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MOVIES / ON DVD / PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

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Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2007)

78%
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78 %
Reviews Counted: 49 Fresh: 38  Rotten:11 Average Rating: 7.1/10
 
Consensus: Director Adrian Shergold doesn't shy away from the darker elements of the movie's subject, and Timothy Spall is mesmerizing as the title character.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Rated: 15

Runtime: 90 mins

Theatrical Release: 07-04-2006

Synopsis: Timothy Spall (Professor Pettigrew from the Harry Potter movies) gives a magnificently multilayered performance as the protagonist in PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN. Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint, a grocery deliveryman who decides to apply for his father's old job--a hangman for the... Timothy Spall (Professor Pettigrew from the Harry Potter movies) gives a magnificently multilayered performance as the protagonist in PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN. Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint, a grocery deliveryman who decides to apply for his father's old job--a hangman for the British courts. Soon he is perfecting the execution procedure, fulfilling his duties in record time and with no problems whatsoever. Though proud of his success, Pierrepoint prefers to keep it to himself, not even telling his wife, Anne (Juliet Stevenson), what he does when he leaves the house for days at a time. But when General Montgomery himself (Clive Francis) asks Pierrepoint to execute dozens of Nazis who have been sentenced to death, for the first time Pierrepoint starts questioning what he does, and soon his relatively calm, quiet world is turned upside down. Based on a true story, PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN is a gripping period drama, bathed in grays by cinematographer Danny Cohen and production designer Candida Otton. Spall is mesmerizing as Pierrepoint, his slow walk and penetrating eyes filling the screen. Stevenson is excellent as his loyal wife, standing by him through thick and thin. PIERREPOINT is directed with careful precision by Adrian Shergold, a longtime actor and television director who trained at the feet of Mike Leigh, who has cast Spall in many of his own films. And Eddie Marsan excels as Tish, a compatriot of Pierrepoint's who lands himself in a very nasty bit of trouble. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, James Corden, Christopher Fulford

Director: Adrian Shergold
Screenwriter: Bob Mills, Jeff Pope
Producer: Christine Langan
Composer: Martin Phipps

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 10, 2009

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • (unspecified) - English

Additional Release Materials:

  • Audio Commentary - Adrian Shergold - Director
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Trailers - Theatrical Trailer

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
4/5

There's also strong support from Juliet Stevenson and ... Claire Keelan, who stands out in a small role as, well, a tart.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/12/06
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image
4/5

In the wrong hands this could have been capital punishment, but as a low key drama about one man's unique approach to life and other people's deaths, it's actually just, er, capital.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/06
Adrian Hennigan
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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3/5

The actors' understated performances, coupled with an underwritten screenplay, ultimately leave the audience dangling.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/06
David Hughes
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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4/5

Compelling, powerful filmmaking.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/06
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
N/A

What the film does have, however, is the courage of its dark convictions; it’s a bleak subject and, commendably, the director doesn’t shy away from it.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/06/06
Wally Hammond
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3.5/4

The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/02/07
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

A suitably sombre treatment of a sombre story, Pierrepoint is nevertheless a riveting drama, sketching out not only the salient facts of Albert Pierrepoint's life but the turmoil in which that life caused in his soul

Full Review | comment Comment
10/09/07
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image
6/10

Albert Pierrepoint single-handedly killed over 450 people in his career, dispatching most of them with an icy precision in less than 30 seconds.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/07/07
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics
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4/5

Spall is more than worthy of future leading roles.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/07/07
Matthew Sorrento
Film Threat
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C+

Overdramatizes Albert's 24-year career.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/13/07
Mike Russell
Oregonian
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N/A

Based on their press materials, they think they have made a film damning capital punishment and exploring Britain's most famous executioner. In fact, they haven't. But they have made a film of artistic beauty and endless fascination.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/10/07
Harry Chotiner
culturevulture.net
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2.5/4

Grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/22/07
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
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N/A

The movie grows more compelling in the latter half as British public opinion turns against capital punishment and Pierrepoint begins to have his own doubts.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/21/07
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
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B+

There is a great deal of food for thought in a film that personalizes the effects of the death penalty on both the executed and the executioner.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/19/07
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
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N/A

A genuine and skillful account of one of Britain's most morally ambiguous working-class characters.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/18/07
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca
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B

...a powerful pairing of work by two terrific actors [Spall and Stevenson].

Full Review | comment Comment
06/16/07
Laura Clifford
rec.arts.movies.reviews
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3/4

The very title of this movie seems to message its doom. What could possibly be dramatic enough about Britain's last hangman to carry our interest over a 90-minute film? A whole lot, it turns out.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/15/07
Susan Walker
Toronto Star
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4/5

A completely engaging film. It's all about performance, and Timothy Spall is riveting as the earnest hangman. If you're desperate for a movie that has nothing to do with sequels or product placement, look no further.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/15/07
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies
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3/4

[The film's] grittiness instantly adds to the historically and socio-economically convincing picture of working-class Yorkshire in the last century.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/15/07
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
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3/4

Very much a bookend to Vera Drake in its mixture of post war British reserve and ugly reality. [Actor] Spall makes it work, creating a little man with big and terrible secrets.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/15/07
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
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