight Cowboy showed the City to have become a garish mess of crime and poverty. In 1976, Taxi Driver showed things as even worse, where what was once good had become crazy (including Travis), and what was bad was irredeemable. Things bottomed out in 1981, with Fort Apache: The Bronx.

Travis starts, then ruins, a relationship with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works for Senator Charles Palantine, who is running for President. (He was played by Leonard Harris, who played another New York politician, the Mayor, in Hero At Large, starring John Ritter as another taxi driver who ends up thinking too much of himself.)

Travis buys a gun, and tries to act tough, looking at his reflection in a mirror, and saying, "You talkin' to me?" The line became the one everybody who does impressions does when imitating De Niro. He meets Iris (Jodie Foster), 12 years old and already a prostitute, and tries in vain to get her to quit that life.

He then goes to a campaign rally, planning to assassinate Palantine, but the Secret Service chase him away. He goes to the brothel where Iris works, and shoots Sport Higgins (Harvey Keitel), her pimp. A shootout results, and Travis, despite killing everybody in the room but Iris, is wounded himself.

The film's ending is ambiguous: Travis appears to recover, is hailed as a hero for what he did, is not prosecuted, keeps his job as a cabdriver, and even picks Betsy up as a fare, hearing her say she followed his story in the newspapers, and he refuses to take her money.

None of this is realistic, not even by the standards of 1970s New York City. It's been suggested that the film's epilogue is actually Travis' imagination of what should happen to him, as he dies. Scorcese has acknowledged this theory, but has refused to confirm it.

First, art imitated life: Scorcese has compared Travis to Arthur Bremer, who went around the country in the Spring of 1972, intending to assassinate President Richard Nixon; but, deciding that Nixon's security was too tight, instead went after Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who was running for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. Bremer's attempt paralyzed Wallace, and forced him to drop out of the race.

Then, life imitated art: John Hinckley wanted to assassinate President Jimmy Carter in 1980; unable to get close enough to him, he got his chance in 1981, shooting the new President, Ronald Reagan, who nearly died. Hinckley said he wanted to "impress" Foster.

The film was released just 5 months after the incumbent President, Gerald Ford, faced 2 failed assassination attempts within a matter of days; less than 4 years after the attempt on Wallace; 6 years after an attempted assassination of Pope Paul VI; 8 years after the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy; 11 years after the assassination of Malcolm X; and within 13 years of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Medgar Evers. For some people, it hit a little too close to home. Within 6 years, the world would see the murders of former Beatle John Lennon and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and attempts on the lives of Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

In 1982, De Niro starred in The King of Comedy, as a comedian who wanted to impress the host of a Tonight Show-like program, played by Jerry Lewis. Failing in that, he kidnapped the host, but did kill him.

Both Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy would be influences on the 2019 film Joker, a re-imagining of the origin stories of both the superhero Batman and his arch-nemesis, the Joker. In this film, set in Batman's fictional hometown of Gotham City (named for an old name for New York) in 1981, the now-much-older De Niro plays the Tonight Show-style host, Murray Franklin; while Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man in a world going madder around him, until he sees Franklin mock his standup comedy act, and he takes matters into his own hands, killing Franklin live on the air.

As with Taxi Driver, we're never sure just how much of Joker is really happening, especially the ending, or if it's happening in the protagonist's head. Phoenix even copied the "You talkin' to me?" scene.

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February 9, 1976 was a Monday. Actor Charlie Day was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were no games in the NHL or the World Hockey Association. There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Houston Rockets beat the Kansas City Kings, 105-86 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

There were 2 games played in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets lost to the Denver Nuggets, 138-119 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Spirits of St. Louis beat the Virginia Squires, 112-105 at The Scope in Norfolk.