早前看了巫俊鋒導演的【身後仕】(Apprentice),很是喜歡,所以在百老匯電影中心見到【Pierrepoint】這張影碟,心想一試無妨,結果戲運亨通,看了一齣非常精彩的電影。
先說說故事主人翁 Albert Pierrepoint 是誰,他是英國史上聞名的死刑執行官,在15年的工作生涯中,用絞繩處決了超過400名犯人 (注),當中包括在紐倫堡審訊中被判死刑的納粹黨員。
Albert Pierrepoint 的父親及舅父均為死刑執行官,他入行算是「繼承祖業」。不過,他並沒有對外人透露自己的職業。要到他獲邀到德國執行死刑,才不得不向妻子坦白。有人會猜疑,長年從事死刑執行官的人,可能有特殊癖好,但觀乎電影的描述以及
Albert Pierrepoint 自傳中的選段,他的入行較似感召 (calling)。他每次執行死刑時,過程神聖而莊嚴,對死囚的遺體也很尊重,讓觀眾動容。
A condemned
prisoner is entrusted to me, after decisions have been made which I cannot
alter. He is a man, she is a woman who, the church says, still merits some
mercy. The supreme mercy I can extend to them is to give them and sustain in
them their dignity in dying and in death. The gentleness must remain.
雖然 Albert Pierrepoint 很看重自己的工作,但因為媒體的渲染,以及民眾反對死刑的聲音日漸響亮,所以他最後決定請辭。儘管他對自己的工作一直守口如瓶,他在自傳中卻提到自己對死刑的看法。他認為死刑並不能阻止罪案的發生,只會令仇恨滋長:
I do not now
believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way
acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view,
achieved nothing except revenge.
在電影中,有一幕至今難忘。Albert Pierrepoint 處決了在酒吧認識的好友後,心情罕有地激動,回家跪在妻子前,希望能跟她傾吐。可是妻子卻絕情地推開他,並說她不要聽關於他工作的事情。也是的,要跟一個劊子手一起生活,若不自欺,談何容易?
延伸閱讀:
50th Anniversary of Last Execution in
Britain: How Hangman Albert Pierrepoint Did his Job http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/50th-anniversary-last-execution-britain-how-hangman-albert-pierrepoint-did-his-job-1460839
The secret executioner
Obituary: Albert Pierrepoint
注:不知何解,網上報導跟電影內提供的數字有頗大的出入。上文所列為網上報導的數據。
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