Silence of the Lambs was a better movie than Cape Fear, and I thought Anthony Hopkins' character and portrayal were better than DeNiro's. Some of the credit goes to Thomas Harris, the writer of the novel, who cleverly invented the character.

Max Cady was kind of a caricature on the screen, evil as hell but predictable. Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter was shrouded in mystery and his nature and depth of evil were slowly revealed layer by layer by an acting performance that built a shroud of mystery through the whole show.

As Ivy said, Kevin Spacey was brilliant in his brief appearance in Seven by offering a similarly nuanced performance that magnified the suspense of the film to a degree that wasn't reached in the movie prior to his first appearance.