Introduction
The Longford film is set in the early 1960s, where everyone is taking a carefree time when the horrific slayings of three children occur and shock the whole country. It is encompassed in Pennine Moorlands, in northern England in a quiet neighborhood where almost everyone is familiar with the neighbors’ tendencies. The then leader of the House of Lords, Lord Longford, is a frequent visitor of the prisons.
During this time, he corresponds with the incarcerated and receives letters from them (Hooper & Morgan, 2006). At one time, he gets a letter from Myra Hindley, who is imprisoned after committing three notorious murders known as the Moors Murders with her boyfriend and accomplice Brady. He visits her, and she tries to deceive him into believing she is changed by converting to his own Roman Catholic Church.
Brady advises Longford to turn his back on her, but he remains impartial to the idea that people eventually become good, led to think so by his strong religious beliefs (Brown). He goes further to influence and run a campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley, for which he receives mass criticism and results in furious political debates rocking the country. Longford eventually fails in his quest to get her paroled and realizes upon her confession of two more slayings that she was deceiving him. However, he persists, and he is last seen visiting her at the prison as a 95-year-old man before he dies. Myra Hindley lives to the age of 60 and never receives parole.
Critical response to the movie
According to the director’s scene play, the film receives positive reviews, but it raises eyebrows from its dramatic conflict, lunacy, and lucidity. Of more concern is how he portrays Lord Longford; he was gullible and motivated to win Hindley parole following his religious beliefs even after being advised not to by his wife, Lindsay Duncan. Longford is painted as a questionable politician, a hate-figure, and a laughing stock in his support for the parole of a woman considered the evilest woman. The Prime Minister, after that, removes Longford from Government leadership when he learns that Longford had visited Hindley ((Hooper & Morgan, 2006).
The director sets an excellent basis for revisiting the Moors Murders, and in his film, he develops a deadlock to the progress of release of the evil lady Hindley. In my own opinion, she is sadistic in nature, and the justice system was right in keeping her locked up; should she have been released, we could have probably seen her commit the same crimes again, seeing as the conversion to Roman Catholic was merely a pose to draw closer to release. It was in the quest of her parole that Lord Longford fell. In the end, the plot was well developed, and it greets expectation till the death of Hindley and confinement of Brady, who is deemed criminally insane.
Perception of women in terms of crime and prison
Women are taken to be nurturing and caring beings that provide solace and comfort in internal or interpersonal conflict times. The thought of a woman bringing harm to younger people within that society is quite questionable and immoral. When we weigh Brady’s wrong as a male figure compared to Hindley’s wrong, we tend to think the lady was more off-track than the man seeing women are the exact opposite of mean and evil generally speaking.
Men are stereotyped as mean and muscular figures bent on achieving what they set their minds to. For Hindley to stand by and accompany Brady to these crime scenes is seen as a betrayal to the kids that look up to their motherly figures from protection from the society’s villains.
This represents the general view of most societies across the world. Therefore, women are not expected to be found in prisons, and neither are they supposed to be criminals. The notion that they bring forth life out of their wombs completely contravenes the idea that they could as well be responsible for the destruction of it after that. It is insane for such an occasion to arise where a woman is found responsible for the intentional slaying of a young one. This is probably why we take it harshly upon such characters in society; stricter judgment is passed on them than would be on their male counterparts.
Conclusion
The film contains medieval crime scenes and sadistic execution of the deaths therein representing the real crimes executed in the early ’60s. It passes for a tremendous drama-filled movie. The death and failure of Lord Longford are not regrettable, and the audience must feel satisfied with its ending for no such evil deeds are, or should be, excusable.
Work Cited
Hooper, Tom and Morgan Peter. Longford. Granada Productions. 2006. DVD.