Pierrepoint:The Last Hangman

R4 DVD

Madman 2008

The film opens as Albert Pierrepoint is courting his girl Annie, he is a grocery delivery man and makes a decent living but not enough to really achieve what he wants. He decides to follow his father before him and apply to become an executioner. After attending a training course and being sworn to secrecy, Albert and another executioner are given their “first” run, Albert shows his professionalism under pressure and is given the position. He lives a double life; he does not tell his friends or his wife what he does when he travels away. He becomes the most respected executioner in the country, working with diligence and care; he is able to undertake his job diligently and efficiently. He takes pride in carefully noting their height, weight and build so they are killed quickly and without suffering and goes as far as to personally prepare each body after the execution.

However, things change when he is asked to travel to Germany and work as England’s hangman, the sheer number of executions (over 13 a day) demands the use of a double gallows and takes a toll on his health. When he returns he finds his anonymity has been compromised and he is now a celebrated national hero for executing the Nazi war criminals. With the money he has made from his work he opens a pub with his wife and continues his work.

However, when the public starts to turn against capital punishment and when he must hang his best friend for killing his girlfriend (in a truly harrowing scene), he begins to fray at the edges. As his wife sees the effect it is having on her husband, she encourages him to resign after he has completed some 608 executions.

This is a superbly made film - sombre, reflective and melancholy. Timothy Spall as Pierrepoint is eminently believable and offers a truly authentic performance. Spall helps us understand Pierrepoint’s perfectionism, dedication to his job and wish to be the very best as matched by his desire to treat the prisoners as human beings. The performance by Juliet Stevenson as his wife is nuanced and powerful, she is both a sensitive and caring wife, understanding the toll her husband’s work is taking on him, yet also a social climber. Throughout the film you notice the slow transformation of her clothing from everyday wear to expensive dresses, pearls and a fur coat, she is certainly enjoying the money from his work while refusing him the right to even discuss it.

For me the most confronting sequence was when Tish, his best friend, becomes entangled in an affair with a married woman. He even buys her a diamond ring but is rejected and he begins to stalk her. One night he follows her to a motel and strangles her in a moment of insane jealousy. Pierrepoint has no idea of Tish’s real name since they were “pub” buddies and he only knew him by his nickname. When he arrives at his next execution it is his friend he must hang, in a moving scene he acknowledges his friend, calms him and hangs him. This is one of the more potent scenes in a film I have seen for quite a while.

There is so much in Pierrepoint, it explores friendship, love, the work ethic and above all the human cost of capital punishment on those who are called to carry out the task.

This is a film which could have so easily been sensationalized, it avoids focusing too much on the executions themselves and even on the crimes which lead to them. This is a film about Albert Pierrepoint and the human side of capital punishment and it is truly a film which will stay with you for quite a while.

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)