Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Chris Cooper, Alessandro Nivola, Rory Cochrane, David Dasmaichian, Peter Gerety, Robert John Burke, Morgan Spector, Michael Malvesti, Aurora McLaughlin, Liam Anderson, Antonio X Volpicelli, Nancy E. Carroll, Therese Plaehn, Stephen Thorne, Greg Vrotsos, Ian Lyons, Christian Mallen, Pat Fitz, Pamela Jayne Morgan, Robert C. Kirk, Charlie Thurston, Kate Middleton, Ivan Martin, Kate Avallone, Tamara Hickey, Luke Kirby, Steve Routman, Thomas Kee, Kyra Weeks, John Lee Ames, Richard O’Rourke, James Ciccone, Bill Camp, Jimmy LeBlanc, Gary Galone, David Conley, Josh Drennen, Brian Faherty, Caroline Nesbitt.
It is society as a whole that creates the Bogeyman. It is society driven by the press, the institutions, the apathy of the public, the greed of politicians, the subversive collective breakdown to which we admit in dark corners that there is a balance to be found as people hurl themselves to positions of condemnation in ever increasing numbers as they denounce their own actions in the creation of the monster waiting in the shadows.
Some monsters leave a more lasting impression on the conscious of the populace, and the adage of how many serial killers are at work in any one country at one time has perhaps never been truer.
We all suspect someone to whom we feel as has got away with the act of murder, and they are often the ones that stay out of the limelight, that will never make the newspapers, the woman whose second husband died suddenly and to whom her first husband died in freakishly similar circumstances, the old man who tricked his younger bride into taking her life, these people will never have the notoriety as one such as the despicable actions of one of America’s own Bogeymen, The Boston Strangler.
Yet even with that what has always been missed off in the subsequent reappraisals of the time in which Albert DeSalvo, and arguably others, stalked the female population of the historic city and beyond, is the heroic efforts of two women, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, who not only battled against the inherent sexism of the newspaper and their colleagues, the police department, and at times the public conception of their investigation, but who were instrumental in bringing a truth to the light; that in which despite our abhorrence and fear, there is a kind of thrill which infects us as each murder occurs, that of passive inclusion.
To showcase the two women’s tireless work in such circumstances is to be praised, and in Matt Ruskin’s script and direction the pace of the film highlights the need for resolution, and even then, the question remains of was Albert DeSalvo the only killer. It is a chain which come through any serial killer investigation, the patterns, the choices, the timing, and the credit given to one bogeyman, can hide a persistent truth, that the patriarchy is adept at keeping control, even it means innocents, women, pay the price.
The Boston Strangler will always be a mystery that will remain forever an enigma, there is far too much left unsaid to which time and apathy will leave uncovered, but in that which we praise, that of the tireless work of two women, we at least will understand that there will be always someone to whom will not let out death be in vain.
An thought-provoking drama, one in which adds colour to one of America’s more infamous period in social justice.
Ian D. Hall