One that hits a little *too* close to home for me (seriously, the events of this film happened about half an hour away from where I was born) I had relatively high hopes for ‘The Black Panther’ going in, it touted a fairly accurate depiction of events without going to heavily into ‘exploitation’ terratory, and the fact this film carried with it a rattle from the Mary Whitehosue brigade to get it pulled from cinemas (which, effectively worked, as the film was pulled shortly after its release) had me VERY interested to see what it was up to.

As you can imagine, the film depicts the events of the infamous ‘Black Panther’, a chap by the name of Donald Neilson who was trained in the military and began a spree of burgalreys in the late 60s, which developed into robbing post offices in the early 70s, which in turn led to a string of GBH and eventual murder charges, before probably his most infamous incident, the kidnap and (allegedly accidental) murder of a 17 year old heiress he hoped to use as a blackmail piece, in order to take 50 grand from a wealthy family in turmoil.

Of course, non of this goes to plan, and via a series of borderline dark comedy incidents, Donald for one reason or another ends up fumbling things with horrific consiquences.

Donald Neilson by all accounts was a rather nasty piece of work, and his arrest in 1975 and subsiquent death in 2011 clearly made the country a safer place. But what I find fascinating about this film is that they dont shy away from the complexity of Donald as a human being.

Theres really two ways to interpret this film, one is as a man who was failed by society and had a crap childhood and adolesence trying to regain control of his reality and set himself up comfortably, without compromise for the rest of his life, and anyone who gets in the way of that be damned (family included).

Or, this can be read as the story of a deeply disturbed individual, who was further disturbed by his time in the army, who used the skills there to brutally murder and steal from dozens (if not hundreds) of people, who never took accountability for his actions and only showed remorse once his freedom was removed.

This film makes it clear that Donald didnt really WANT to kill anyone unless he felt he had no other option. But at the same time, it doesnt focus on any kind of aftermath of the murders either. In fact, this film really makes it feel like Donald felt nothing towards murder, even though hes quite reluctant to do it in the first place.

The film, I feel leans more towards the latter of the two situations, but I find it quite ballsy of the film makers to not shy away from that former interpretation. They show Donald as a complex figure, a brutal thug and murderer in one scene, but equally as a someone who does have a bit of compassion.

The script itself is pretty accurate to the police reports and court findings on the case, not a whole lot has changed in the time since this film came out and the present day (theres more evidence now to suggest Leslie fell to her death, rather than being murdered by Donald. And this film came out a year before Donalds wife would be arrested for forging postal cheques, something Donald made her do, but a court still found her guilty and sentenced her to a year behind bars) Which does rather keep this film feeling quite fresh.

At 98 minutes its maybe just a *smidge* over long, I think a round 90 would have given it a bit more a clip to its pace. But while it may be a bit slower boil than I personally would have liked, I have to commend the film for really trying to pull the audience into Donalds world and the situation. What really saves this film is the VERY even act sturcturing on hand. all three acts are pretty nicely balanced out, with decent amounts of action married up to exposition, it never feels like its getting too bloody OR too talky. And having that balance across the 3 acts, and having the 3 acts themselves transition rather seamlessly and smoothly, I feel really helps keep this thing afloat.

Given its based on a true story and they take very few liberties in showing what happened, I dont really have much to say in terms of the plotting. I think it does a fine enough job of it, and while they do shy away a bit from character motivations and more personal complexities (due largely to this case only being about 2 years old at the time this film came out) I feel like it does a quite faithful job of presenting these characters as they were.

The direction is a little on the stiff side, its about as 70s Britain feeling as its possible to get, with most of the film taking place either in the pitch black dark, or entirely backlit by archtypical british weather (Murkey, dreary grey skies and drizzle) Its the type of framing where you feel the cold through the screen. Sequences are largely static, with the occasional cut to B-roll helping improve the flow of scnenes. But given a lot of the Panthers activities happened at night, it does really quite limit exactly what they can do with the visuals here, with the lighting mercifully coming to the rescue in those scenes giving us some decen chiascuro pieces.

The cine is much the same, stiff locked off shots with only the occasional dolly or pan to help the effort. Composition is pretty rock solid and i’d say there are some very creative and inspiring shot choices on display here, particularly during the kidnapping segements. But for the most part, it is quite a flat production. and I really wish they’d taken more time for close ups and a bit more experimentation.

Performance wise, its basically a character piece for Donald Sumpter, who I feel fully captures Neilsons awkward and violent mannerisms. he works a perfect range, delivers a transformative performance and is both unpredictable, and at times thoroughly scary. I think he did a fantastic job portraying Neilson and is easily, on his own, more than enough reason to check this film out.

The supporting cast try their best to help set the tone and mood too, for the most part they’re pretty solid, but as the film follows Donald for the majority of the runtime, they feel more like accompanyments to his story, rather than complex and fully fleshed out characters in their own rights…in fact, from what I could see the only other character who gets a bit more than just ‘what was in the trial notes’ is Debbie Farrington as Leslie Whittle, she gives a genuinely terrified performance and looks every bit as petrified as was needed for this film, an incredible piece I think she was marvellous in this.

Throw in a fantastic instrumental soundtrack that marries orchestral pieces to semi-droning incidental synth music (I’d love to hear this isolated) and all in all? ‘The Black Panther’ is a genuinely compelling, if not a little slow movie.

While I think the script could have maybe been a bit tighter, it has strong performances, decent act structuring and it captures the feel of the time perfectly. It would probably pair up well with the much more fictional ‘Town that Dreaded Sundown’ But I can absolutely say this one is worth a look in.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-black-panther/