Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Released: 1996
Cast: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Miskelly, John Mark Byers

Pierrepoint (aka. The Last Hangman), dir. Adrian Shergold (2005)

STEVE says:
Pierrepoint is a harsh movie. A biopic of Britain's most celebrated and prolific hangman (between 1933 and 1955, Albert Pierrepoint was responsible for the hangings of 608 people), it wasn't going to be a laff-riot.

Although it's pretty free and loose with the facts - not the least of which, that Pierrepoint was not Britain's last hangman, despite the movie's US title - I can't hold that against it because I wasn't exactly conversant with the facts in the first place. But facts, to paraphrase Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, should never get in the way of a good story.

And it was a good story: Pierrepoint tried to keep his job as Executioner completely separate from his daily life as a grocer, and later a publican, but it would eat away at him over his 22 years of service, as he first tried to live up to his father's reputation as Executioner, then avoid the same pitfalls that destroyed his father later in life. It's a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, really - I can only wish it had been told with more care.

As I said, it wasn't so much the shuffling of the facts that bothered me about Pierrepoint; it 's that it felt rushed. I know it's difficult to go through 22 years of a man's life in under 90 minutes, but this was a bit much. Early in the movie, Pierrepoint is shyly trying to ask Juliet Stevenson's Annie to a movie. Then they're dancing, then they're married and she's serving him dinner, then they're at the cinema watching newsreel about Nazi War Crimes. Hang on - that's something like 13 years in the space of only ten minutes. Then it's 1950, and then the movie's over. While I didn't feel as though I missed anything, I also didn't feel like any time had actually passed. Simply superimposing the year in the corner of the screen every now and again would have gone a long way in keeping me temporally grounded.

And it has to be said, I've a newfound respect for Timothy Spall (who I'm now coming to think of as The Great Timothy Spall). To this day, I've always found it difficult to separate him from his role as the pitiful-yet-creepy Dr. Polidori in Ken Russell's Gothic, but he was moving and utterly convincing as this man who basically led a dual life, and was almost destroyed by it.

3/5

NIKKI says:
Steve is right: This movie needed more time to tell its complex story. So much went on in Pierrepoint's 20 years at the gallows, and though the film did very well in eliciting concern for the man, respect, and pity, I felt there was more to his life that could have been explored.

This was very much the snapshot version of a life, so instead of viewing it as a biopic about Pierrepoint, I think I appreciated it more as a lesson in history. Just how Britain selects its hangmen, what they have to do, how they cope -- all intriguing elements of this story. I was enthralled by Pierrepoint's handling of his position. The manner in which he dropped the floor on 13 Nazi war criminals (men and women) without batting an eye was just fascinating. What it does to him in the end is even more so.

The routine-ness with which Pierrepoint carries out his duties speaks to this sad time in world history. This is not the place to get into issues of capital punishment, but I would have liked to know a bit more about Pierrepoint's eventual change of heart, speaking out against the death penalty as a means for revenge. What does Pierrepoint think of the fact that he put innocent men to death? I realise he's carrying out orders, and who gets to the gallows is not his decision, but that has to do something to a person?

His downfall began when he became famous for his work, and when he put a friend to death. But what of these other things? Again, reason this was too short. There's so much to explore here. Still, a good film about a horrible thing.

Abolish the Death Penalty.

3/5

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., dir. Errol Morris (1999)

NIKKI says:
I found this in line with the better Morris films we've seen. It was focused and engrossing and really told the story it wanted to tell (or I wanted it to tell) rather than deviating all over the place to include crazy little human tidbits as in Gates of Heaven.

I was not expecting the story I ended up with, however. I knew nothing about Leuchter's trip to Auschwitz and the eventual trials that followed. This aspect of the film was its most compelling; how Leuchter attempted to explain and excuse his actions was fascinating as well. It prompted much discussion afterwards as Steve and I tried to piece together the psyche of such a man.

He is an interesting person to pull apart, and his story is strange and sad.

3/5

STEVE says:
What an odd little man. Fred Leuchter was hired to redesign an electric chair for the state of Tennessee (more, it seems, because his father had worked at the prison than for any expertise in such matters), and because he did such an amazing job, was then hired to design a lethal injection machine for the state of Delaware. He marvels at this: Why would he know anything about lethal injection? But it went on like that, later being hired to design a gas chamber.

Now this is where it gets tricky.

He admits to knowing nothing about these things, although his designs were accepted and carried out. But then he's called in as an "expert witness" for the defense in a case against a man who claims that the Holocaust never happened. Leuchter goes to Auschwitz and inspects the camp to see whether it actually was a concentration camp, used to gas hundreds of thousands to death, or whether it was just a slave labor camp, and he states that there's no one more qualified than himself. From an engineering point of view. Although he's not licensed. Nevermind.

Leuchter turns out to be a rather sad little man, claiming through his findings that the Holocaust never happened, and going around the world to speak out on the subject because he couldn't possibly be wrong about it, could he? That would be unthinkable. Even though all the evidence points to the contrary.

One of the better Morris docos we've watched, right up there with The Thin Blue Line. Another one of those stranger-than-fiction, "If You Saw It In A Movie, You Wouldn't Believe It" scenarios.

3.5/5

Death & Texas, dir. Kevin DiNovis (2004)

NIKKI says:
Neither of us could go past the idea of a mockumentary about the death penalty that posits: Will condemned killer Barefoot Bobby Briggs be allowed out of prison the day before his execution to play in the Mega-Bowl? And it stars Charles Durning, so we were in. Results were mixed. Good as its arguments were regarding the death penalty and the screwed American judicial system, the film itself (just over an hour-long) didn't really live its potential.

It's main issue was indecisiveness about whether or not it was serious or satirical. Mary Kay Place, for instance, was comedic as the mother of the convenience store clerk killed by Briggs. In fact, everything she says, pretty much, seems like it's meant to be funny. And she overplays the hell out of the kitschy Texan mom character. But Durning is usually ultra-serious when he discusses anti-death penalty arguments and the poor case against his client. So, I didn't really know what the movie wanted to me to feel. Of course, it's preaching to the converted in our house, so we nodded along with the Abolition Coalition people, while rightfully scoffing at the "burn him!" factions.

An interesting experiment, but it failed for me. Its death row inmate, Briggs (played by Steve Harris), was likable, so were the lawyers, Briggs' family, and even Briggs' co-conspirator who all but admits he planned the whole thing and Briggs was an unwilling accomplice. So, I'm not challenged. I'm not forced to confront my beliefs in any way. It was too easy, I guess. And because of that lack, the satire (if that's indeed what Place and the Mega-Bowl were) fell very flat.

2/5

STEVE says:
Yeah, this one just didn't do it for me. I know not all mockumentaries are comedies - witness Interview with the Assassin and Death of a President - but the IMDb has Death & Texas clearly listed as a comedy, and I just didn't see it.

The "will-he-or-won't-he-play" Mega-bowl subplot was not very well thought out, I have to say. Why in the name of all that is holy was "Barefoot" Bobby Briggs let out of prison - and not just prison-prison, but death row - to play football? Is there a work-release program there that no one's heard about? This was glossed over very early on, explained away in mock legalese, so that we could get to the good stuff - which wasn't that good in the end anyway.

The satirical element here (at least as I saw it) was in taking the two things Texans love most - football and killin' - and putting them head-to-head, see which comes out on top. But even the ending was a cop-out because you know Bobby's going to play in the game, just as you know, win or lose, he's going to be put to death the next day. It's win-win for Texas.

I'm will concede that maybe I missed the point. If anyone wants to explain it to me, I'm willing to listen. But for now, Death & Texas gets 2 out of 5.