How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 14 August 2016
A movie review of SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS. |
YouTube review:
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“No one gets away with killing people, unless you’re the police of course,” Johan Webber (Steve Coogan)
Coogan’s droll delivery is a sometimes-necessary counterpoint to this at times harrowing apartheid era death penalty legal procedural. As with PHILOMENA, his timing not only permits a breather among the tragedy, but also arguably makes it easier to swallow. SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS has its heart in the right place: A condemnation of the pre-1991 South African regime specifically, and capital punishment generally. The film does not though cement itself into the memory, perhaps because it is not as grandiose as CRY FREEDOM, or as filled with visceral anger as STANDER, nor as allegorically superlative as DISTRICT 9.
Coogan’s droll delivery is a sometimes-necessary counterpoint to this at times harrowing apartheid era death penalty legal procedural. As with PHILOMENA, his timing not only permits a breather among the tragedy, but also arguably makes it easier to swallow. SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS has its heart in the right place: A condemnation of the pre-1991 South African regime specifically, and capital punishment generally. The film does not though cement itself into the memory, perhaps because it is not as grandiose as CRY FREEDOM, or as filled with visceral anger as STANDER, nor as allegorically superlative as DISTRICT 9.
The opening credits state “inspired by true events”. On this occasion, historical veracity does not feel as important, because SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS is interested in a discussion. In 1987 Leon Labuschagne (Garion Dowds), a Caucasian prison guard working on death row, killed a minibus full of black people on his way home. While the motive is unclear (the 80 runtime is used to divine it), the case seems open and shut. He is to be tried before the “hanging judge”. The irony of his day job not lost on anyone. No lawyer wants the defence case. In steps Webber – a human rights advocate and staunchly against the death penalty.
From the psychological profile, Labuschagne has had prolonged post-traumatic stress disorder from two years spent on gallows duty. There were a record number of executions the previous year, 164. SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS explores such a disturbing picture and explains its title along the way. Werner Herzog’s documentary feature, INTO THE ABYSS, and TV series, ON DEATH ROW, are must-watches, especially for those who are pro-capital punishment. Their humanism and rigour casts shade on this movie (unfairly or not). Still, here is a rare dramatic narrative that bothers to investigate the minutiae of death row.
Flat direction and an underused Andrea Riseborough, as the state prosecutor on the case, are a shame. Though, the ever-widening scope of the film’s crosshairs delivers an upsetting portrayal of state orchestrated brutality.
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