Let Him Have It

I cant really elaborate much on any one else's comments,but i went to see this film in Leicester Square when it first came out,it never went any further than London for some reason,so a lot of people never got the chance to see this film until it went on video or on TV.My parents always talked about this case saying how wrong it was that Derek Bentley was hanged and Ruth Ellis and Timothy Evans,all these cases were paramount in the abolishment of capital punishment.Derek Bentleys is the most obvious case of a miscarriage of justice it practically screams at you.He did not shoot the policeman,and the words Let him have it do not imply that he wanted his friend to,whether he said it or not?so which ever way you slice it he shouldn't have been hung.On the other hand i believe the law was right to detain the sixteen year old on Her Majestys Pleasure,as at this age your parents are the ones responsible for you,Christopher Craig was a very immature 16 year old and his mentality was probably more like a 13-14 year old,Derek Bentley had the mental age of an 11 year old,i don't think it was as such that Derek was manipulated,i believe that they were on more or less the same mentality level,Christopher Craig was the aggressor,Derek the much more gentle. Christopher Craigs biggest punishment is that he has had to live with his friends death on his conscience for the rest of his life.And from his own statements he has said he will never forget Derek,he has always regretted what happened.The policemans death was also a tragedy and was rightly mourned,but the justice system at the time gave out the wrong measure of punishment and reached a far to harsh decision instead of being fair,so the publics view swung to sympathy towards Derek Bentley,and still does.The miscarriage of justice seems to outweigh the crime and sadly everyone has forgot who the policeman was.Derek Bentley was hanged as an example to other teenagers in a post war era that was seeing a big rise in crime,and young people were slowly losing respect towards authority and towards their elders.Derek was sacrificed for this despite the fact he had learning difficulties and was epileptic,it didn't seem to matter, the justice system wanted its pound of flesh.This is a good film for anyone who doesn't know much about this case as it is probably the nearest we will ever get to the truth of what happened that day.Chris Ecclestons performance was great in one of his earliest roles.

This is a very convincing film of the life of Derek Bentley and his eventual execution. 1950s Britain is just beginning to emerge from the years of post-War austerity with all of the milk bars, pop records and teddy boy youth culture showing a new, malign confidence. The undercurrent is definitely youth crime gone wild. But is Derek Bentley really one of the gang? Christopher Eccleston is absolutely brilliant playing Bentley, and truly captures the inner torment and diffidence of a young man suffering from years of epilepsy and failure at school. Bentley is clearly not normal and probably more impressionable than most people of his age – this is the essence of this tragic story. He wants to be like everyone else but stupidly chooses the wrong people – or do they choose him? You are never sure whether Bentley's friend Chris Craig (the brilliant Paul Reynolds) is a nasty piece of work or maybe someone else led astray, this time by his truly monstrous, menacing older brother Niven Craig (Mark McGann) who he sees receiving 10 years for armed resistance to police arrest. Who is Craig - is he Pinkie in Brighton Rock (Boulting 1947), Jimmy Hanley in the Blue Lamp (Dearden, 1950) or one of the famous five with a gun? After his brother's trial, Chris lies down at night and then – rather poignantly and in a nice little flourish from director Peter Medak – lays down his handgun on his bedside table, finding a gap amongst his toy cars, trams and aeroplanes. Perhaps he's just a naïve little kid after all. When the gang goes to the cinema what else would they watch but a Jimmy Cagney gangster movie? Maybe if they'd watched the Blue Lamp instead they would have been warned off. Anyway, Bentley clearly did not murder the policeman on the rooftop - that was Craig (some say it was a policeman's bullet gone astray). Bentley was executed for a crime he did not commit, pure and simple. Good, haunting musical score by Michael Kamen.

source: Let Him Have It

Let Him Have It

I think this is one of the most upsetting films i have ever seen We watched this in my English class and every girl started to cry when Derek Bently in the end got hung i think that Iris was write for trying so hard to clear her brothers name and i heard from a girl at my school that in 1998 she finally managed to do so If you are thinking on watching this film i strongly advice to do so but be sure to stock up on loads of tissues I can not believe that something like this could ever happen to someone it was never proved what he actually meant by let him have it i hope who ever watches this film enjoys it and i hope i have been some help Love Fay p.s WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I first saw the movie I liked it, and thought Chris Eggleston was very good. Then I saw it again, and thought he was more than "very good". Since then I've seen him in "The Price Above Rubies" and the transformation from semi retarded English teen to a New York Hassidic man is scary. How did he do it? How did he get inside the head of an orthodox Jew? Then in "Gone In 60 Seconds" he's the evil "baddie". Look, I'm not a professional critic, but if we don't have a future acting giant here, I'll be very surprised. The film is also helped by two pillars of the English stage, Tom Courtenay, and Eileen Atkins. I work in the video room of a rather large library and I couldn't get people to see this film. It didn't have "stars" with names like "Brad" and "Julia". I'm joking, but not by much.

I rented this movie with not very high expectations, but I was extremely surprised. It was a truly great movie with good acting. I recommend this movie to anybody who liked "Dead Man Walking" or any other crime/drama movie. This movie was great!

Eventually, in 1993 the then Home Secretary Michael Howard granted Bentley a partial pardon, saying it was clear he should never have been hanged but he remained guilty of taking part in the murder. Iris Bentley (Dereks mother) died in 1997 before the case was referred back to the Appeal Court. In 1998 the Appeal Court quashed Bentley's conviction on the grounds the original trial judge was biased against the defendants and misdirected the jury on points of law. Scientific evidence also showed the three police officers who testified about Bentley shouting "Let him have it" had lied under oath. Craig served 10 years before being released.

This movie is one of the saddest pictures ever made. Made even more sad by the fact that this is based on a true story. I couldn't believe this was Christopher Eccleston's 2nd movie; I hadn't seen him in anything before JUDE. I'm utterly speechless to talk about this movie. I noticed someone commented saying this is like DEAD MAN WALKING; that movie does not compare to this. Bare in mind that LET HIM HAVE IT WAS MADE 4 years before DMW. I felt this one was much, much, much more rendering and mournful. God bless you Brits for making films on social content with such potency; American audiences could take a lesson from you: SCUM, LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, ALFIE, ...if, TRAINSPOTTING (best movie ever made)

A shocking portrayal of the use of the Death Penalty in the United Kingdom during the 1950's. A mentally unstable young man with epilepsy called Derek Bentley faces the gallows for a crime he did not commit, While the accomplice, Christopher Craig, who did fire the fatal shot, only serves time at Her Majesties Pleasure. In reality Christopher Craig only served 10 years while Derek Bentley had his life taken away. A gritty drama telling of Bentley and Craig's criminal exploits in South London shortly after the war.