let him have it

Director: peter medak

Actor: tom courtenay,christopher eccleston,eileen atkins,rebecca eccleston

Data Published: Fri Oct 04 1991

Genres: Crime,Drama,History

Key Words: slow witted,gangster,friendship,1950s,capital punishment

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102288/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Him_Have_It

Description: Let Him Have It is a movie starring Tom Courtenay, Christopher Eccleston, and Eileen Atkins. In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for...

Plot: Derek Bentley (Eccleston) is an illiterate, epileptic young adult with developmental disabilities who falls into a gang led by a younger teenager named Christopher Craig (Reynolds). During the course of the robbery of a warehouse in Croydon, in which Bentley is encouraged to participate by Craig, the two become trapped by the police. Officers order Craig to put down his gun. Bentley, who by this time has already been arrested, shouts "Let him have it, Chris" – whether he means the phrase literally ("Let him have the gun") or figuratively ("Open fire!") is unclear. Craig begins firing, killing one officer and wounding another. Because he is a minor, Craig is given a prison sentence for the crime. Meanwhile, Bentley is sentenced to death under the English common law principle of joint enterprise, on the basis that his statement to Craig was an instigation to begin shooting. Bentley's family begins an effort for clemency which reaches Parliament. However, the Home Secretary (who has the power to commute the death sentence) declines to intervene. Despite his family's efforts and some public support, Bentley is executed in 1953 within a month of being convicted, before Parliament takes any official action.