Never bring it over the threshold (Pierrepoint (DVD))

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Pierrepoint (DVD)
Date:	20/10/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic acting, interesting historical subject matter

Disadvantages: None

I approached a biographical film about the life of Britain's most famous hangman with some trepidation. The thought of making a drama about the last, sad moments of convicted criminals was a difficult one to come to terms with, and I worried that I would come face to face with unpleasant details about the technicalities of death by hanging.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: Pierrpoint is a film filled with taste and understatement. Timothy Spall portrays the enigmatic figure of Pierrepoint with enormous sensitivity, and the film centres on the famous hangman's own mental and domestic traumas rather than indulging in gratuitous detail about death. Timothy Spall is an actor of enormous ability, possibly reduced to character roles because of the limitations of his physical appearance - more recently doing very well on the big screen in supporting roles such as Peter Pettigrew and Fagin. I was delighted to find a film where he was given the lead ... and he did not let me down!

The film tells the story of Albert Pierrepoint's career as an executioner, from the first moment of his appointment, to his resignation in 1955. During his 23 years of work, he ended the lives of 450 men and women, but kept his working life completely private; a secret kept for many years - even from his own wife. We first meet him, living with his mother and applying for his first job as official executioner, following in the steps of his uncle and father. His mother reacts with shock to the news that he has the job, setting down the rules that he will abide by throughout his life: "Don't bring it over that threshold." By "it", she means the details of the life that drove his hangman father to alcoholism - she did not want to share the emotional trauma that comes with the job.

As Albert marries and settles down, he transfers this unwritten rule to the new household, living an everyday life as a grocer, but never telling his wife where he goes on his long trips. Gradually his efficiency and dedication to the job win him fame, and he is asked by Field Marshall Montgomery to travel to Germany to execute 47 of the Nazi War Criminals convicted at Nuremburg. Suddenly he becomes the Nation's hero, cheered by crowd wherever he goes, and his wife suddenly finds that she has something to be proud of. Yet under Albert's unemotional exterior, a torment is going on. The endless years of killing are starting to take its toll, culminating in the Nuremberg Executions, where he had to hang 13 people every day. No man could continue without doubt, without inner turmoil, and without wondering if what he is doing is really righteous justice. Gradually Albert starts to fall apart and every belief that he holds dear is called into question.

Timothy Spall was the perfect choice to play this troubled character, not only because of his uncanny likeness to the real Albert Pierrepoint. His career has been mainly been dominated by TV roles, from 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet', 'Shooting the Past' and more recently 'The Street'. He easily transfers his skill to the big screen and tackles this challenging role with ease, somehow portraying a man who is deeply caring and treats the people he has to execute with an almost paternalistic tenderness, both before and after death. Spall produces a mesmerising performance as he carries out his duty. It is a job, pure and simple; Albert Pierrepoint represents Justice - only his eyes give away the torment inside.

Juliette Stevenson is an actress who has largely been forgotten by the cinema since the days of 'Truly, Madly, Deeply', but she too puts in a charismatic performance as the wife who has to come to terms with a partner who kills for a living. Although Annie Pierrepoint gradually realises what job Albert does while he is away, and follows his career through reading the methodical records he keeps of his executions, she does not discuss this with him. A great deal of this film is an examination of the post war marital relationship - so different from today's marriages, where everything has to be discussed, their marriage consists of knowledge that is not spoken, and emotions that cannot be shared.

All of the acting was both impeccable and deeply moving in this film. Director Adrian Shergold provides authentic atmosphere that reproduces the stifling gloominess of 1940s suburban life through a film shot in hues of grey and brown. Shergold trained with Mike Leigh, and his gift for realism shines through both in the prison shots and the depiction of life at home.

Pierrepoint will not fail to move you, but more than this, it will stay with you long after you have finished watching it; the expressions on the faces of both prisoners and executioner are not easily erased.

Originally commissioned as a TV film in 2004, Pierrepoint was released in the UK on 7 April 2006, and is rated a 15

Summary: A great film on a very unusual subject