I was just wondering what other people consider to be the most authentic depiction of what a british hanging must have been like.
In this film Albert Pierrepoint was used, but there are scenes in other films such as let him have it (about derek bentley) and Pierrepoint which features several scenes.
I think the most eerie part of this scene is when you hear the footsteps of the approaching 'officals' and the key going into the lock as Evans is sat the table.
I don't know about how it compares to other renderings of British hangings, but what I thought made this one so effective was what I believe is the only use of hand-held camera in the film. Rarely has the shift from a stable perspective to a dizzy one been so devastating!
share...they did it a few other times but it was subtle...
share[deleted]
I think what i found so horrifying is that Timothy is sat in the room unaware of what is dehind the secret door and how close he is to death.
And before he even has chance to react hes bagged and hung in a matter of seconds!
"For Relaxing times, make it Suntory time"
Absolutely. I saw the movie on television over thirty years ago, and that execution scene was one of the most vivid parts of the film in my memory. I felt that same sense of horror you describe at the realization that he's been living right next door to the gallows the whole time, and the speed with which he is hanged. Presumably, the official idea was to make it quick, and not draw out the suspense for the condemned prisoner, but it seems startling and somehow wrong, to my American way of thinking, that he is not given a chance to say a few last words, and they don't even show him getting to pray with a chaplain first, either.
It's extremely businesslike and efficient, and that may be what makes it so unsettling. Of course, knowing that poor Evans was wrongly condemned makes it almost unbearable to watch. John Hurt is so brilliant at capturing the confusion and bewilderment of Timothy Evans, you get the feeling he doesn't even quite realize that it's actually happening to him. It's a terrible thing to watch, and as much as I admire this film, I can't see it very often.
And when he crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him
Watch 'Pierrepoint' starring Timothy Spall for a realistic depiction. He's incredibly matter-of-fact about his job and once famously started smoking a cigarette, did the hanging and then returned to the cigarette in a matter of seconds. The job got to him in the end though.
I really wish everyone wouldn't assume that Evans was as depicted in the film. That follows the 'official version' and although there's no definite proof Evans killed anyone either, many people thought he did the murder(s)and official files released in the 90's reveal him to be if not a killer then a violent drinke with a terrifying temper who had previously tried to stranglehis wife, as witnessed by one of his neighbours.
The curator at the black museum in Scotland Yard showed us the clip from the movie Pierrepoint as an acurate portrait of the amount of time it took from holding room to gallows. From the books on Pierrepoint and capital punishment in the Uk Ive read I'd say they are pretty much on the money in that movie.
"Its just a ride"
Pierrepoint was the tech advisor on the film, so you would hope so, wouldn't you! There's only one problem with the sequence and it's a purely cosmetic one: the Condemned Cell is about three times as small as it would be in reality.
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The UK's government should re-introduce the death penalty for certain crimes imo.There is no proper deterrent nowadays for murder.Even though I felt bad for Evans, the chances are if the crimes were committed in this day & age Christie wouldn't have got away with framing Evans for the killings as he did back then.
shareChristie apparently complained of an itchy nose as he was about to be hung, to which Pierrepoint replied something along the lines of 'That won't worry you for long, son!', not in a mocking way but more as a statement of fact.
People who study these kind of things believe that most people who know they are about to die gradually become resigned to it and can perhaps make peace with themselves. I wonder what if anything Christie thought to himself as the rain lashed down on his final night (it is fact that it was raining that night, i wasn't being poetic). Did he confront himself with his crimes or could his mind still shield him from the responsibility?
The historical facts would agree with you, with regards to people coming to terms with their impending death. There were very, very few cases in the 20th century of condemned prisoners struggling or resisting when the moment came.
"Did he confront himself with his crimes".
