Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983
2009 (UK)
Directors: Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker
Viewed: April 15, 2010
Format: Theatrical Print (Landmark Tivoli Theater)
A- - Yorkshire. Is there a more evocative landscape in all of England? The word conjures visions of Wuthering Heights and its doomed lovers, of green dales and simple, working-class folk. Such visions, nurtured on robust helpings of classist romanticism, are nowhere to be found in the Yorkshire of Red Riding. Turn off the M-1, peer out the rain-spotted windows. What do you see? Sad, ragged flats and shops; cruel buildings of steel, concrete, and linoleum, seemingly designed to engender malaise; the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant, pumping God-knows-what into the air, water, and bowels; vacant lots inflamed with rubble, weeds, and grubby children, who aren’t so much playing as they are biding their time. And out there, beyond the drone of Leeds, Sheffield, and Hull and the countless, wretched towns, are the moors. There are no trees, just the pitched and rolling Pennines (what passes for mountains in England), clad in heather and huddled under eternally gray skies. The sense of exposure and remoteness is suffocating. England’s sun-kissed Isle of Wight might as well be in Monaco, or Timbuktu. The Red Riding film trilogy spends nine years in this miserable dream of Yorkshire, from 1974 to 1983, as the Left’s dreams of a bright British future comes crashing down amid economic stagnation and ruin. The tale crosses paths with one of the most notorious serial killers in British history, but the film is not really about him. It’s about the sort of place that could give birth to such a creature.
The potency of a film often flows from its story or characters. Red Riding possesses both story and characters in abundance, but its bedrock is a mood, one born of slate skies, lonely ridges, and relentlessly grim housing projects. Screenwriter Tony Grisoni adapted three of David Peace’s “Red Riding” quartet of novels to create this trilogy, with directing duties split between film-makers Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, and Anand Tucker. Each has modest achievements to their name, but there is little in their filmographies that hints at the churning, despairing tone that Red Riding reveals. (Tucker has visited Yorkshire before in When Did You Last See Your Father?, but the setting of Riding is so foreign to that film that it could be on another planet.) Peace was raised in West Yorkshire in the years portrayed in the novels and the films, but by the 1990s he had fled to Japan. There is no romanticism in his vision of the cities and moors of his youth, none of the cock-eyed affection for a particular place that graces the works of so many authors. Red Riding reveals a soul wrestling with the loathsome seeds inside him: the smug malevolence of men who savor their petty authority; the casual contempt for foreigners and women; the everday brutality poorly hidden behind paper-thin walls; the cruelty that grows like cancer from idleness and hopelessness. Peace got out, but he can’t get away. Grisoni and the directors, all British, have felt the discomfiting vibrations in the novelist’s words, and shaped their own visions of his Yorkshire. Traditionally, there were three Ridings in the county: North, East, and West. The Red Riding of the title’s trilogy is not a physical place, but a force of darkness, one that seeps through the ground into the greasy puddles left by yesterday’s rains, into tacky basement pubs with last decade’s decor, and into the hearts of pitiless men who have made the North into their personal feifdom.
The plot concerns a sprawling maze of corruption and murder that encompasses the West Yorkshire Constabulary, a construction magnate, journalists, lawyers, priests, pimps, and hustlers. It brushes up agains the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, a real-life serial killer who slew and mutilated thirteen women and is currently living the remainder of his days at Broadmoor Hospital. However, the mystery that squats at the nexus of the film is not the Ripper murders, but the disappearance of three little girls. One of them has been discovered on a construction site: tortured, raped, and murdered, with white swan wings stitched to her back. Who committed this horrific crime? Like detectives in a police procedural, we might pin photos of all the principals on a board and draw lines of connection, mark them with question marks and pin bits of evidence in tiny plastic bags to them. Perhaps, before the killer is revealed, we could deduce it on our own. It doesn’t matter. The film-makers are less concerned with who is murdering these children than in transporting us to a place and time where such an atrocity could occur with such ease, where the man responsible—and, make no mistake, it is always a man—could go unpunished, even protected.
