The next scene starts with a close up of Derek’s face. In this scene he is about 14 years old & he’s with three boys. They end up getting caught, but the three boys run away & leave Derek alone, which shows Bentley is not clever enough to get away & it also makes us feel sorry for him. He then has another fit in front of the man who owns the shed, the man who starts off being angry, immediately tries to help him. At that point the camera closes on Derek’s face. This is one of several scenes, which shows Bentley suffering an epileptic fit. This emphasises Bentley’s suffering & gains our sympathy.
When Bentley first meets Craig down on the train tracks. Craig pretends to jump in the way of a train & Bentley thinks he really jumped which makes you think that Bentley is childlike & naïve & is easily fooled.
Before Bentley & Craig has to persuade Bentley to go on the roof because Bentley doesn’t want to go on the roof but is easily persuaded partly because, Craig is his only friend. This again shows us that he doesn’t think for himself.
When Bentley said, “let him have it”, on the roof, he didn’t mean shoot him. This proves his child ness, which gains sympathy for him. Bentley also tried to warn the police that Christopher Craig had a gun, which shows that he did not want nobody to get shot. When the police was holding Bentley he was showing remorse & was not trying to get away. This shows us that Bentley did not want to be up their and this gains from the viewer’s sympathy.
When Craig shoots Pc Miles in the head Bentley went over to the body & checks to see if he’s alive. When the cameras on his face you can see the shock and confusion, which makes us, feel sorry for him because he doesn’t understand what’s going on.
To some extent we feel sympathy for Craig because he was in a desperate state of mind following his brother Niven’s sentence for armed robbery. Craig’s shocking backward leap off the roof, shows his desperateness.
When Bentley is being questioned in the court by the barrister he doesn’t know what to say. An extreme close up of his eyes shows the confusion in his head and how he cannot cope with the questions. When the cameras on his face you see the hurt and the deep remorse, which again gains our sympathy for him and especially his family when the verdict is passed. The camera shows his family and you see the shock on their faces. In the trial scene there are a lot of close shots to see the reactions on the peoples faces to gain our sympathy.
As it leads to Bentley’s death it is the most emotionally charged part of the film where our sense of injustice is strongest as we realise Bentley is going to be executed.
The music in this part is very slow and sad. When Bentley is speaking to his family in the prison he tries to look confident that he’s going to be set free. What shows this is when he says, “when I get out mom a lot of people are going to get in trouble”. He means the judge who sentenced him.
When they know that their son is going to be executed you can see the heart break on Bentleys mum and dad’s face. When they’re speaking to Bentley, in the prison he tries to be brave saying, “I’m not afraid to die,” which gains sympathy for him especially when he asks his dad, “Does it hurt?” which shows how child like he is.
When he’s about to get hanged he is saying prayer’s and suddenly the executioner comes for him saying, “it’s going to be aright” which shows even the executioner feels sorry for him and knows it’s wrong.
After he is hanged a point of view shot starts as along shot looking down from the sky and gradually goes closer and closer to his house as if it’s his spirit. It then goes down and into his through Derek’s room, down the stairs to the room, where his family are crying and this makes us feel emotional. It is like his spirit has come to say goodbye to his family.
I think it was completely unjust what happened to Derek Bentley.
I enjoyed the film because I think it was brilliant how it was directed to gain the maximum amount of sympathy for Bentley.