I don´t know what´s there to "confront" when you simply lack conscience althogether. They´re fully aware and mostly, in fact, proud of their murderous handiwork as well as the ability to avoid detection over long periods of time if that´s been the case (it often is). For instance, according to an eyewitness, the nororious serial killer Dennis Rader who´d been getting away with his crimes for almost 30 years, behaved & spoke in the courtroom as if he was there to receive an Oscar award.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Guitarhero, I think you are wrong. The film did show that Timothy had a temper, and that he and his wife fought. that does not make him a murderer. The prison officers who sat with him for the three weeks he waited to die all agreed that he was very mild tempered on the whole, and commented that he didn't seem capable of the crime he was accused of.I hope you are not suggesting that people who drink too much and fight with their spouses deserve to be hanged?
shareWatch 'Pierrepoint' starring Timothy Spall for a realistic depiction. He's incredibly matter-of-fact about his job and once famously started smoking a cigarette, did the hanging and then returned to the cigarette in a matter of seconds. The job got to him in the end though.
Presumably, the official idea was to make it quick, and not draw out the suspense for the condemned prisoner, but it seems startling and somehow wrong, to my American way of thinking, that he is not given a chance to say a few last words, and they don't even show him getting to pray with a chaplain first, either.
what's the use in pretending to want to hear last words, then killing the person?
share That was exactly the point of the whole thing: to make it unexpected and so quick as not to give the condemned person time to realise what was coming to them. In a way it was quite human because -at least when Pierrepoint was the executioner- it used to take only 30 seconds from the moment he walked into the room to the moment the prisoner was certified dead, thus avoiding scenes of hysteria and psychological agony. Now, let us consider the way in which executions used to be held in the previous centuries: a public hanging in the main square, having being announced for days as to attract an audience for their amusement, free admission to everyone,even children...
In Spain the last public execution took place in 1890, and the victim was a woman. The killing method was the garrotte, invented in the middle ages and used for centuries. The last time it was used was in 1974 -Spain didn't abolish the death penalty until 1978. The garrotte was one of the most sadistic methods of execution ever conceived by man. If you think hanging was barbarous, you don't know the garrotte. There were cases in which it took as long as twenty minutes for the condemned person to die from a crushed neck in unbearable agony. Even those in authority who attended the executions of some of the most infamous criminals in Spanish history came out of the gallows feeling sick and shocked from what they had witnessed.
The death penalty has always been a very controversial subject, and it will always be. But yet I would be for it in cases of terrorism against civilians. The method:a bullet shot to the head.
Capital punishment is nothing more than a perverted form of public entertainment.
It solves nothing.
I believe Pierrpoint acted as advisor also on Let Him Have it.
The depiction of execution on both films was very true to how it was by the time of those executions
Was that the film about Derek Bentley?
Good grief, that whole episode was a disgrace too (though no fault of Pierrpoint). Bentley was not the shooter and was probably not even fit to stand trial.
Pierrepoint hanged Bentley, Evans and Christie. He also hanged Ruth Ellis.
The issue with Bentley was the fact that the shooter was under age , but because a policeman had been killed people wanted blood, the entire thing was a travesty of justice.
shareI'm with you on that.
shareJD - Yes Let him have it was about Bentley case.
He has since had his conviction quite rightly but somewhat late of course quashed. Sadly I dont think his sister who spent the rest of her life trying to achieve this had died already, she had however lived to see him be "Pardoned"
Kieslowski's Dekalog p. V is a short of his film A Short Film About Killing. Either is a well-crafted profile of a youth going down a bad path. A haphazard, botched murder; a flawless, efficient execution. Set in Poland, the eventual hanging is remarkably similar to that seen here. If you haven't seen it, prepare yourself. Not so much for the scene as for Kieslowski. His work alters you. He belongs with geniuses like Chopin and Van Gogh.
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I love you, Sheriff Truman ~Albert Rosenfeld
Have any of you seen "Blonde Sinner" aka "Yield to the Night"? Diana Dors portrays a woman awaiting haunt for shooting the woman for whom boyfriend has left her for. The film is mostly in flashbacks, showing us what led up to the killing. The scenes in prison are very poignant as she waits for a reprieve from the the hangman. DD portrayal is heartbreaking.