The scope of the plot is overwhelming; it is unnecessary to attempt to summarize it here, or to catalog the enormous cast of characters. Each chapter of the trilogy focuses on one or more protagonists. They are not so much heroes as they are men of abundant grit and a smear of conscience, who find themselves in situations where conscience can be compromising, or even fatal. Red Riding: 1974 follows Yorkshire Post reporter Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), who is digging into the disappearance and murder of the little girls. In 1980, we meet detective Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine), who the Home Office sends to West Yorkshire to assist the local police in the Ripper investigation, and also probe possible misconduct in the Constabulary. 1983 splits its time between West Yorkshire detective Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey), whose long-repressed scruples are beginning to gnaw at him, and John Piggott (Mark Addy), a bargain-basement lawyer reluctantly drawn into the case of a mentally retarded boy scapegoated for the murder of the children. Many of the actors convey everything we need to know about their characters by their mere presence. We hear the name of nefarious Yorkshire millionaire John Dawson drop into conversation, and when he appears with the face of Sean Bean, the chilly menace we feel multiplies threefold. Eddie Marsan portrays a repugnant Post reporter who wheedles Dunford with the nickname “Scoop,” lending the man a slathering of nihilism with just his gnomish sneer. Then there’s Peter Mullan, whose twinkling eyes should put us at ease; however, his local priest has an oddly close relationship with seemingly every woman in the story. Other actors seem to have been cast for their countenances or voices alone: jowly Warren Clarke as a thunderous senior detective; Sean Harris as a malevolent weasel of a cop; John Henshaw as a portly Post editor; Julia Ford as a cowed widow. The nearly incomprehensible rumblings of the Yorkshire dialect serve as the soundtrack to the film, along with snatches of pop and soul from the era, drifting out of jukeboxes and phonographs.
The structure of Red Riding is akin to that of Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone: the mystery expands without resolution, collapses around a seemingly unrelated event, and then expands again. After Dunford’s haunted search for the truth about the missing girls culminates in violence and further cover-up, the Yorkshire Ripper murders focus our gaze on the essence of the trilogy, the staggering corruption of every civil institution in the county. In the third chapter, another girl goes missing for the first time in nine years, and the film acquires a tint of the The Searchers, as detective Jobson and the lawyer Piggott each grope blindly towards her while the clock goes tick-tock. There is much of the story that is left unresolved, and those who need a complete explanation for all that they observe will be left disappointed. Significant plot points occur off-screen, and much is left to implication, insinuation, and imagination. No matter; there is a visceral quality to the trilogy’s vision, one that transcends the specifics of its story to convey a devastating aura of despair which occludes a happy ending, or even a tomorrow that looks any different from today. The directors convey this sensibility with varying degrees of success. Remarkably, Jarrold, veteran of costume dramas such as Great Expectations and Brideshead Revisited, seems to understand Peace’s world the most intuitively, and his stylistic choices are a piece with the tone of Red Riding. The grain of the 16 mm film he employs, the scenes that glide in and out of focus, the expressionistic quality to his lingering close-ups: they rhyme with this Yorkshire and its claustrobic flats and eerie parking garages. Tucker’s warmer approach is the roughest fit, with its clean digital video and usually unnecessary stylistic flourishes. The third chapter seems intended to lift us, ever so gently, out of the preceding four hours of gloom. Not to a better Yorkshire, but far away to somewhere else, where sun shines once in a while and little girls are loved instead of butchered. Both 1983 and 1980, to a lesser degree, become unfortunately enamored with the more conventional aspects of the story, the love affairs and revelatory confessions and bloody standoffs. Still, Red Riding is a supreme example of the sum being greater than the parts. The experience of these films, taken together, is rich and devastating, a transportive noir epic squirming with the black beetles of a failed society.
Tags: Adaptations, Gloom and Doom, Mystery
[...]  On the film scene I saw the following: Kick Ass *** 1/2  (Friday afternoon) Edgewater Multiplex The Secret in Their Eyes *** (Friday evening) Angelika Film Center Death at a Funeral **          (Saturday afternoon) Edgewater multiplex La Mission *** 1/2                (Saturday evening)  The Big Clock  (Sunday afternoon) classic ‘newspaper’ film series Film Forum Park Row       (Sunday afternoon) classic ‘newspaper’ film series Film Forum KICK ASS is a violent and vulgar ‘wannabe’ superhero movie, yet it’s entertainment quotient is high, and once the action kicks in it’s dynamic. With these kind of ‘anything goes’ movies there are flaws of course, but heck who cares? I was too busy rocking along, laughing and having a lot of fun, the that 11 year-old girl is a real hoot. All three kids who attended – the three boys – loved it too. THE SECRET OF THEIR EYES, the Argentinian film that won the Best Foreign Language Film is a major disappointment, and in no way remotely deserved to win over the likes of Audiard’s masterwork, UN PROPHETE. Still, there are some interesting visual ideas, the acting is strong, and the flashback structure intriguing. But there are some clumsy segues too, and the narrative is rather long-winded and bloated. It’s a challenging film, and it’s no affront to world cinema at all, but I did find it problematic. The big question is why did I bother to see DEATH AT A FUNERAL? Well, Lucille wanted to go, as we had seen the British original and thought it an adequate comedy, and we both like Peter Dinklage, who we recently saw on stage. But this African-American rehash is just that, and there’s not an iota of originality here. There are some funny moments of course, and we laughed, but it’s all been seen before in a better film. As far as the independent drama LA MISSION goes, it’s safe to assert there are cliches, predictable turns (why does physical violence always find it’s way into such stories, when the actually instance is rather remote?)  