How does Peter Medak gain the viewers sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film, 'Let Him Have it'?

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Media Coursework ‘Let Him Have It’

Louise Tarsky

How does Peter Medak gain the viewers sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film, ‘Let Him Have it’?

        The film ‘Let Him Have It’, tells the real-life story of Derek Bentley. Derek is a nineteen year old epileptic who is caught breaking into a shed in his early youth. He is sent to approved school but is released early due to his epilepsy and his low IQ. It is later on discovered that Derek has the mental age of eleven, this plays a great part in the injustice later on. After his release he ends up being involved with a local youth, Christopher Craig, an American style gangster with a dangerous hobby. Derek follows Chris around, undertaking any activity which he does. One of these includes a midnight robbery of a warehouse. This, however, turns drastically wrong when Chris ends up shooting two officers, fatally wounding one whilst injuring another. Both boys are found guilty of murder and Chris is imprisoned, leaving Derek to face the death penalty. Despite obvious bias and protests, the sentence is carried out. The story is so controversial for many reasons. One was being Derek’s mental age of eleven. Any eleven-year-old would not be allowed in court, let alone face the death penalty. There was also strong bias on behalf of the judge involved, pressuring the jury into their verdict. It was also an unfair charge as Derek did not actually commit the murder.  In this essay, I will discuss how Medak uses lots of close-ups for emphasis on Derek’s emotions; how he seems never to fit in and is alienated from his problems; different camera angles and lighting angles used to create emphasis; how Derek and Chris’ lives are contrasting and are made to look obvious; how innocence is used as a tool to make us associate it with Derek; the clothing Derek wears and the connotations of those styles of dressing and the issues of the story (justice and bias) and how these are shown during the film. I will also focus into specific scenes which are appropriate to the question as they have many examples of Medak trying to gain the viewers sympathy for Derek.

        Medak uses frequent close-ups or extreme close-ups to make the bare emotion Derek is feeling come across more easily, and therefore is easier to sympathise with. He uses this method in many instances in which sympathy is being blatantly created for a purpose.  . One such example is during the trial: Derek is being questioned by the barrister and the judge. Both are equally pummelling him with questions, making him feel incredibly pressured. He breaks down in the box, and the camera zooms into an extreme close-up of his eyes. The eyes are said to be “the windows to the soul” and so drastic emphasis on them makes it easy for us to imagine the pain and upset he is feeling. The intensity of the shot also links with the intense stress he is feeling and due to that, we can empathise with Derek, and begin to understand the emotion he is feeling at that point.

         Derek is often seen throughout the film as not fitting in, and the focus on this by Medak is another technique used to create sympathy. He seemed not to fit in with Chris’ friends in many ways. Firstly, the clothes he wore. He was always seen in a long, big tweed coat and other clothes that resemble that of his father’s style. This is shown during one scene in which Chris’ brother gives Derek a coat, of a more gangster style. However, it is still not the same as the others, as it is blue and not black, so he still sticks out. The fact that he cannot fit it or be accepted even when he tries, is a device used by Medak to make us feel sympathy for him, as we feel sorry for Derek that he does not fit, in yet is still being involved in the crime the gang undertake. He does also not fit in with the group, as he prides his family and thinks highly of his father and sister, whereas the gangsters do not respect their parents. They are made to seem very incompatible by Medak so you judge them in different ways later on in the film, especially during the trial. This means we feel that Derek is not like Chris and would not have killed anyone, and therefore when he is convicted of murder, we feel sorry for him.

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        A third device he uses is to use different camera angles and lighting for different effects. The main effect of lighting is to suggest innocence and to make Derek look innocent. There are many examples of this, one being when Chris is giving Derek some stolen cigarettes; Derek is being illuminated, whereas Chris is left in the dark. Light is a symbol of innocence, and Derek being light-up against the criminal surroundings makes him seem innocent, as if he has done nothing wrong, which he has not. We feel sympathy for him as we realise he does not belong in ...

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