DVD Reviews

The Red Riding Trilogy – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 3, 2010, 13:43 GMT

Sure to be one of the cinematic events of the year, "Red Riding" is a mesmerizing neo-noir epic based on factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony Grisoni ("Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas") from David Peace\'s electrifying series of novels. An official selection of the Telluride, New York, Chicago and AFI Festivals, and acclaimed by critics an eminent accomplishment, the trilogy follows several characters in intertwining storylines ...more

The town fathers of Yorkshire, England will not be very happy with how the town is portrayed.  It’s a hotbed of secrets, police corruption, and murder.  This multi-story arch adapted for British television features a mystery stretched over three years: 1974, 1980, and 1983.  

In the Year of our Lord 1974: A young girl in a red rain slicker is missing from her school and Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) has returned home.  He had left Yorkshire for greener pastures in the South.  He is now returning for both his father’s funeral and as rival to drunkard veteran reporter Jack Whitehead (Eddie Marsan) at the town’s newspaper. 

Eddie digs deep into the missing girl and finds that two other girls went missing years before and it appears that this new girl is related to the other two.  The girl’s body is found and swan’s wings have been stitched onto her back.  Eddie’s digging also leads to local developer John Dawson (Sean Bean) and even bigger conspiracies.  

In the Year of our Lord 1980: Six years have passed since the girl’s disappearance and Eddie’s investigation and the Yorkshire police department finds themselves embroiled in a public relations disaster.  A killer dubbed the “Yorkshire Ripper” is murdering prostitutes and the force appears to be clueless in tracking down the maniac. 

The head office calls in Officer Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine), who investigated events at the end of 1974, to dig into the department and try, discover the identity of the Ripper, and put the on-edge public at ease.  However, the characters and events witnessed in 1974 appear to bleed into the case.  

In the Year of our Lord 1983:  Lawyer John Piggott (Mark Addy) has returned to Yorkshire after many longs years to retrieve the ashes of his recently late mother.  On the trip he meets his mother’s elderly friend and neighbor, the mother of the mentally challenged fellow fingered for the first girl’s disappearance. 

Another girl has been abducted after all these years and the mum hopes that Piggott can file an appeal for her son.  Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey) has been a presence on the Yorkshire Police force since we first see him in 1974 and he is tasked with solving the case of the newly missing girl and it will all tie back to the original 1974 murder. 

Author David Peace fashioned a literary Red Riding quartet with his novels 1974 (1999), 1977 (2000), 1980 (2001), and 1983 (2002) that looked at police corruption.  Those novels have been adapted for British television and dropped the 1977 to make a trilogy.  Television might be an ideal format for them since we’re used to such serial type storytelling. 

Supposedly Hollywood has its eyes on making the books into films and I wonder how “dumbed down” they’ll get.  Until then feast your eyes on the original Brit version.  It’s a compelling look at all sorts of seedy activity in Yorkshire and you’ll certainly not want to visit there even if the books are fiction.  Well, partially since the Yorkshire Ripper is a real serial killer that terrorized the area and Peace uses this true life event to fit into his fiction. 

Either way, the Yorkshire board of tourism won’t be giving out the films or books to promote the area.  An interesting experiment might be to consider how the characters arch through the films.  For example, some in the middle film don’t seem so horrible if you hadn’t seen their misdeeds in the first one.  The films are expertly acted and this is certainly an event film for British telly.  

The films are presented in 1080p high definition (1.85:1 for 1974, 2.35:1 for 1980 and 1983).  Special features are on disc two, which is a DVD.  1974 has an 11 minute interview with director Julian Jarrold, 7 minutes of deleted scenes, and a TV spot.  1980 has an 18 minute making of, 6 minutes of delete scenes, and a TV spot.  1983 has a 6 minute making of and 8 minutes of deleted scenes.  There are also a trailer, TV spot, and a 3 minute behind-the-scenes for the entire trilogy.  

Red Riding takes its time to unspool its central mystery and we see much corruption and scandal along the way.  It’s also a high quality event that is sure to enthrall and disturb.  Well worth the time to check it out.

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