That was an excellent one.

Simply Perfect

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Timothy Spall does a brilliant job acting as Albert Pierrepoint a man who delivered groceries but was also one of Englands part time hangmen. He looks nothing like the man himself, but acts so well that you are gripped and taken along by every emotion.Apparently over his time Pierrepoint executed 608 people, including Nazi war criminals and he famously hanged Ruth Ellis, the last women hanged in England.There are parts of the movie where they take liberties with the facts, but it doesn't detract from the over all feeling that this story conveys. The scenes where he executed someone he knew and sang with in the pub was very moving and although the film is about what is a not very nice subject, it is not overly graphic. I did however think that the scene where he stripped and washed down a woman he had just hung was unnecessary.What came across mainly was that Pierrepoint took pride in his work and tried to make what he did as quick and as humane as possible.At the end there is a quote from Pierrepoint where he states "I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people ...The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off." They shortened it, but this is the full quote.

I sometimes wonder why mostly older films are being hailed as the "best film ever made". Citizen Kane, the Godfather Trilogy, and so on. But why can't a fairly contemporary film be the best one ever made? I believe that a contemporary work can be just as good as the great classics - simply because the cinema industry must inevitably have evolved during the many decades since its inception. If you look at many older films that are considered to be very great, you can see that the quality of the work is not good enough to really engage modern viewers. For example the TV-film "The Bunker" features a miscast Anthony Hopkins as Adolf Hitler, some poor acting at places, unrealistic sets and shoddy craftsmanship through the entire thing. This is probably not due to any incompetence on the behalf of the film makers or the actors, but rather a result of time and money issues. Yet this TV film has only a 0.1 lesser rating on IMDb than "The Last Hangman." It seems to me that contemporary films that are actually not that good are often over rated because of massive budgets, distribution networks and incredibly skilled marketing. One example is the film "Avatar", which suffers from a horrible script that simply doesn't make sense. It truly does deserve the epithet "Dances With Smurfs" and will probably be destined for future oblivion. According to me, Avatar is the epithet of a brain dead popcorn movie that simply doesn't summon up any meaningful emotions. A good example of this is "La guerre du feu" of 1981 - a (probably) horribly over-budgeted and over-marketed disaster that features some very strange and poor acting. This film has the exact same rating on IMDb as "The Last Hangman". But who remembers it today? I dare you to watch this film without starting to laugh at the Neanderthal people. And I don't really think that is the effect that the director was after...In contrast, "The Last Hangman" is a superbly directed and acted film that simply knocks out all of its competition. It features Timothy Spall, who stands out as one of the greatest actors of his generation. I should warn you that this may not be an easy movie to watch. The scene where the character Pierrepoint tells his wife about hanging his friend Tish left me completely devastated. But I believe that this film is a very strong argument against the death penalty. Perhaps Pierrepoint realizes, at the end, that you can kill people - but you can't un-kill them.

It would be a particularly strange individual to claim that this is an entertaining movie. But entertainment isn't the point - some films challenge you and make you question the moral aspect of what you're seeing. And much like "The Reader" did, "Pierrepoint" is another film that asks more questions than it answers. It also features another fine performance from one of Britain's most under-rated actors but somehow, it didn't engage with me as much as "The Reader" did and struggled to avoid the stench and stigma of being a glorified TV movie.Timothy Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint, a Lancashire grocery deliveryman who leads a double life as one of a number of executioners still operating in the UK. Quickly developing his technique and efficiency, Pierrepoint soon becomes considered the best there is which is why he is asked to Germany at the end of the Second World War to assist in hanging the various Nazi war criminals. Returning to his wife Annie (Juilet Stevenson) and his friend Tish (Eddie Marsan) as a hero, Pierrepoint's previously stoic nature begins to crack when the nation's views on capital punishment changes... and Pierrepoint finds himself doing the unthinkable.Spall, one of the UK's finest actors, easily holds this tale of the tortured hangman together and gives the character a real pathos that I didn't expect. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect to this - it offers a dark, disturbing look at a man who took a strange pride in what must be one of the most unpleasant jobs on the planet. But as the inevitable stiff upper lip disappears (especially during the final half-hour or so), the film's views on capital punishment are all too visible. There isn't a laugh to be had anywhere, unusually in a British film, and anyone expecting a ray of sunshine should probably look elsewhere. There are one or two historical inaccuracies (Pierrepoint wasn't Britain's last hangman at all) but it's not exactly "U-571" when the Enigma coding machine was recovered by Harvey Kietel and Jon Bon Jovi. I just feel that although it's a well-performed and well-written effort, I can't imagine the sort of person who would want to watch it."Pierrepoint" can't really be faulted in terms of what is on screen - everything looks authentic, the actors do well in the roles and the script gives a melancholic, washed-out grey feel to the story which remains not only believable but oddly compelling. My issue is more with what the film is trying to say - capital punishment has been abolished in the UK for a number of years and something tells me that this isn't the sort of movie to shown in places like China or Iran where capital punishment still exists. I feel that the film could have told more of the story rather than ending when it did and also managed the time-line of proceedings a bit better - I didn't get any real sense of time passing, despite the rudimentary efforts of the dialogue. But "Pierrepoint" remains a curious little film, one with a strong message behind it but not the confidence to stand up and shout it.

This film is about the work and family life of Britain's most prolific executioner."The Last Hangman" deals with a grim topic which many people would regard as a taboo. It is not easy to make it a good film out of it. Fortunately, "The Last Hangman" has a particularly effective plot that details the psychological change of Pierrepoint as his career progresses. Timothy Spall acts very well, as he delivers a range of undoubtedly effective emotions. From pride, doubt to depression, everything shows on his face clearly."The Last Hangman" is a detailed psychological journey of a gruesome occupation. It should not be missed.