Pierrepoint [DVD] [2006]

This is the story of one of Britain’s last hangmen, Albert Pierrepoint (1905-92), admirably played by Timothy Spall. It’s also a study in shame and pride. The shame is social and moral. Socially the ‘profession’ is abhorrent. No respectable person would choose to enter it. Morally, it’s guilt inflicting. Judicial judgement says Pierrepoint is not a murderer, but his conscience may suggest otherwise. In the film we see his sleepless nights, so we know he is not made of stone. Pride? Possibly a peculiarity of Pierrepoint himself due to family circumstances. He comes from a line of executioners (father and uncle). It’s in the family blood, so to speak. Traditional and conservative as he is, he means to carry on, even as the profession is dying out in Britain. He’s a relic and he knows it, but he’s also stubborn. This is what I do for a living, he thinks, and he does it well. He’s fast and efficient, no fuss, fumbling, hesitation (proud also to know the condemned die quickly, their suffering soon over). In a strange way, he’s humane. At any rate, he won’t be put out to pasture just because the times and attitudes are changing.The film opens in 1932 when Albert is 27. He is single, lives with Mum and his Uncle Thomas, his father having passed on. He works in a grocery store in Manchester as a drayman, delivering goods. In a sweet shop two doors down from the grocery is a lass he’s sweet on. Annie is her name and she works there most days. Their courtship is long due to penury. They will not marry until they have proper funds. That day finally arrives in 1943.In 1931, Albert first wrote to the Prisoners Commission Office, stating his desire to become an assistant executioner. He had in mind to assist his uncle in executions. At that time there were no vacancies, but within a year a position opened for him. He acted as assistant throughout the Thirties, though each assignment was intermittent and paid just £99 (in today’s money). His first execution as chief hangman didn’t come until ten years later, in 1941. All the years of assisting other executioners had taught him well. He was seen to be resolute, precise, efficient, fast. He didn’t monkey around, and sentimentality didn’t affect him. He got the job over with quickly, cooly, efficiently. To do this his mind seems to have been divided or balanced between two areas of thought. The first said he must extinguish human life. The task was necessary because the law said so. The second said the condemned should not be desecrated, no matter the accusation and crime. He was not — or did not allow himself to be — interested in what they had done. They paid the price for it with their lives, so in a sense death made them fresh and innocent again. Thus he took care to ensure the bodies of the deceased were properly cared for, even those of the Nazis he would later execute after the war. This meant handling them well and gently, cleaning them, placing them in coffins, showing them dignity in death. So, sentiment did pervade his view of things, but it didn’t obstruct his main duty. To dwell on it might have weakened or even incapacitated him.Annie, his wife, is aware of what he does intermittently. A brown envelope containing a letter from the government arrives at their house from time to time. Shortly thereafter, within a day or two, Albert leaves. It could be to Liverpool, London, or other parts of the country. It was nothing Albert or she talked about. His side job may have interested her, but she kept mum about it, basically caring about one thing only — the extra money it brought in. The 1930s had been rough. Rationing and the war years intensified it. The government needed and sanctioned Albert’s work. In a way he was important, an indispensable person. These thoughts calmed whatever doubts she may have had concerning what he did. Anyway, she didn’t want to know. He could keep the details to himself.The war years of course were terrible. So much carnage, waste, destruction. So much criminality, too. His work was now more important than ever. The results of this were kept in a metal tin by Annie. At one point she could count over £300 in the money of that time, a small fortune for them. With this they purchased a pub in Manchester. So, Albert could now add publican to his jobs list. He was a governor, with Annie his main barkeep. They did well, or well enough.Albert’s main mate was Tish, a working-class labourer who frequented the pub. Albert didn’t know his background well, but liked him as a stand-up guy. Tish was also a bit of a stand-up comedian, a jovial bloke who loved to sing and dance. He and Albert would sometimes team up to entertain the customers. In the film they sing “Making Whoopee”, clowning around together, a burlesque number always guaranteed to bring on laughs.Tish is besotted with Jessie, a young attractive woman who dresses in garish clothing, the sort that attract the roving eyes of men. Tish was one of them and as time went by they became more and more of a thing in the pub, a couple madly in love. But things aren’t as simple as they look through a haze of alcohol and good-time ragtime piano. A rumour made its way to interested ears that Jessie was not actually free. She had two little ones at home and a husband who may or may not have been around. So who was minding the children became uncertain in the minds of many while Jessie was swanning around drinking, dancing, flirting, singing. Tish must have had the same thought but