fbpx
Wikipedia

Buffalo Bill (character)

Jame Gumb (known by the nickname "Buffalo Bill") is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Thomas Harris's 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs and its 1991 film adaptation, in which he is played by Ted Levine. In the film and the novel, he is a serial killer who murders overweight women and skins them so he can make a "woman suit" for himself. In the television series Clarice, he is portrayed by Simon Northwood.

Buffalo Bill
Hannibal Lecter character
Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
First appearanceThe Silence of the Lambs
Created byThomas Harris
Portrayed byTed Levine (The Silence of the Lambs)
Simon Northwood (Clarice)
In-universe information
AliasJohn Grant
Jack Gordon
GenderMale
OccupationTailor

Overview Edit

Background Edit

Gumb was born in California in 1948 or 1949. It is stated that "The 'Jame' on his birth certificate apparently was a clerical error that no one bothered to correct." Gumb's mother, an aspiring actress, went into an alcoholic decline after her career failed to materialize, and Los Angeles County placed Gumb in a foster home when he was two. The novel goes on to tell of Gumb living in foster homes until the age of 10, when he is adopted by his grandparents, who become his first victims when he impulsively kills them at age 12. He is institutionalized in Tulare Vocational Rehabilitation, a psychiatric hospital, where he learns to be a tailor. Later, Gumb has a relationship with Benjamin Raspail. After Raspail leaves him, he kills Raspail's new lover, Klaus, and flays him.[1]

The screenplay omits Gumb's backstory, but does imply that he had a traumatic childhood. In the film, Hannibal Lecter summarizes Gumb's life thus: "Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse."

Both the novel and film depict Gumb as hating his own identity, though multiple characters state that Gumb is not transsexual. In the novel, multiple examples of how Gumb does not fit the psychological profile of a real transsexual are given. Gumb wants to become a woman—or at least believes he does—but repeatedly fails to qualify for gender reassignment surgery. He kills women so he can skin them and create a "woman suit" for himself, completing his "transformation". He thinks of his victims as things rather than people, often calling them "it"—hence one of his most famous lines from the film, "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." The only living thing he feels real affection for is his dog, a toy poodle named "Precious".

Modus operandi Edit

Gumb's modus operandi (MO) is to approach a woman while pretending to be injured, ask for help, then knock her out in a surprise attack and kidnap her. He takes her to his house and leaves her in a well in his basement, where he starves her until her skin is loose enough to easily remove. In the first two cases, he leads the victims upstairs, slips nooses around their necks and pushes them from the stairs, strangling them. He then skins parts of their body (a different section on each victim), and then dumps each body into a different river, destroying any trace of evidence.[1]

This MO caused the homicide squad to nickname him Buffalo Bill (Buffalo Bill's Wild West show typically claimed that Buffalo Bill Cody had scalped a Cheyenne warrior). One officer quipped it was because he "skins his humps." He also inserts a Death's-head Moth into the victim's throat because he is fascinated by the insect's metamorphosis, a process that he wants to undergo by becoming a woman. In the case of Gumb's first victim, Fredrica Bimmel, he weighs down her body, so she ends up being the third victim found. In the case of the fourth victim, he shoots rather than strangles her.[1]

At the start of the novel, Gumb has already murdered five women. Behavioral Science Unit Chief Jack Crawford assigns gifted trainee Clarice Starling to question incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter about the case. (Lecter had met Gumb while treating Raspail.) When Gumb kidnaps Catherine Martin, the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin, Lecter offers to give Starling a psychological profile of the killer in return for a transfer to a federal institution; this profile is mostly made up of cryptic clues designed to help Starling figure it out for herself. Starling eventually deduces from Lecter's riddles that Gumb knew his first victim, Frederica Bimmel, and goes to Bimmel's hometown of Belvedere, Ohio to gather information. By this time, Crawford has already found out the killer's true identity and gone with a SWAT team to his house to arrest him, but they find that it is only a business address. Meanwhile, Starling goes to the home of Bimmel's employer, Mrs. Lippman, only to find Gumb — calling himself "Jack Gordon" — living there. (Gumb had murdered Mrs. Lippman earlier.)

