STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
This mock documentary is a fictionalized account of a modern Britain in which the death penalty was reinstated for the most serious offences in 2005 and, after all the legislation has passed, in 2009 former glam rock pop icon Gary Glitter (eerily embodied by Hilton McRae) is to become the first man to be put to death, following another law that allows British citizens to be tried for crimes committed abroad, in Glitter's case the rape of some girls in Vietnam. As the title suggests, he is found guilty and sentenced to hang on the recommendation of the jury. From here, with the use of stock footage and various commentators putting their views forward, we delve into the complexities surrounding bringing the death penalty back, how as a society we have lost track of how to keep an effective lid on serious, violent crime (as Ann Widdecombe notes: "We've forgotten there is such a thing as evil") and how the image of Glitter fell down in everyone's minds.
One of the first points the film puts forward is that a significant proportion of the British population supposedly support the return of the death penalty for the most serious crimes. With this in mind, there must be a strong emphasis that that is the direction the film is trying to guide us in. This unexpected and high concept idea of having someone as high profile as Glitter as the first person to be executed gives some serious food for thought. Though most of the commentators are in favour of the death penalty and the opponents generally relegated to smaller segments, it still doesn't end up coming across as a lynch mob sort of film, just a rather grim and bleak one. In the ten years since the shocking truth about Glitter came out to now where he is hated enough for this to happen, one thing you can't accuse him of is fading into the background.
So, pretty grim, downbeat and in the end very distressing viewing then, but at least it will get you thinking. ***