was too smitten to think clearly about its consequences.This story of Tish and Jessie is important for what happens later in the drama.Albert’s star is rising in the ranks of executioners. At war’s end he’s in great demand due to the scale of Nazi Germany’s atrocities. Field General Montgomery himself has heard Albert’s name and wants to meet him. Naturally, Albert is flattered and satisfies Monty’s wish by meeting him. Thereafter Albert becomes Britain’s main hangman. Starting in December 1945 he makes over 25 trips to Germany and Austria during the next four years, executing more than 200 war criminals. In the film his first trip is shown and we see how overworked he is from the start. On his first day in Nuremberg he executes 13 people, men and women. Hard, stressful work. His assistant there, an army lieutenant, is fascinated by the personalities of the Nazis Albert must execute. But in one vivid scene Albert tells him not to mention anything more about them to him. He’s not interested in their pasts, only in the immediate job at hand. He forcefully suggests the lieutenant adopt the same attitude. The law, duty and the present moment — that is all. Forget about everything else.The work is brutal of course. Ghastly, horrific. That they were Nazis doesn’t matter on the scaffold, the same human eyes, fear, terror. Once they drop and are released from the rope, they require the same simple dignity given the dead anywhere. They’ve paid the price, have atoned for their sins. Whether this is true or not is forever debatable, but it’s what Albert believes, or what he has to believe to carry on.Essentially reserved and quiet, he doesn’t seek attention. He’s more interested in work well done, duty fulfilled. So the star treatment doesn’t go well with him. The press of course know him from Nuremberg and other places in Germany and Austria. He’s Britain’s official hangman, its Nazi exterminator, as the press (jingoistic) likes to tell it. This generates a groundswell of populist support for him in Britain, but also intense opposition by those campaigning for an end to capital punishment. Thus he’s caught between two competing visions and images, a hero to some, a villain to others. Once he was a man; now he’s a symbol, which celebrity only ever is — someone else’s ideas and fantasies about who and what you are, which may partly explain the apparent neuroses and traumas of many celebrities. At any rate, Albert is mortified by the attention, wants no part of it.Life at the pub is changed too. Customers jostle one another to buy drinks for Albert — more than he can imbibe. He’s a jolly good fellow to all and they sing to him more than once a night. They are tired of rationing and poverty and what the war did to Britain. Through Albert they exact their pound of Nazi flesh.Tish is distraught, inconsolable. Jessie has left him. Willingly or not he fell in love, so now in sorrow he’s beside himself without her. Too many nights he’s paralytic. Albert scrapes him from the bar or floor after last orders.One night when Tish is less drink sodden, more coherent, he has the following conversation with Albert.Tish: Do you know what I admire about you? It’s your strength of character. The way you keep things under your hat. I mean, doing the things you do. Bearing that load. Nobody would have guessed a thing.Albert: It’s not been easy. I’ve got things in here too [tapping his head] that I’d rather weren’t. I can keep them at bay. But they’re waiting for me. Waiting for me to let my guard down. Waiting all the bloody time, they are. I did a lot of jobs in Germany. More than were really good for me. Too many, really. I get so bloody tired now.So here he is at the end of his rope, so to speak, talking like a doomed man. Perhaps he could have been, but the instinct to survive was strong in him. He would not let his demons defeat him. So he got out, quit, resigned, walked away from the gallows and noose. In the film we see the letter Annie helped type for him to the Prisons Commission Office. His career as hangman ended in 1956. The film ends there in that year.The following passages appear on the screen:“Between 1933 and 1955 Albert Pierrepoint hanged 608 people.”“The fruit of my experience has this bitter aftertaste. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.”— Albert Pierrepoint (1974)The sincerity of the latter passage has been disputed by some critics who think he wrote it (in his autobiography) under pressure from his publisher to increase sales, painting the hangman as a penitent, a man remorseful for past deeds. A former fellow executioner of his named Syd Dernley wrote the following about Albert in his own autobiography, “The Hangman’s Tale” (1989):“Even the great Pierrepoint developed some strange ideas in the end. I do not think I will ever get over the shock of reading in his autobiography…[that] he had turned against capital punishment and now believed that none of the executions he had carried out had achieved anything…When you have hanged more than 600 people, it’s a hell of a time to find out you do not believe capital punishment achieved anything.”Who’s to know what’s true? He was always good at keeping his demons damped down. Perhaps in the end they really did get to him — 600 faces and 600 pairs of terrified eyes in a gallery of death he created. Then again, maybe he just peacefully slumbered off, alive one day, gone the next. You can’t say his life was charmed, but he didn’t waste much of it worrying about death.

