 |
| STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED |
| Unmissable |
|
| Excellent |
|
| Good |
|
| Poor |
|
| Tragic |
|
|
| FILM DETAILS | | Certificate 15 | | Cast
Tom Courtenay
Eileen Atkins
Clare Holman
Chris Eccleston
Paul Reynolds | | Directors
Peter Medak | | Screenwriters
Neal Purvis
Robert Wade | | Running Time
118 minutes |
|
|
|
Let Him Have It
At the time the case this film is based on became a cause celebre, the capital punishment wrought on Bentley a national scandal and now, it seems, a suitable subject for the director of that other tale of British villainy, The Krays' Peter Medak.
Plot
With the four short words of the film's title - "Let him have it" - Derek Bentley, an epileptic 19-year-old with the mental age of 11 thanks to a childhood head injury, unwittingly - or so this film would have it - condemned himself to death and British legal history over the shooting of a policeman back in 1952. For it was these words, argued the prosecution in the infamous Craig/Bentley murder trial, which prompted Bentley's more worldly, younger and thoroughly rotten acquaintance, Chris Craig
Verdict
Let Him Have It is strongest in the human interest department and weakest as a thriller : Craig and Bentley's final rooftop shootout recalls the type of half-baked reconstruction beloved of CrimeWatch UK while their climactic murder trial has all the dramatic tension of serving jury service on a dog-fouling offence.
Reviewed by Phillipa BloomRead The Full Empire Review »
Click for the full Empire review and post your own review and rating.
|
|
|
|