but there is a compelling portrait of intolerance, and the macho mentality that serves as the underpinning for familial discord in a San Francisco Mexican community. Conventional filmmaking for sure, but a poignant little film nonetheless. On Sunday morning I attended my first double-feature in the Film Forum’s popular ‘Newspaper Film’ series, and both Samuel Fuller’s Park Row and John Farrow’s The Big Clock, was wonderful to see on the big screen. Fuller’s film about journalism and printing in the late 1800’s (a film dear to Fuller’s own heart) has some rather contrived ideas, but it’s still a riveting film, splendidly acted and impressively mounted. The film is presently unavailable on DVD or VHS and is sometimes shown on TCM. As far as John Farrow’s The Big Clock, this is an underatted noir about a murder and the following investigation that features Ray Milland, Charles Laughton and Elsa lancaster (in a cameo) Laughton is terrific in both physical movement and the delivery of some great deadpan dialogue, and the set design with a ‘big clock’ and elevator shaft is excellent. The DVD, of course, which I own, is part of the Universal Noir Collection, but there’s nothing to match the interactive Film Forum viewing, which negotiated the film’s ample humor. I hope to make several other doubles, including one that features an early Wellman tomorrow night. 11 year-old Danny Juliano at Film Forum on Sunday afternoon Around the blogosphere there’s plenty of great stuff: Dave’s towering noir countdown continues, and his Number 7 entry, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, provides a banner essay: http://goodfellamovies.blogspot.com/2010/04/7-double-indemnity-billy-wilder-1944.html Judy at Movie Classics has been slowly building a catalogue of superlative reviews on William Wellman’s cinema, including a bevy of pre-coders, the latest of which may well be the best she’s ever penned, and that’s really saying something. Her review on Wild Boys of the Road (1933) is masterful: http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/wild-boys-of-the-road-1933/ Tony d’Ambra has another fabulous post up at FilmsNoir.net that deserves full attention. Featuring an excerpt from an essay by the esteemed James Naremore (that I’ve read, that to Tony) on the unmade but planned Orson Welles film version of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness which was, according to the screenplay to be partially set around the Hudson River, which divides North Jersey from manhattan, a location I live only minutes from.                                                                               http://filmsnoir.net/directors/new-york-noir-the-heart-of-darkness.html John Greco’s diversity is always an amazement, and both his blogs show unrelenting insights and photographic awe. He has a fabulous review up of the B classic Creature from the Black Lagoon at “Twenty Four Frames” that’s a must read: http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/creature-from-the-black-lagoon-1954-jack-arnold/ Jeffrey Goodman’s wildly popular ‘Annual Film Countdown’ has reached the final leg, as he’s nearing the year 2000. And he’s working hard on his new film Peril as well, so action at The Last Lullaby is gleefully frantic: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2010/04/1997-hana-bi-takeshi-kitano.html Troy Olson’s latest post, based on his incredibly prolific movie watching, takes in three films that requite that extra effort, and as usual he’s more than up to the task. His trip to China, meanwhile gets closer by the day: http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2010/04/best-of-2000-undertow-piano-teacher-4.html Dee Dee has a festive month ahead in May at Darkness Into Light that includes Mother’s Day giveaways and a most intriguing Film Noir examination of her own: http://noirishcity.blogspot.com/2010/04/coming-in-month-of-may.html The second half of film scholar “Just Another Film Buff’s” consideration of Asian film artist Jia Zhang-Ke, is just as brilliant as the first, and he talks here about what may be the director’s greatest film, Still Life, as well as the beloved The World and several others. It’s essential stuff!!!http://theseventhart.info/2010/04/17/the-films-of-jia-zhang-ke-part-22-2/ Michael, the revered ‘Coffee Messiah’ has a piece of music from Smokey and the Bandits that simply must be accessed!: http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/2010/04/speechless.html Always upping the ante on creativity, sensory beauty, and a challenging ’sprout’ question, Terrill, the “Creativepotager’ has some luscious chocolate strawberries and red tulips for you to indulge in: http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/more-than-chocolate-covered-strawberries/ Film Writer Extraordinaire Jon Lanthier has a post at “Aspiring Sellout” that link sup with his superb Rumpus review of Joseph Campanella’s Oscar-winning Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes, that I read myself, and can only marvel at its insights and richness:                http://aspiringsellout.com/ Shubhajit has an excellent piece up on Robert Altman’s Gosford Park up at “Cinemascope”:                                                                                                      http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2010/04/gosford-park-2001.html Dan Getahun