When Starling sees a moth flutter by, she realizes she has found the killer and orders him to surrender. Gumb flees into the basement and stalks her with a revolver and night vision goggles. Just as he is about to shoot Starling, she hears him behind her, turns around and opens fire, killing him. In the novel, he addresses his final words to her, asking her, "How does it feel to be so beautiful?" before choking to death on his own blood.

Influences Edit

Harris based various elements of Gumb's MO on six real-life serial killers:[2][3]

  • Jerry Brudos, who strangled his victims, dressed up in their clothing and kept their shoes.
  • Ed Gein, who fashioned trophies and keepsakes from the bones and skin of corpses he dug up at cemeteries, as well as from two women that he murdered. He also made a female "skin suit" and skin masks.
  • Ted Bundy, who pretended to be injured (using an arm-brace or crutches) as a ploy to ask his victims for help. When they helped him, he incapacitated and killed them.
  • Gary M. Heidnik, who kidnapped, raped and tortured six women while holding them prisoner in a pit, where two died.
  • Edmund Kemper, who, like Gumb, killed his grandparents as a teenager "just to see what it felt like".
  • Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer (still unidentified at the time of the novel's writing), who, like Gumb, dumped women's bodies in rivers and inserted foreign objects into their corpses.

Analysis Edit

Marjorie Garber, author of Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety, asserts that despite the book and the film indicating that Buffalo Bill merely believes himself to be transsexual, they still imply negative connotations about transsexual identity. Garber says, "Harris's book manifests its cultural anxiety through a kind of baroque bravado of plot," and calls the book "a fable of gender dysphoria gone spectacularly awry".[4]

Barbara Creed, writing in Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema, says that Buffalo Bill wants to become a woman "presumably because he sees femininity as a more desirable state, possibly a superior one". For Buffalo Bill, the woman is "[a] totem animal". Not only does he want to wear women's skin, he wants to become a woman; he dresses in women's clothes and tucks his penis behind his legs to appear female. Creed writes, "To experience a rebirth as woman, Buffalo Bill must wear the skin of woman not just to experience a physical transformation but also to acquire the power of transformation associated with woman's ability to give birth." Buffalo Bill wears the skin of his totem animal to assume its power.[5]

Jack Halberstam, author of Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, writes, "The cause for Buffalo Bill's extreme violence against women lies not in his gender confusion or his sexual orientation but in his humanist presumption that his sex and his gender and his orientation must all match up to a mythic norm of white heterosexual masculinity." Halberstam says Buffalo Bill symbolizes a lack of ease with one's skin. He writes that the character is also a combination of Victor Frankenstein and his monster in how he is the creator gathering body parts and experimenting with his own body. Halberstam writes, "He does not understand gender as inherent, innate; he reads it only as a surface effect, a representation, an external attribute engineered into identity." Buffalo Bill challenges "the interiority of gender" by taking skin and remaking it into a costume.[6]

Portrayal of transsexuality Edit

The film adaptation of Silence of the Lambs was criticized by some LGBT journalists for its portrayal of Gumb.[7]

References Edit

  1. ^ a b c Harris, Thomas (1991). The Silence Of The Lambs. New York City: St. Martin's Paperbacks. ISBN 0-312-92458-5.
  2. ^ Bruno, Anthony. . Crime Library. Atlanta, Georgia: Turner Broadcasting Systems. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008.
  3. ^ Bowman, David (July 8, 1999). "Profiler". Salon. San Francisco, California: Salon Media Group.
  4. ^ Garber, Marjorie (1997). Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety. Abingdon, England: Routledge. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-415-91951-7.
  5. ^ Creed, Barbara (1993). "Dark Desires: Male masochism in the horror film". In Cohan, Steven; Hark, Ina Rae (eds.). Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema. Abingdon, England: Routledge. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-415-07759-0.
  6. ^ Halberstam, Jack (1995). "Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs". Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8223-1663-3.
  7. ^ Cassady, Charles Jr. (July 11, 2005). "Common Sense Media review of The Silence of the Lambs". Common Sense Media. San Francisco, California.

