Cavan Clerkin, Christopher Fulford, Eddie Marsan

A large, somewhat awkward man of simple manners, Albert Pierrepoint is like just any other decent, working-class fellow when we first encounter him. Then he goes for an interview at the local prison t...( read more  read more... )o become a hangman. According to Pierrepoint's mother, the same job had turned his father into an alcoholic and hustled him into an early grave, yet Pierrepoint feels he has the unique skills to succeed. The job requires strong statistical abilities in order to judge the drop required to snap a prisoner's neck without ripping off his head. He rises quickly through the ranks of executioners and becomes famous for the speed of his work. His career reaches a pinnacle when he is personally called over by General Montgomery to execute the Nuremberg criminals after World War II. His extraordinary work in dispatching hundreds of prisoners of war makes him a media star in Britain. But his experiences in Germany change Pierrepoint. He becomes increasingly unsure of his moral imperatives at the same time that abolitionists begin a fierce campaign to end hanging.

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83% liked it

2,786 ratings

Critics

76% liked it

50 critics

R, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: Adrian Shergold

Release Date: June 1, 2007

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DVD Release Date: October 30, 2007

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Flixster Reviews (283)


  • October 1, 2009
    A great performance from Spall, everything else just seems like an afterthought! Would be a great theatre production!
  • August 29, 2009
    An interesting look at the true story of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's most notorious hangman, a great performance from Timothy Spall and great supporting role from Juliet Stevenson. Gave an insight into capital punishment from the executioner's point and public opinion against ...( read more)capital punishment.
  • March 16, 2008
    This is a biopic of a fascinating man. Capital punishment, the dignity Pierrepoint felt the convicted were entitled to, and his own dignity in privacy are the main focus of the film. Incredibly subtle and well-acted.
  • February 28, 2008
    Brooding character study based on the true story of Albert Pierrepoint, who served as the chief hangman in England from 1933-1955. Timothy Spall (Vanilla Sky) gives a brilliant performance as the quiet, methodical Pierrepoint, who goes about his work with deadly efficiency. In fa...( read more)ct, he becomes such an efficient and effective executioner, that he's called upon by Field Marshall Montgomery when the Allies need someone to dispatch a group of Nazi war criminals. On his arrival in Germany, he's taken aback when he learns he will have to do as many as 13 executions in one day. But being the dedicated civil servant that he is, he soldiers on, often performing two hangings simultaneously, since "What Monty wants, Monty will get". But you can see that it takes a toll on him. When he arrives home from Germany, he's informed by his wife (Juliet Stevenson) that his identity, which has traditionally been kept secret has been discovered by the media, which causes him great concern. When a storm of protest over capital punishment arises in Britain, he becomes the focal point for the protestors, which causes him to have serious doubts about his chosen occupation, leading to his eventual resignation. The film moves along nicely, and the hangings are very effectively staged. Juliet Stevenson gives an excellent performance as Pierrepoint's wife Annie, but Timothy Spall commands the screen in the performance of his career. Worth seeing for that alone.
  • September 23, 2009
    The Pierrepoint's lived near where I grew up and I met Britain's last hangman. Nothing was mentioned of it sending his father into an early grave, more that it was just a family business which was passed down from father to son.
  • July 2, 2009
    A dark biopic on one of the last executioners in England, Timothy Spall gives a fantastic performance. Portraying Pierrepoint as a cold, calculating professional who takes pride in the precision and accuracy of his job but also a sensitive person racked by the worries and pains o...( read more)f his duties.
  • April 19, 2009
    Originally made for television, "Pierrepoint" is the story of Britain's most prolific hangman (not the last, there were nearly forty further executions after he retired from the duty). Albert Pierrepoint was, in fact, the third generation of executioner in his family (his fathe...( read more)r and grandfather had fulfilled the role before him).

    Given the subject matter, this is a surprisingly moving film, carried along by a superb performance by Timothy Spall and by an outstanding sense of period and place. Set in the austere decades of wartime and postwar England, direction and design capture a real feel for the era and for the gradual passing of time which led to a change in attitude, culminating in the abolition of the death penalty (abolished in 1969, though the last executions were carried out in 1964).

    The film portrays Albert Pierrepoint as a conscientious, dignified man who took no gratuitous pleasure in his profession, but who sought to make the last moments of condemned prisoners as calm and as dignified as possible. The film slowly acquaints us with the ordinariness of the executioner's task and routines. Surprisingly, it was a part time job - Pierrepoint worked as a delivery man before taking on the proprietorship of a Manchester pub, being summoned by appointment to the various prisons in England where he carried out his duties.

    Spall presents the man as decent, as determined to hold on to his anonymity - it was years before he even told his wife what he did on his 'trips'. The call to execute Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials, however, plunged him into the public spotlight and, thereafter, he was subjected to pressures from both the pro- and anti-capital punishment lobby. A private, decent man, he could nevertheless enjoy himself during his leisure time, performing an impromptu cabaret act with a friend in his local pub.

    Spall voices opinions recorded by Pierrepoint in his autobiography - his insistence that, once executed, the dead person had served their sentence and they were entitled to have their remains treated with respect and dignity. He takes great professional pride in the speed and sensitivity of his actions. However, the responsibilities he carried appear to have placed him under greater and greater strain, and his exposure to publicity and occasional personal attack took their toll.

    It's a film which avoids the sensational, the morbid, or the macabre. What comes across is the sheer ordinariness of the job - and the extraordinary compassion of the man and his sense of humanity. Spall is a fine, fine actor, and he is ably supported by Juliet Stephenson as his wife and the excellent Eddie Marsan as his friend and fellow public house performer.

    Pierrepoint would, after his retirement, state that he felt capital punishment failed to act as a deterrent, and recorded that many of the people he executed (over 600) had gone to their deaths with courage and resignation. What the film possibly does not capture is a real insight into this enigmatic character and the conflict he apparently felt about the need to perform his task decently while doubting its very validity. Did he only conclude that the death penalty was not a deterrent after he retired, or had it been a concern during his career?

    Nevertheless, an exceptional film, beautifully made and very well performed, and a thoroughly engaging piece of cinema.
  • February 21, 2009
    A lovely character piece by Timothy Spall.
  • December 11, 2008
    nothanks not my kinda thing
  • November 12, 2008
    timothy spall rocks!!

Critic Reviews


November 2, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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 i... full review

June 15, 2007
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

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

June 15, 2007
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

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

June 4, 2007
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Pierrepoint is worth seeing for Shergold's attention to process and for all the ghoulish details. full review

May 29, 2007
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

This recounting of Pierrepoint's rise and fall proves mostly a schematic message movie. full review

View more Pierrepoint - The Last Hangman reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • bluedwarf
    March 20, 2007
    wen i watched this film i thought that it wud be a bit of a bore.but this really does get u from the start..one scene in particular is a bit sad,and to those who av seen it will no wat i mean..great acting.superb..

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