Give it to him, Chris!
Give it to him, Chris! (Original title Let Him Have It ) is a British drama from 1991. The film is based on the true events of the case of Derek Bentley , who was executed in 1953 at the age of 19 for the murder of a police officer who was an accomplice of had committed him. The case is considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history.
Christopher Eccleston , who took on the role of Bentley, achieved his breakthrough as an actor with this role.
action
The mentally retarded Derek Bentley , together with the 16-year-old petty criminal Christopher Craig, committed a break-in in a south London department store on November 2, 1952. Bentley was armed with a knife and brass knuckles, and Craig carried a revolver. During the break-in, both were watched and the police notified. When he was arrested, Bentley called his companion "Give it to him, Chris!". Craig opened fire and wounded one policeman and killed another. When he ran out of ammunition, he jumped off the roof and was arrested, seriously injured. Bentley and Craig were charged with the murder of the police officer. Since Craig was still a minor, he did not have to fear a death sentence.
Bentley, however, was of legal age. Although he was already in police custody at the time the policeman was killed and his intelligence was below average, he was found guilty of complicity in the murder. It remained unclear what Bentley wanted to say to his accomplice by saying "Give it to him, Chris!" Although it could be interpreted as a call to fire at the police officer, it was also possible that he wanted to convince Craig to hand over the gun to the police officer ("him") and to surrender. Despite the unclear evidence, Bentley was sentenced to death by hanging and executed on January 28, 1953 by England's executioner Albert Pierrepoint in Wandsworth Prison, London . Craig received a lesser sentence for being a minor and was released from prison after ten years.
Doubts about the ballistics tests, Bentley's mental health problems, and the fact that he himself was not involved in the murder led to sharp protests against the verdict. After the execution, Bentley's sister Iris organized a campaign to obtain a posthumous pardon for Bentley.
background
At the time the film was made, Bentley was still a convicted murderer. It wasn't until 1993 that Bentley's sister Iris received his posthumous pardon. An official review of the verdict did not begin until 1997. On July 30, 1998, the verdict against Derek Bentley was overturned and he was acquitted by Judge Bingham. Bentley parents, however, had passed away in the 1970s. His sister Iris did not live to see the sentence overturned either. She died on January 22, 1997 of complications from cancer at the age of 64.
reception
The reviews were mostly positive. Thus, Rotten Tomatoes from the high average rating of 92%.
The Lexicon of International Films praised Medak's film as an impressive plea against the death penalty :
“An impressive plea against the death penalty that takes up an authentic case. Atmospherically dense in the drawing of the social and family background and differentiated in the character drawing. "
The Austin Chronicle critic highlighted the excellent performance of the cast:
"The entire cast here is excellent, from Eccleston's Derek to Bell's confused father to Reynold's manic Chris. Every moment of Medak's film rings true, like the knelling of an executioner's bell, and though the end result is a shocking and depressing wallop to your sensibilities, there's no doubt that Let Him Have It will stick in your memory for years to come, just as a triumph like this should. "
Roger Ebert awarded the high rating of 3.5 stars and praised the representations by Christopher Eccleston and Tom Courtenay.
Critical saw the reviewers of The Washington Post Medaks film. Desson Howe wrote that the film was "uninspiring" and fairly "harmless" for such a sensational subject. Howe's colleague Hal Hinson praised Eccleston's "refined" acting and also highlighted the scenes with Eccleston and Clare Holman as Bentley's sister. The rest of the film after the arrest is rather "pale" compared to the first half. Therefore the film is only "half good".
Web links
- Give it to him, Chris! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ R v Bentley (Deceased) 2001, 1 Cr.App.R. 307 ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at ccrc.gov.uk, accessed April 24, 2012
- ↑ Give it to him, Chris! at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Give it to him, Chris! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Let Him Have It at austinchronicle.com, accessed April 24, 2012
- ↑ Let Him Have It at rogerebert.suntimes.com, accessed April 24, 2012
- ^ 'Let Him Have It' by Desson Howe at washingtonpost.com, accessed April 24, 2012
- ↑ a b 'Let Him Have It' by Hal Hinson at washingtonpost.com, accessed April 24, 2012