Whatever one's view of Capital Punishment one cannot but admire the professional application and respect that Albert Pierrepoint brought to his duty as Official Executioner. This is an illuminating story of a man who focused, dispassionately, upon his duty. He expressed no judgement upon his victims or their crimes and he was compassionate enough to despatch them quickly, efficiently and, then, with respect for their remains. Those who question whether he was without feelings should read this book to the end. It is a cracking read

Why would you choose to watch this film? There are three categories of people who would be attracted to this production. Firstly those who simply want something different to watch,secondly the ghouls like their forebears who gathered in their thousands baying for blood and guts to watch hangings once carried out in public and lastly the ordinary thinking individual who may abhor the thought of capital punishment yet nevertheless has an inner conflict as to whether it has any place in today"s 21st century society.The taking of a human life is regardless of the means a brutal affair carried out with cold clinical precision. The depictions in the film as to the methodology is accurate to the letter from the moment the executioners enter the condemned cell to the taking down of the corpse. The minor details are necessary and correct and all that is missing is some of the preparatory work carried out by the hangmen in readiness for the task ahead. The atmosphere is electric ,the condemned deliberately disorientated and the official witnesses largely wishing they were elsewhere. Occasionally the condemned individual may be in a state of panic and collapse which all adds to the trauma.There is also a profound effect on the death watch wardens who have to remain with the condemned, on the hangmen themselves and on their families. Many are shunned and ostracised by friends and neighbours and several hangmen have turned to the bottle. When you kill an individual in such close proximity the image remains with the executioner for life. I have studied Capital Punishment for over 50 years and like Pierrepoint I concluded that it had no place in society. Like Pierrepoint I also later changed my view albeit reluctantly. The question is what is a more fitting punishment: To lock someone up for life or end their existence in a matter of seconds. In this the 21st century we see ongoing acts never expected before in the West with a dangerous ideology spreading its tentacles and nowhere more so than in our overcrowded prisons where radicalisation is prevalent. In an ideal world we should observe The Commandment "Thou shall"t not kill". This is not an ideal world. Were Capital Punishment ever to be reinstated in this the UK there is no more humane or swifter method than that depicted in the film save for the guillotine as a close second.Should we reinstate it ? Watch the film and decide.The film has several inaccuracies made fairly in the name of artistic license. There were several hangmen and MANY assistants. The Nazi criminals executed by Albert Pierrepoint were tried and executed at Hameln not Nuremberg where only Master Sergeant Woods US.Army acted as executioner. Pierrepoint acted unofficially as technical adviser for the film 10 Rillington Place (Christie and Timothy Evans case )and on demonstrating "the drop" many of the cast and supporting crew were greatly upset and affected. Lastly it has to be said that in his usual fashion Timothy Spall gave an outstanding performance and aside from having a singing voice which did not equal that of Pierrepoint nevertheless he could have passed for the man himself complete with Will"s Whiff cigar always present.

This is based on a true story pierpoint was the last hangman to hang a woman Ruth Ellis well worth watching great film.

