The UK has certainly had its share of serial murders, probably none more popular than one of the first, Jack the Ripper. This story involves a series of crimes, the moores murders, and the two perps, Ian Brady and Myra Hendley who, acting in concert, dispatched more than five young kids in the most bestial fashion and buried them in the Lancashire moores. Suffer the little children.
Of Brady we can say that there's only the slightest doubt that he suffered from what is now called anti-social personality disorder, unsocialized type. He was a Class A psychopath from his childhood onward, a characterological descendant of the Kallikaks and the Jukes.
Myra Hindley is a question mark. Of course there have been women who have killed with evident pleasure, as she did, judging from photographs taken during and after the crimes. But women murderers are less often into brutality and more often into soft murders by poison. And, more often than taking physical form, the least amiable express their cruelty in verbal form or in small punishments of subordinates. (These ridiculous generalizations come to you courtesy of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution!) They also show a tendency to be attracted to men of power and potency, as in the Stockholm syndrome. And some of the more twisted seem to be willing accomplices to brutal men. Myra Hindley, whatever her motives, served some 36 years in prison. Caril Ann Fugate served 18 before being released.
But this isn't the story of Brady and Hindley anyway. It's the story of Longford, one of those iconoclastic British eccentrics, a member of the House of Lords, an anti-pornography crusader, a Catholic, and a fervent supporter of Myra Hindley's quest for parole. He was in middle age by the time her case came to his attention and there was speculation that, well, maybe there was more to his involvement than mere humanitarianism. It would be understandable. Myra wasn't bad looking and she evidently could present quite a convincing case for herself. Still, his motivation was probably pure enough. He'd visited many prisoners before Myra and continued to visit them for the rest of his life.
He was a devout man, and his faith seems to have both sustained him and served as a trap. "Hate the sin, love the sinner," Longford says. And when it turned out that Manipulative Myra had played him like a fish on a light line, "finding Jesus" as so many inmates do, lying to Longford repeatedly, failing in an attempted escape when he seemed to be neglecting her, dismissing him when he was no longer of use to her, Longford never blamed anyone but himself for the suffering he'd brought about.
Jim Broadbent, as Longford, is superb. He looks crazy. But his performance could hardly be improved upon. The usual legal thriller has a hero or heroine who defends an innocent person who's been convicted of a crime by an evil system -- and gets him or her off. Here's a story of a man who sacrifices his reputation for the sake of someone who's unworthy of that sacrifice. Yet the movie explores him without condemning him or making him look foolish. Longford may or may not be a hero. Hindley's motives are left murky and the final meeting of the two is friendly enough, even warm. It's not a story of good and evil, just a story of mistakes. That's what makes it a film deserving of adult attention. Kids weaned on slasher movies will find it boring because it's all talk. People with more sophistication will have a better understanding of what the characters are going through.
Of Brady we can say that there's only the slightest doubt that he suffered from what is now called anti-social personality disorder, unsocialized type. He was a Class A psychopath from his childhood onward, a characterological descendant of the Kallikaks and the Jukes.
Myra Hindley is a question mark. Of course there have been women who have killed with evident pleasure, as she did, judging from photographs taken during and after the crimes. But women murderers are less often into brutality and more often into soft murders by poison. And, more often than taking physical form, the least amiable express their cruelty in verbal form or in small punishments of subordinates. (These ridiculous generalizations come to you courtesy of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution!) They also show a tendency to be attracted to men of power and potency, as in the Stockholm syndrome. And some of the more twisted seem to be willing accomplices to brutal men. Myra Hindley, whatever her motives, served some 36 years in prison. Caril Ann Fugate served 18 before being released.
But this isn't the story of Brady and Hindley anyway. It's the story of Longford, one of those iconoclastic British eccentrics, a member of the House of Lords, an anti-pornography crusader, a Catholic, and a fervent supporter of Myra Hindley's quest for parole. He was in middle age by the time her case came to his attention and there was speculation that, well, maybe there was more to his involvement than mere humanitarianism. It would be understandable. Myra wasn't bad looking and she evidently could present quite a convincing case for herself. Still, his motivation was probably pure enough. He'd visited many prisoners before Myra and continued to visit them for the rest of his life.
He was a devout man, and his faith seems to have both sustained him and served as a trap. "Hate the sin, love the sinner," Longford says. And when it turned out that Manipulative Myra had played him like a fish on a light line, "finding Jesus" as so many inmates do, lying to Longford repeatedly, failing in an attempted escape when he seemed to be neglecting her, dismissing him when he was no longer of use to her, Longford never blamed anyone but himself for the suffering he'd brought about.
Jim Broadbent, as Longford, is superb. He looks crazy. But his performance could hardly be improved upon. The usual legal thriller has a hero or heroine who defends an innocent person who's been convicted of a crime by an evil system -- and gets him or her off. Here's a story of a man who sacrifices his reputation for the sake of someone who's unworthy of that sacrifice. Yet the movie explores him without condemning him or making him look foolish. Longford may or may not be a hero. Hindley's motives are left murky and the final meeting of the two is friendly enough, even warm. It's not a story of good and evil, just a story of mistakes. That's what makes it a film deserving of adult attention. Kids weaned on slasher movies will find it boring because it's all talk. People with more sophistication will have a better understanding of what the characters are going through.