Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

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Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

R

2005

1h 34m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

79%

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53 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Albert Pierrepoint finds great success as Britain's most famous public executioner, and his notoriety rises to a new level after he is selected to hang Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials, but the experience changes him, and he begins to question the morality of his vocation at the same time that abolitionists begin a campaign to end hanging.

Critics 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.

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

11/02/2007

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.

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Ruthe Stein

San Francisco Chronicle

06/22/2007

2.5/4

Grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

06/21/2007

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.

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David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

02/15/2021

Adrian Shergold's The Last Hangman, an account of the career of Albert Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall), Britain's final executioner, is a superior work.

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

07/17/2009

C+

Plodding biopic.

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Jennie Kermode

Eye for Film

12/07/2007

5/5

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william d

@acsdoug 08/22/2021

Interesting biopic and excellently executed (no pun intended), terrific acting by Timothy Spall.

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07/17/2019

Morbidly fascinating

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10/21/2018

An insightful and emotive character study of Pierrepoint that integrated some key moral issues rife in the society it was performed.

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01/30/2017

good, be warned this ain't no barrel of laughs.

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06/15/2015

Excelente Timothy Spall, en un sencillo pero intenso relato sobre la pena de muerte.

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03/31/2014

This movie starts slow but is quite moving by the end.

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Adrian Shergold

Director

Timothy Spall

Albert Pierrepoint

Juliet Stevenson

Annie Pierrepoint

Eddie Marsan

James 'Tish' Corbitt

Michael Irwin Norton

Josef Kramer

Cavan Clerkin

George Cooper

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Synopsis

Albert Pierrepoint finds great success as Britain's most famous public executioner, and his notoriety rises to a new level after he is selected to hang Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials, but the experience changes him, and he begins to question the morality of his vocation at the same time that abolitionists begin a campaign to end hanging.

Director: Adrian Shergold
Producer: Christine Langan
Screenwriter: Jeff Pope, Bob Mills
Production Co: Granada Television
Rating: R (Nudity|Disturbing Images|Brief Sexuality)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jun 1, 2007
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 10, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $21.8K
Runtime: 1h 34m