Daily Dialogue — January 4, 2018

“Didja get any bad guys today, Daddy?”

— The Silence of the Lambs (1991), screenplay by Ted Tally, novel by Thomas Harris

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Flashback.

Trivia: The filmmakers were prepared to go to Montana to shoot a flashback sequence depicting Clarice’s runaway attempt. After filming the dialogue between Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Demme realized it would be pointless to cut away from their performances and announced, “I guess we aren’t going to Montana.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: The line of dialogue is said by young Clarice to her father in one of two flashbacks in the movie. The line is prophetic in two ways. First, her father did NOT catch two bad guys who killed him when he interrupted their burglary. Second, Clarice’s obsession with ‘bad guys’ led her into joining the F.B.I. later in life.