reports on ten films he’s like to see at the Minneapolis-St. paul Film Festival, which is ready to go: http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2010/04/ten-to-see-at-mspiff-2010.html Samuel Wilson continues to write reviews that rank among the best on line, so for those who haven’t yet discovered his magnificent work, head over to Mondo 70 for his exquisite review of one of my favorite films of the year, Vincere by Marco Bellochio:             http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-big-screen-vincere-2009.html Roderick Heath makes quite an impassioned case for Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark at Marilyn Ferdinand’s place, and right under it Marilyn writes up quite an essay on Van Peebles’s The Watermelon Man. It’s essential stuff: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=4166 David Scheicher has a most interesting post up at his place on ‘Spotlight on the Independent Arts.’ http://davethenovelist.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/spotlight-on-the-independent-arts-robbie-gil/ Kevin Olson has been on a brief sabatical as of late, but he too is preparing for the 2000’s poll, posting his own exhaustive consideration, but listing and talking here of his 50 top films of the decade. His No. 1 is startling for me, as he also says it may be one of the “ten best American films ever made!â€Â Check it out:                                                                                           http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/top-50-films-of-decade-1-10.html An absolutely spectacular review that ranks among the best I am promoting on this thread is Andrew Wyatt’s brilliant consideration of the Red Riding Trilogy at “Gateway Cinephiles.” I read it, and will place my own comments later today.                                            http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/17/a-world-stinking-on-the-bone-and-pecked-by-sparrows/ Longman Oz continues to divide his tireless energy to theatre, film and music, and he has an amazing post leading now on his ‘100 Naughtie Albums of 2001′ It’s a true labor of love: http://noordinaryfool.com/2010/04/18/100noughtiealbums_2001/ Tony Dayoub eloquently speaks of the recent passing of Dede Allen, one of the most celebrated film editors at his place: http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2010/04/dede-allen.html J. D. has a fantastic (what else?) review up of Fantastic Mr. Fox at “Radiator Heaven.”                                                    http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2010/04/dvd-of-week-fantastic-mr-fox.html Matthew Lucas at From the Front Row talks about the five must-sees of the ‘River Run Film Festival’ and as always he writes beautifully an dinsightfully:                http://fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com/2010/04/5-must-sees-of-riverrun-film-festival.html  At Only the Cinema Ed Howard turns his exhaustive and thought-provoking attention to Don Siegel’s The Lineup. Great Stuff as always:             http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/04/lineup.html  Who is now writing faster than any blogger online? Give up? It’s Jack Cole, and he’s a man on a mission. He’s talented for sure and his review on Kick Ass is exactly what it’s title implies: http://armchairc.blogspot.com/2010/04/kick-ass.html The ever-tasteful Donophon is planning a major project at his place on Melville, and it’s celebration time there: http://thelongvoyagehome.blogspot.com/2010/04/jean-pierre-melville-introduction.html And then there is silent and animation writer extraordinaire, T.S. of “Screen Savour†whose latest Buster Keaton review on Steamboat Bill Jr., is a “must read†with a capital M:    http://www.screensavour.net/2010/04/steamboat-bill-jr-1928.html    Stephen’s exhaustive and rightly popular review of Terminator Salvation is still leading at “Checking On My Sausagesâ€: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2010/04/terminator-salvation.html Film Doctor has a terrific cumulative post up on Kick-Ass that examines the critical response across-the-board: http://filmdr.blogspot.com/2010/04/critical-debate-and-bratty-pleasures-of.html [...]
[...] This prickly tale of the rise and fall (and subsequent humbling) of notoriously sharp-tongued football manager Brian Clough provides an array of unexpected pleasures. To be sure, the film boasts a worthy pedigree. It was adapted by Frost/Nixon and The Queen writer Peter Morgan from a novel by David Peace, who also penned the Red Riding quartet, which was itself adapted into one of the finest British films of the past decade. However, director Tom Hooper was not known to me, save by reputation as the helmsman of all seven episodes of HBO’s lauded John Adams. Accordingly, it’s rewarding to witness Hooper’s adroit handling of The Damned United’s twin timelines (a structure that echoes, among other works, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild), as well as his determination to tweak sports movie conventions. There are plenty of histrionic confrontations and tearful reunions, all of them entirely unsurprising, but for a film about football, it boasts remarkably little gameplay footage. Hooper and Morgan keep the focus on Clough’s personality: his unflagging ambition, unfortunate taste for conflict, and self-destructive hubris. It’s a daring thing to make a sports film about the limits of personal achievement, even if the subject is a manager rather than an athlete. The Damned United’s full-throated commitment to its themes is impressive, and that commitment drips from every frame and performance. Cinematographer Ben Smithard’s striking recreation of 1970s England is exquisite, from moldering Leeds to sun-kissed Brighton. And while Michael Sheen doesn’t quite seem to inhabit the same world as his fellow performers, his portrayal of Clough—the startling blend of priggishness, throbbing ego, and lip-curling desperation—is mesmerizing stuff. Leave a Comment [...]