buffalo, bill, character, other, uses, buffalo, bill, disambiguation, buffalo, bills, disambiguation, jame, gumb, known, nickname, buffalo, bill, fictional, character, main, antagonist, thomas, harris, 1988, novel, silence, lambs, 1991, film, adaptation, which. For other uses see Buffalo Bill disambiguation and Buffalo Bills disambiguation Jame Gumb known by the nickname Buffalo Bill is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Thomas Harris s 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs and its 1991 film adaptation in which he is played by Ted Levine In the film and the novel he is a serial killer who murders overweight women and skins them so he can make a woman suit for himself In the television series Clarice he is portrayed by Simon Northwood Buffalo BillHannibal Lecter characterTed Levine as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs First appearanceThe Silence of the LambsCreated byThomas HarrisPortrayed byTed Levine The Silence of the Lambs Simon Northwood Clarice In universe informationAliasJohn GrantJack GordonGenderMaleOccupationTailor Contents 1 Overview 1 1 Background 1 2 Modus operandi 2 Influences 3 Analysis 4 Portrayal of transsexuality 5 ReferencesOverview EditBackground Edit Gumb was born in California in 1948 or 1949 It is stated that The Jame on his birth certificate apparently was a clerical error that no one bothered to correct Gumb s mother an aspiring actress went into an alcoholic decline after her career failed to materialize and Los Angeles County placed Gumb in a foster home when he was two The novel goes on to tell of Gumb living in foster homes until the age of 10 when he is adopted by his grandparents who become his first victims when he impulsively kills them at age 12 He is institutionalized in Tulare Vocational Rehabilitation a psychiatric hospital where he learns to be a tailor Later Gumb has a relationship with Benjamin Raspail After Raspail leaves him he kills Raspail s new lover Klaus and flays him 1 The screenplay omits Gumb s backstory but does imply that he had a traumatic childhood In the film Hannibal Lecter summarizes Gumb s life thus Our Billy wasn t born a criminal Clarice He was made one through years of systematic abuse Both the novel and film depict Gumb as hating his own identity though multiple characters state that Gumb is not transsexual In the novel multiple examples of how Gumb does not fit the psychological profile of a real transsexual are given Gumb wants to become a woman or at least believes he does but repeatedly fails to qualify for gender reassignment surgery He kills women so he can skin them and create a woman suit for himself completing his transformation He thinks of his victims as things rather than people often calling them it hence one of his most famous lines from the film It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again The only living thing he feels real affection for is his dog a toy poodle named Precious Modus operandi Edit Gumb s modus operandi MO is to approach a woman while pretending to be injured ask for help then knock her out in a surprise attack and kidnap her He takes her to his house and leaves her in a well in his basement where he starves her until her skin is loose enough to easily remove In the first two cases he leads the victims upstairs slips nooses around their necks and pushes them from the stairs strangling them He then skins parts of their body a different section on each victim and then dumps each body into a different river destroying any trace of evidence 1 This MO caused the homicide squad to nickname him Buffalo Bill Buffalo Bill s Wild West show typically claimed that Buffalo Bill Cody had scalped a Cheyenne warrior One officer quipped it was because he skins his humps He also inserts a Death s head Moth into the victim s throat because he is fascinated by the insect s metamorphosis a process that he wants to undergo by becoming a woman In the case of Gumb s first victim Fredrica Bimmel he weighs down her body so she ends up being the third victim found In the case of the fourth victim he shoots rather than strangles her 1 At the start of the novel Gumb has already murdered five women Behavioral Science Unit Chief Jack Crawford assigns gifted trainee Clarice Starling to question incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter about the case Lecter had met Gumb while treating Raspail When Gumb kidnaps Catherine Martin the daughter of U S Senator Ruth Martin Lecter offers to give Starling a psychological profile of the killer in return for a transfer to a federal institution this profile is mostly made up of cryptic clues designed to help Starling figure it out for herself Starling eventually deduces from Lecter s riddles that Gumb knew his first victim Frederica Bimmel and goes to Bimmel s hometown of Belvedere Ohio to gather information By this time Crawford has already found out the killer s true identity and gone with a SWAT team to his house to arrest him but they find