Rating of
4/4
Ripping yarns
Bribaba - wrote on 05/03/11
Note: this review incorporates the other two films (1980,1983) in what is a trilogy.
Any reservations I had about this trilogy were ultimately scuppered by the thrill of seeing a cross between Klute and The Parallax View set in Yorkshire. The look from the titular year is certainly there thanks to some grainy 16mm but unlike the mediocre Life On Mars, it doesn’t get too hung up on period detail. There’s also an absence of tunes constantly reminding you that you that it’s 1974, though it was nice to hear Anne Peebles in the snooker club. As with his novel The Dammed, David Peace uses a blend of fact and fiction, a kind of imagined history that takes in police corruption, press collusion and a milieu that paved the way for the Yorskshire Ripper. Sean Bean excels as Mr Big and Rebecca Hall is great as a femme fatale, recalling the great Gloria Grahame.
1980 - the second in this so far excellent trilogy and the one in which the Ripper makes his entrance. Paddy Considine takes centre stage as the Inspector called in to investigate the West Yorkshire police’s search for the serial killer. The film then goes off on a fictional tangent as it becomes clear that not all the victims were killed by Sutcliffe.,Director James Marsh’s take is more focused than the first instalment and more tense as a result. Considine is excellent as usual but so are the supporting cast, especially Sean Harris as the sketchy cop Bob Craven. The script by Tony Grisoni, an adaptation of David Peace’s first person narrative, bears little resemblance to its source or anything by James Ellroy, Jake Arnott or Enid Blyton.
The story itself has elements of Ellroy'd LA Confidential, with the added bonus of Tetley's bittermen. It does not suffer by comparison. As Marsh says, “I didn’t want a film where everyone’s running around pretending to be an American gangster. I wanted to make a film about the country I grew up in”. And so he did and for this we can be truly thankful.
