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PIERREPOINT--THE LAST HANGMAN Send This Review to a Friend
Capital punishment is examined through the life of an executioner with Britain’s real-life hangman played in a towering, complex performance by fine actor Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint, who hanged more than 600 people in his long career. The impact of the film comes in part from the events being played out against changing attitudes toward the death penalty, which Britain eventually abolished. The film was written by Jeff Pope and Bob Mills and directed by Adrian Shergold.
Pierrepoint follows in the footsteps of his hangman father and prides himself in his ability to by means of accurate balancing of height, weight and length of rope on being able to dispatch the condemned so death is instantaneous. He also takes pride being able to escort the condemned to the gallows so swiftly that the victim barely has time to think about what is happening. His approach is impersonal without caring about what the crime has been, only confined to getting the task accomplished, then caring for the body with the assumption that having paid the price, the person is now to be treated as innocent.
This works as long as Pierrepoint’s identity is secret. But when he is sent to occupied Germany to handle the mass executions of Nazi men and woman guilty of war crimes, his identity becomes known amid much praise. That is the beginning of his unraveling, and having to execute a former pal is another milestone in the change that comes over him with Spall depicting it so well.
With being known, he also bears the brunt of hostility from crowds protesting the execution of people in controversial cases. One especially vexing duty was killing Ruth Ellis, who shot her husband, but who many felt was being unfairly condemned. Her case was an important step leading to the ending of the death penalty, and she became the subject of the film “Dance With a Stranger.” Juliet Stevenson gives a strong portrayal of Pierrepoint’s wife, who is at first content with the money the job brings, but becomes upset when the public turns against him. His being denied payment for his troubles after an execution is postponed at the last moment provides an excuse for offering his resignation. The portrayal of the marriage is extremely well done and serves to show Pierrepoint as a kind of Everyman who just happens to be good at a lethal job and following orders.
In a sense Pierrepoint is a stand-in for us all. He goes along with capital punishment until it gets to him in a most personal way, and his experience mirrors the manner in which the public accepts executions by regarding them impersonally. The film sharply raises the issue of its morality, and the fact that Britain abolished it, underscores that the United States stands increasingly alone in continuing to execute prisoners.
Although the film has its share of trap doors springing and shows as much as necessary to convey the reality of executions, it is directed with remarkable reserve so that it does not become exploitative, and Spall’s performance is on such a high level that one is able to watch the film with fascination, intellectual involvement and appreciation for the point this powerful film is making. An IFC First Take release.
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