that it is only a business address Meanwhile Starling goes to the home of Bimmel s employer Mrs Lippman only to find Gumb calling himself Jack Gordon living there Gumb had murdered Mrs Lippman earlier When Starling sees a moth flutter by she realizes she has found the killer and orders him to surrender Gumb flees into the basement and stalks her with a revolver and night vision goggles Just as he is about to shoot Starling she hears him behind her turns around and opens fire killing him In the novel he addresses his final words to her asking her How does it feel to be so beautiful before choking to death on his own blood Influences EditHarris based various elements of Gumb s MO on six real life serial killers 2 3 Jerry Brudos who strangled his victims dressed up in their clothing and kept their shoes Ed Gein who fashioned trophies and keepsakes from the bones and skin of corpses he dug up at cemeteries as well as from two women that he murdered He also made a female skin suit and skin masks Ted Bundy who pretended to be injured using an arm brace or crutches as a ploy to ask his victims for help When they helped him he incapacitated and killed them Gary M Heidnik who kidnapped raped and tortured six women while holding them prisoner in a pit where two died Edmund Kemper who like Gumb killed his grandparents as a teenager just to see what it felt like Gary Ridgway the Green River Killer still unidentified at the time of the novel s writing who like Gumb dumped women s bodies in rivers and inserted foreign objects into their corpses Analysis EditMarjorie Garber author of Vested Interests Cross Dressing and Cultural Anxiety asserts that despite the book and the film indicating that Buffalo Bill merely believes himself to be transsexual they still imply negative connotations about transsexual identity Garber says Harris s book manifests its cultural anxiety through a kind of baroque bravado of plot and calls the book a fable of gender dysphoria gone spectacularly awry 4 Barbara Creed writing in Screening the Male Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema says that Buffalo Bill wants to become a woman presumably because he sees femininity as a more desirable state possibly a superior one For Buffalo Bill the woman is a totem animal Not only does he want to wear women s skin he wants to become a woman he dresses in women s clothes and tucks his penis behind his legs to appear female Creed writes To experience a rebirth as woman Buffalo Bill must wear the skin of woman not just to experience a physical transformation but also to acquire the power of transformation associated with woman s ability to give birth Buffalo Bill wears the skin of his totem animal to assume its power 5 Jack Halberstam author of Skin Shows Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters writes The cause for Buffalo Bill s extreme violence against women lies not in his gender confusion or his sexual orientation but in his humanist presumption that his sex and his gender and his orientation must all match up to a mythic norm of white heterosexual masculinity Halberstam says Buffalo Bill symbolizes a lack of ease with one s skin He writes that the character is also a combination of Victor Frankenstein and his monster in how he is the creator gathering body parts and experimenting with his own body Halberstam writes He does not understand gender as inherent innate he reads it only as a surface effect a representation an external attribute engineered into identity Buffalo Bill challenges the interiority of gender by taking skin and remaking it into a costume 6 Portrayal of transsexuality EditThe film adaptation of Silence of the Lambs was criticized by some LGBT journalists for its portrayal of Gumb 7 References Edit a b c Harris Thomas 1991 The Silence Of The Lambs New York City St Martin s Paperbacks ISBN 0 312 92458 5 Bruno Anthony All About Hannibal Lecter Facts and Fiction Crime Library Atlanta Georgia Turner Broadcasting Systems Archived from the original on October 11 2008 Bowman David July 8 1999 Profiler Salon San Francisco California Salon Media Group Garber Marjorie 1997 Vested Interests Cross dressing and Cultural Anxiety Abingdon England Routledge p 116 ISBN 978 0 415 91951 7 Creed Barbara 1993 Dark Desires Male masochism in the horror film In Cohan Steven Hark Ina Rae eds Screening the Male Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema Abingdon England Routledge pp 126 127 ISBN 978 0 415 07759 0 Halberstam Jack 1995 Skinflick Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme s The Silence of the Lambs Skin Shows Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters Durham North Carolina Duke University Press Books ISBN 978 0 8223 1663 3 Cassady Charles Jr July 11 2005 Common Sense Media review of The Silence of the Lambs Common Sense Media San Francisco California Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Buffalo Bill character amp oldid 1179275210, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.