P!ERREP0!NT PART5

Timothy Spall stars in a biopic of Britain's best-known 20th century executioner
Like Vera Drake, Pierrepoint takes place in a mid-20th century Britain where colour was not permitted: everything is drab, brown and municipal green. But whereas the character Vera Drake was providing humane, efficient abortions in a time when it was illegal, Albert Pierrepoint - a real historical figure - is providing a very different sort of termination; executing prisoners.

Pierrepoint is a fascinating portrait of a man trying to maintain a decent, ordinary life while presiding over legally sanctioned death. We first meet Albert (Spall) being talked through the execution procedure at London's Pentonville Prison in 1932. Shortly afterwards, Pierrepoint, a grocery delivery man, receives a letter at his home in Oldham, Lancashire. He's been accepted onto "the list" to become an executioner, following in the footsteps of both his father and uncle. "It's just in me. I knew it'd come out one day," he tells his mother.

While continuing his day job in groceries and marrying local shopgirl Annie (Stevenson), Albert goes about his new work with professionalism, eager to prove himself, to better both his father and his peers. He soon breaks records and rises to become Britain's number one executioner. "I do try to take a pride in my work. I don't believe there's a quicker man on the list," he says.

He gets a further ego boost after the Second World War when he's selected by the Army to handle the execution of those convicted of war crimes. Monty (Francis) himself tells him, "I want the world to know our executions are the most efficient and the most humane." But in Germany, Albert is faced with huge batches of executions. Can he maintain his professionalism, and his mental wellbeing, in the face of such a production line of killing? For the most part, Albert seems a very ordinary man, albeit a quiet, repressed one. He only loses his cool when the system breaks down - when he's hanging 13 Nazis on the 13th day of the month and they run out of coffins. The worst breakdown in the system comes when he's exposed in the press. "It's not right," he says of becoming a celebrity of sorts. Of course, at the same time, the anti-capital punishment movement was gathering momentum. All these elements combine in a film that looks both at the man himself and at Britain at a turning point in its attitude towards law and human life.

Shergold's film, co-written and executive produced by Jeff Pope, is ultimately unequivocal about its attitude towards capital punishment, closing with a quote from the real Pierrepoint. "Capital punishment achieved nothing except revenge". However, it's not a dogmatic or heavy-handed film, thanks in part to an excellent performance from Spall. It's a turn that ranks among the actor's best work, as he ably handles the difficult challenge of keeping Pierrepoint credible as both an ordinary man and a professional killer. It's a hard act given how alien capital punishment seems several decades after its abolition in the UK.

Cutting back and forth between prison, the holding cell, the gallows, home and the pub (where he does a double-act with his ill-fated best friend, played by Vera Drake star Marsden), the film emphasises that capital punishment can't be dissociated from ordinary life, in the same way that ultimately Albert can't detach himself from his acts.

His rhetoric was, "When I walk into the cell, I leave Albert Pierrepoint behind," but how possible is it to totally suppress a sense of involvement and responsibility from something as grim and drastic as ending someone's life? The film subtly suggests we're all subject to the moral consequences of such killing; a society can't detach itself from acts its legal and social systems condone.

Some may suggest the film, made by Granada, is more suited to a small screen. But visually it's very like Vera Drake, with a lot of interiors, and cropped exteriors. And like Vera Drake, it isn't a barrel of laughs, but it's excellent cinematic drama nonetheless.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• FLM

[Torch6661]

"Time for a brew"...how british do you wanna get? :P

[Paulph04]

Too bad. The Death Penalty was the law at the time, and as these evil criminals chose to do what they did, they have only themselves to blame for their situation. Pierrepoint was just doing his job, he was just the executioner. Not the judge and jury too, he didn't sentence them.

[Platschheimer]

@diggyu Youre damn right!

[diggyu]

Propaganda the nazis and the germans are not the only people to do wild ass shit there just the only ones that get to be the scapegoat for evil deed s against humanity. America wiped out the whole damn near the whole Native population and took there land at the same time they enslaved and bred and worked to death 185 million africans. Its funny how the U.S.A gets a pass on its evil deeds. P.S 2 million more killed in Iraq and Afganistan. You can hate me now.

[grettoz]

@Travolta73

what a wanker you are!!!

[mrmagicroundcircle]

albert on piece work

[callipposhots]

the actual execution chamber didn't look any thing like that in real life. It was just a room at the end of a long corridor in which all the prisoners were confined in cells. Nearly all of them could hear the snap of the rope, before it was their turn.

[Missbottlenose]

@8524frank You're clearly a fan of the Nazis and all that they did. Your life must be a very sad place.

[Missbottlenose]

@8524frank Do you even know who Irma Grese was? She was 22, not 21, when she was hanged. She didn't start working in the camps till she was 19 and didn't move to Auschwitz till she was 20. The "alleged crimes", as you call them, she committed included murder, torture, releasing half starved dogs on prisoners, making lamp shades out of human skin and kicking children to death. Get your facts right before you start mouthing off, dickhead.