Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)

A rookie journalist looks to solve the increasingly vexing case of a serial killer on the loose.

Director:

Julian Jarrold

Writers:

David Peace (novel), Tony Grisoni (screenplay)

Stars:

Andrew Garfield, David Morrissey, John Henshaw

4 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Andrew Garfield	...	Eddie Dunford
David Morrissey	...	Maurice Jobson
John Henshaw	...	Bill Hadley
Anthony Flanagan	...	Barry Gannon
Warren Clarke	...	Bill Molloy
Jennifer Hennessy	...	Mrs Kemplay
Mary Jo Randle	...	Eddie's Mum
Rachel Jane Allen	...	Susan Dunford
Rita May	...	Aunty Win
Graham Walker	...	Uncle Eric
Berwick Kaler	...	George Greaves
Katherine Vasey	...	Steph (as Katharine Vasey)
Danny Cunningham	...	Gaz
Michelle Dockery	...	Kathryn Tyler
Robert Sheehan	...	BJ

Storyline

In 1974, Eddie Dunford, comes home from South England and gets a job as a cub reporter for the Yorkshire Post. A schoolgirl has gone missing, and Eddie suspects it's one of several crimes dating back six years; the police think not and blame gypsies. Eddie digs; the police stonewall him then two of them beat him after he visits the widowed mother of one of the girls missing for a few years. When a child's body turns up at a construction site of local building magnate John Dawson, Eddie has another thread to pull. By now, he's begun an affair with Paula, the widowed mom, and he suspects collusion among Dawson, the police, and his newspaper - but what are they covering up?

---

Plot Keywords:

testicles squeezed | missing child | gun held to head | threatened by police | extreme closeup | 

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Channel 4 [uk]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

The Red Riding Trilogy: 1974

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Channel Four Film, Lipsync Productions, Revolution Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title of the trilogy, "Red Riding", derives from two main sources - Yorkshire, the location of the crimes, and Red Riding Hood, the traditional tale. Yorkshire, a county of England, is divided into three sections or ridings. The action takes place in the West Riding. One of the girls who goes missing is wearing a red anorak or hooded jacket, and one of the attackers bears the nickname, Wolf.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Eddie Dunford: Little girl goes missing, the pack salivates. If it bleeds it leads, right? Eddie Dunford, crime correspondent, back home to take the north. Business first. Dad won't mind waiting.

---

Connections

Followed by Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 (2009)

---

Soundtracks

"Sad Sweet Dreamer"
Written by David Parton
Performed by Sweet Sensation

User Reviews

The landscape of the soul

It is 1974. Our protagonist, young and hip, has shaggy hair, sideburns, and a slick leather jacket. Asked about his suit at his father's funeral: "Carnaby's," he admits. "Oh, ay," says one mourner, with a hint of added dismay.

He's been in the South, you see. American viewers with a limited perception of the UK may, at the beginning of Channel Four's remarkable Red Riding trilogy, have little understanding of what difference that makes. They will soon learn. "This is the North," says one of the terrifying policemen who populate this film's haunted Yorkshire. "Where we do what we want."

Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 begins under lowering skies. A girl of ten has vanished. A young and callow crime reporter Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) gets clued in by a conspiracy-minded colleague that the vanishing resembles two previous cases within a close range. Eager to make his mark, he senses opportunity, and in excitement at the idea that a serial murderer might be at work he blurts, "Let's keep our fingers crossed."

As the story deepens, however, so does the character. The grief of the victims' families needles him; he begins a relationship with one girl's heartsick mother (Rebecca Hall). Picking apart the story that emerges, he is drawn into the orbit of a wealthy developer (Sean Bean) with an unwholesome degree of influence in Yorkshire and its power structure. The perpetrator of the crimes is unquestionably psychopathic -- he stitches "angels' wings" into his victims' backs. Yet, in the film's most disturbing element, the police department itself functions as a psychopath, achieving its desires through brutalization, torture, and even possibly murder.

Caught in a conscienceless land, Dunford's own conscience, in reaction, grows, and what began as mere ambition transforms into a perhaps doomed lust for the truth. If this sounds like a conventional trope of the genre, it is -- plotwise much of what happens here is conventional. But Red Riding makes the narrative fresh by treating it not just as a story of crime and justice but as one of the soul, and its environs. When Dunford begs the mother to escape with him from the prevailing madness, he tells her, "In the South the sun shines." What he's telling her is that the sickness is inseparable from the place. Yorkshire is filmed (with gorgeous gloom) as a cloud-shrouded ruin, an economic disaster site in which financial power trumps morality. Starting out fresh-faced, vain, and cocky, Dunford will, by the end of his journey, be considerably the worse for wear. Looking at the landscape around him, we think, how could he not be?

Red Riding 1974 is not flawless -- some scenes feel repetitive and the bleakness can be overwhelming. But it compels you forward, it stays with you, and it genuinely rattles the spirit. This is not easy viewing, but in approaching the continuing saga, it promises hard- earned reward.