zondag 5 september 2021

00s Movie Review - Red Riding: the Year of Our Lord 1974

Director:
Julian Jarrold
Genre: Thriller/ Drama/ Crime
Runtime: 102 minutes
Year: 2009
Starring: Andrew Garfield, David Morrissey, Sean Bean, Rebecca Hall, Eddie Marsan, Michelle Dockery

Description: A rookie Yorkshire journalist (Andrew Garfield) sets out to solve the case of a child murderer.

Review: “Red Riding” is a film trilogy based on a series of books by British author David Peace. At three-year intervals the books paint a picture of a thoroughly corrupt police force in West Yorkshire, in the north of England, during the 1970s and 1980s. Although partly based on fact, the whole concerns a fictional representation of how Peace himself remembers his childhood in Yorkshire. The trilogy was made for British television, which aired for the first time in 2009. The first part is set in 1974.
Eddie Dunford is a young crime reporter for the Yorkshire Post who yearns for a big break. He starts working on a case of a number of missing young girls. The deeper he digs, the more Dunford becomes convinced that the police are withholding information and that the real estate tycoon John Dawson is involved in the disappearance – and most likely murder – of these girls. Dunford takes care of the mother of one of the missing children, but she too knows more than she admits and slowly but surely the young journalist becomes entangled in a web of betrayal and plots, from which he sees no way out.
The plot reads like an intriguing crime thriller and that is how the film can be adequately described. With the understanding that the resolution of the disappearances is not addressed. The purpose of the film is more to give an impression of the miserable life in the village north of England. We get images of Yorkshire that is visually stripped of color. The dark style of the film is consistently carried through in the cinematography, therefore the film is really attractive.
It’s quite the slow burn, but this adds to the atmosphere of the film. And you’re invested enough to want to see the other two parts in the series.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

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