Longford

A Bravura Broadbent Portrayal
The Myra Hindley/Ian Brady `Saddleworth Moors murders' of 1963 to 1965, one of the most heinous crime series in England since Jack the Ripper, has been beautifully transcribed to the screen by writer Peter Morgan and Director Tom Hooper. And though the story is basically about Longford's relationship with the incarcerated Myra Hindley, the film paints a rather complete portrait of a strange man who vacillated during his lifetime among religious beliefs and spoke out strongly for the rights of prisoners and 'unfortunates' who fall out of line with the law all the while riling against pornography and other vices.

Jim Broadbent creates a wholly credible Lord Longford in this amazing performance. Transformed physically to resemble Longford's bizarre appearance, Broadbent manages to convey the spectrum of trust, self-doubt, pity, outrage, compassion and blind religious belief in a manner few actors could match. The remainder of the cast is equally excellent: Samantha Morton...

The Aristocrat And The Child Killer--"Longford" Showcases A Fascinating Bit Of British History
Well, writer Peter Morgan is certainly having a banner year. Having written screenplays that helped win Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker Oscars (for "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland" respectively), he has also penned "Longford." "Longford," first broadcast in the US on HBO, will almost certainly create Emmy buzz for its star, Jim Broadbent, come the end of the TV season. So as you might expect from his previous works, then, Morgan's "Longford" is a literate character study based on real events. The infamous "Moors Murders," a series of child killings that plagued England in the mid-sixties, was the basis for sending Myra Hindley and her paramour to prison. Hindley, played by Samantha Morton, was reviled by the populace--but when she contacted an elderly aristocrat named Lord Longford to visit her, he did. Longford (Broadbent) was an activist for prisoner's rights and sought to reform and redeem the less fortunate. Forming an unlikely, and unpopular, friendship with...

Darkness and Light
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Progress was the idea that could

not be denied. The material and psychological troubles that had plagued

humankind since the dawn of time were now to be vanquished for good

and those odd medieval ideas about good/evil and the immortality of the

soul were soon to be tossed upon the dustbin of history like so many other

artifacts of the past.

Lord Longford was a man of old fashioned ideas and beliefs.

His conversion to Catholicism lead him to take the teachings of

Christ with absolute sincerity. One of his religious duties, he felt,

was to visit prisoners. This is how he came to meet Myra Hindley.

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley should have been hung for the crimes

they committed between 1962 and 1965. Fortunately or unfortunately

for them - Capital Punishment had been brought to and end shortly

after had been...

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