Friday, January 21, 2011

Movie Talk

Sometimes I pick a movie out of the blue.  Maybe there's an actor/actress/director whose work I enjoy, heard some good things about it or, like in this case, it's set in an area near where the cutie was born and we went to university.

Red Riding is a trilogy that I put into our Netflix list to watch instantly before the holidays and we finally got to them this past week.  Wow, seriously, while the write up was fairly straightforward, we were still hooked by the intensity, history, and oh yes the plot.

Let me back up.  There was a serial killer active in the 70-80's in and around Leeds called the Yorkshire Ripper - who happens to have been in the news (appealing his being told he'll never, ever, be released) whilst we were over there for the holidays.  People were still talking about it when I arrived for Uni and, as many mystery/true crime events will do, my imagination perked up.  Unbeknowst to me, for a few days over one of the holidays I stayed at a friends dorm, and behind it is where the last victim was found.  After that brief stay, my friends told me all about the Ripper - thank goodness it was after.

Anyway, the movie goes way beyond that horrible time, and shine the light on what else was going on in the area.  No good by the police, politicians, businessmen and, I won't give the very last bad guy away so let's leave it with folks from all areas of society.

A few words that come to mind for this flick:  gripping, dark, cringe-worthy and bloody good!

Oh, one more thing, they're based on a quartet by David Peace which was recently released in the US.  The covers give hints of what the big crescendo that happens in that particular book, although they do nothing to pull a reader in if they know nothing about the storyline.  After watching the movies I'll be buying all four!  But will it be paperback or ebook?  Hmmm :-)


As a side note and quoted directly from the Yorkshire website:  The term 'riding' is of Viking origin and derives from Threthingr meaning a third part. There were indeed three ridings in Yorkshire - the East Riding, West Riding and North Riding.  Okay, I'm biased, but this is a beautiful area of England, full of history and the people are wonderful.  I would strongly suggest you spend time there if you're going to England.

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