A true story - thought provoking - a good adaptation of the book

Great film to watch

Good film

Was a very interesting film.

oui merci meme si en anglais uniquement ! film introuvable en France ! pourquoi ?

Wer sich mit der Todesstrafe beschäftigt sollte diesen Film gesehen haben. Aye. Etwas befremdlich für den deutschen Zuschauer sind die deutschenfeindlichen Bemerkungen im hinteren Teil des Films. Aber ich denke, der Film wollte damit den englischen Geist der Zeit einfangen. Das ist ihm jedenfalls gelungen und deshalb fand ich sie auch ganz in Ordnung. Ich habe beim Zuschauen die ganze Zeit überlegt, ob der die Rolle des Hauptdarstellers wirklich gut besetzt ist. Ich hatte immer das Gefühl einen geistig leicht behinderten Menschen vor mir zu haben. Das hat mich etwas von der Handlung abgelenkt. Aber diesen Film sollte man trotzdem gesehen haben. Er ist wichtig und sehr gut gemacht.

This story is so compelling and should be part of conversations in those countries that have not already outlawed capital punishment. It was especially heart wrenching to watch the scene where a man was led to his death still claiming his innocence for what were later known to be the John Christie murders. Timothy Spall was wonderful as Britain's last hangman and Juliet Stevenson was so moving as his wife. The supporting cast included the ever wonderful Eddie Marsan. Not to be missed.

This movie is based on the life of Great Britain's long-time official executioner Albert Pierrepoint. He followed his father and uncle as Great Britain's' hangman. He was an executioner for more than 20 years and it was estimated he hanged between 400 and 600 convicted murderers. Essentially, being a hangman was his second job because he also worked as a grocer and then as the owner of a pub, while he was doing his job as a hangman. If one had to be executed, he or she would probably chose to be hanged by Pierrepoint because he was said to be the absolute best at what he did in that he did his job quickly and very efficiently, with the condemned rarely, if ever, unnecessarily suffering. It was evident Pierrpoint was a good and just man who sometimes became emotional in hanging a particular person, such as Nazi woman war criminal, Irma Grese, the youngest woman executed by Great Brittan in the 20th century and Ruth Ellis, a 29 year-old attractive woman who shot and killed her boyfriend David Blakely, a British race car driver. Unfortunately, for Ellis, diminished mental capacity was not a defense to murder at that time, but because of her case, it became a defense some time later until the death penalty was permanently abolished in Great Britain in 1964. Ellis was the last woman executed in Great Brittan. Pierrpoint also executed a personal friend, James Corbitt, whom he knew as a regular to his pub. They used to sing duets. Corbitt strangled his girlfriend out of jealous rage after leaving Pierrpoint's pub one evening.Pierrepoint was a man one would want as a friend, as long as one was never convicted of murder in Great Britian during Pierrepoint's time as executioner because the death penalty was mandatory during that time for anybody convicted of murder, unless he or she received a very rare reprieve.

Ultimo della più importante dinastia di Royal Executioners del Regno Unito (prima di lui, il padre e lo zio paterno), Albert Pierrepoint si distinse per essere un vero professionista del suo lavoro: svelto, preciso, in grado di portare a termine il proprio lavoro nel modo più veloce e (auspicabilmente) indolore possibile. La sua abilità era talmente nota da garantirgli la riconoscenza dei suoi "clienti", che ne ammiravano la professionalità, e gli permise la convocazione da parte delle Autorità di Guerra Alleate, su indicazione di Montgomery, per l'esecuzione di un notevole numero di criminali di guerra nazisti. Dopo la morte, è calato un certo oblio su questo personaggio che, per inciso, è stato anche l'ultimo a impiccare una donna nel Regno Unito: si tratta di Ruth Ellis, e la sua vicenda era già stata raccontata in "Ballando con uno sconosciuto".In questa eccellente ricostruzione storica, il "volto" di Pierrepoint è quello del bravo Timothy Spall, già caratterista nei film di Harry Potter. Ottima l'ambientazione che attraversa il Regno Unito del secolo scorso.Forse non un capolavoro, ma un eccellente film documentario