Thanks for this transcript! It was an unstoppable read...

paula, glad you enjoyed it. Always interesting to read a scene-by-scene breakdown as it strips down the story to its bare bones. Really able to zero in on structure that way.

Interesting to compare a script to the movie version. In this case, we can do that and also to a later version of the script (which I have). Here are some changes from this draft and its scene-by-scene breakdown, the later versions including the film: 1-3: Intro changed in movie to credit sequence of Clarice on training ground, jogging, climbing walls, etc. My sense is they did this in part to NOT show Clarice as being super skilled (as with the script) AND and atmospheric way to introduce the story (until we see she's at Quantico, it looks like she's running away from some danger in the woods). 56-59: Instead of consulting with Crawford about how to proceed with Lecter, in the movie Clarice agrees to 'quid pro quo' on her own. Smart choice to give the Protagonist that degree of proactivity. 70-72: Cut. 72-74: Cut. 74-76: Cut. 81-84: Cut. These are all to move the story along and again focus on Clarice as she goes into proactive mode. 89-93: The 3rd flashback, visualizing the Montana farm, cut from the movie. Here is screenwriter Ted Tally's explanation why that decision from an interview he gave:

ON WHY THEY DROPPED A THIRD FLASHBACK IN “THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS” I could see that if we were going to have flashbacks, they should culminate, there should be some climactic thing, and we should see the child Clarice encountering the slaughter of the lambs and trying to save one of them. Jonathan was willing to shoot them, it was going to be the last thing we shot as we had to wait for the lambing season in spring, and it was going to cost a million dollars to set up the whole thing. Then Jonathan shot the scene where Clarice tells Lecter about the killing of the lambs. He sent the dailies to me and said to watch them and give him a call. So i watched these performances, and they were extraordinarily powerful, and Jonathan, said, “How can I cut away from these performances to a flashback? It’s all there : she’s [Jodi as Clarice] telling us the entire story in her face, in her words, we don’t need to see it as well.” He said it’s just primary rule of filmmaking that if you can show it instead of telling it, you show it, but don’t show it and tell it. He was right, but it was scary to me.”

A rare case where "show it, don't say it" is turned on its head due to Jodi Foster's amazing performance in that scene. 93-94: Cut. 111-113: Cut. 113-114: Cut. Probably to sustain pace. There's one famous scene not in any script I've read: Where Buffalo Bill does his freaky dance in front of the video camera. Must have been added late in production process. A big visual in that it provides viewers an image of what Buffalo Bill aspires to: His own Attractor figure.