Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)

I love this movie so much

Absolutely Fantastic

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's 1974. Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) returns to his northern home for his father's funeral. After failing to make a go in the south, he is the new crime correspondent for Yorkshire Post. Ten year old Clare Kemplay goes missing and Eddie is given the story. He suspects a serial killer is on the loose but the police is dismissive, pompous, and possibly corrupt. The editor reassigns the case to the drunken Jack Whitehead. Eddie is teamed up with conspiracy-obsessed reporter friend Barry Gannon on a case against construction magnate John Dawson (Sean Bean). BJ is Barry's gay street kid confidential source. Eddie ignores the reassignment and starts a romance with Paula Garland (Rebecca Hall), the mother of another girl victim. After Barry is killed, Eddie goes to Marjorie Dawson locked in a mental hospital by her husband John. She pleads for them "under the beautiful carpets".Andrew Garfield is eye-opening in a good way. This is a murky story. Not everything is spelled out. It's an ugly world and that makes it so much better. The dirty ugliness is cinematic. It is superior TV. My only question is the ending. I'm not sure why the cops give Eddie the gun with bullets. The plan there seems a bit murky. In fact, it doesn't seem like much of a plan at all. I put it down to a random act with uncontrolled consequences.

This first part of the trilogy does exactly what the first part of any trilogy should do... Build it up to certain point and leave the audience waiting for a couple answers to the next movie... BUT Red Riding is no ordinary trilogy.A (neo)noir crime and conspiracy led by the young and reckless journalist Eddie Dunford, one Andrew Garfield's greatest performances so far, look for his big break in the case of the lost girls of Yorkshire. At first he looks just as any bloodsucking' a**hole journalist, not just look as one but indeed is. But he look for evidence and his character grows in the eyes of the audience. He doesn't become the most likable character of the movie for sure, but at least he is less unlikeable than Sean Harris' character (What a great performance!). Sean Bean is a walking spoiler, 'cause I knew that he would die! He always dies!The cast is a big ensemble of Britain favorites, as the before mentioned Andrew Garfield, Sean Harris and Sean Bean, as also Michelle Dockery, David Morrissey, Robert Sheehan, Eddie Marsan, Daniel Mays, Peter Mullan and Rebecca Hall. With a cast like that I feel like it is impossible to make a bad movie.Visually, the movie is stupendous. Sometimes very dark and is filled with very visual stuff. As torture scenes, a little bit of sex and disposition of corpses. Andrew Garfield and Sean Harris just blow minds when they share the screen. Let's just say that my hand still feels the pain felt by Dunford's hands.As I said, Red Riding isn't an ordinary trilogy. Is very possible to watch the sequel, 1980 or 1983, without watching the previous movie. At least is how I feel... 1974 had its beginning, development and conclusion; 1974 is a whole picture. In noway just a construction to the next movie. and I do believe that the sequels treat 1974 the same way. They are linked but they can be easily three independent movies. That said, it does not mean that the sequels don't tease the audience's curiosity. Next weekend I'll watch 1980 for sure.

The first chapter of the Red Riding Trilogy, In the Year of Our Lord 1974 blends elements of real-life events with fiction of its own to put on screen a tale about crime & corruption and follows a rookie journalist who finds himself in the middle of all this while investigating the case of a child murderer.Narrated in a non-linear manner to keep the viewers intrigued, this TV film is finely written & nicely directed but the interest soon fizzles out for the story is plagued by its confusing plot & slow pace plus the way its events unfold, it simply fails to create any sort of suspense or raise the tempo despite numerous opportunities.However, there are a few things that do work in its favour, like its hazy photography & warm colour tones which provide its Yorkshire locations a distinct look n feel. The theme of police corruption is effectively carried out, and a commendable performance from Andrew Garfield definitely makes it an experience that's worth sitting through, at least once.

English television and film director Julian Jarrold's television film which was written by English screenwriter, producer and director Toni Grisoni, is the first of three adaptations of English writer David Peace's Red Riding Quartet (1999-2002) and was succeeded by "Red Riding 1980" and "Red Riding 1983". It was screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2009 and at the 36th Telluride Film Festival in 2009, was shot on location in West Yorkshire and Leeds independent studios in Northern England and is a British production by Revelation Films which was produced by producer Andrew Heaton, producer Anita Overland and producer and casting director Wendy Brazington. It tell the story about Edward Dunford, a young journalist who returns from the south after his father has passed away. Edward is looking to become a crime correspondent and shortly after a 10-year-old girl named Clare Kemplay has disappeared on her way home from school, he begins his trial period at the Yorkshire post and is given one month to prove himself by assistant chief constable Bill Molloy. As Edward gets further into the investigation of the disappearance he is warned by his friend Barry about a local construction magnate named John Dawson and meets Paula Garland who is the mother of one of the missing girls. Finely and acutely directed by English filmmaker Julian Jarrold, this fast-paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the protagonist's point of view, draws a riveting portrayal of an ambitious reporter who is drawn into a world of high level corruption during his first assignment for a local newspaper and his relationship with a secretive woman. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by cinematographer Rob Hardy, production design by production designer Cristina Casali and editing by film editor Andrew Hulme, this character-driven and narrative-driven psychological thriller depicts a dense study of character and contains a great score by British musician and composer Adrian Johnston.This poignantly and forebodingly atmospheric, darkly humorous, unsentimental and somewhat romantic neo-noir which is set against the backdrop of West Yorkshire in 1974, is impelled and reinforced by it's fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, various characters, interrelated stories, multiple viewpoints and the prominent acting performances by British actors Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Hall, Sean Bean and Eddie Marsan from the great ensemble cast. A multifaceted and consistently suspenseful mystery.