The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce

	Australia 2008 Director: Michael James Rowland Cast: Adrian Dunbar, Ciarán McMenamin, Dan Wyllie, Don Hany, Bob Franklin, Chris Haywood Rating: MA (Australia); Not Rated (DVD) Language: English, Irish Gaelic Release Date: 25 January 2009 (Australia) Running Time: 59 minutes The Movie Review		The LAST CONFESSION Of ALEXANDER PEARCE Storyline: Cast: Ending: Overall:
	In the right situation --or more precisely in extreme pressure-- is a regular man capable of committing such despicable act of savagery? That's probably one of the reasons why I definitely recommend this movie from my neighboring country, Australia. Even though, this biographical drama movie is not the best biopic feature film or the most thrilling ever but the shocking historical accounts of this motion picture's underlying premise are extremely unusual that it would be hard for casual moviegoers to just forget about the story once they finish watching The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce AKA Confessions of a Cannibal Convict. Set in the early 19th Century, the movie centers on Alexander Pearce. Alexander is a convict from Ireland who's sent to a British penal colony located far far away in a land called Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania, Australia). He is sentenced to serve time in this forsaken place just for stealing six pairs of shoes. Some might think, he is the main culprit in this movie, well he's not, not at first actually. When Alexander and his friends are hard laboring, one of the convicts named Robert Greenhill (Dan Wyllie) suddenly runs and knocks a guard unconscious. Seeing this, the other convicts waste no time to escape. Some of them want to escape by boat, but the arrogant Robert Greenhill convinces them he knows the area too well to get lost. Wrong! The prison is surrounded by unforgiving wilderness with most area had no animal in sight to be hunt. Not for long the 8 guys are starting to get hungry, and when they don't find any food anymore, they will kill each other to consume the murdered. We see the film through the accounts confessed by Alexander Pearce to a fellow Irishman, a priest named Philip Conolly (Adrian Dunbar). It is important to note that this movie is not a horror one. Even though the acts committed by the characters are definitely horror-material but the filmmakers are avoiding any trap to make it as horror, it's an inside look of a real man named Alexander Pearce and his fellow convict friends. Okay, to be rather cynical, this movie is basically (and on the whole) is all about a bunch of men walking around and wandering aimlessly and... Well, eating each other. Meaning: you won't get many actions. And unfortunately, even though based on true story and/or real persons, the filmmakers opted to make it as a drama and not a documentary. I said unfortunately because to be honest, the drama does not work so well and the narrating from the lead actor is not outstanding. Probably, if it's made with documentary style with real historians explaining to us about the Alexander Pearce, it would be more entertaining. On the bright side, the cannibalistic acts are not graphic although the hanging scene is. It seems the filmmakers try to give us important information about the real story of Alexander Pearce through his confession to a priest and when that information is enough in conveying the message, then there's no need to delve in lingering graphic portrayal of blood, gore or other B-movie related material. The great thing about this movie is how it will make us think about ourselves and what are we capable to do had we in his position. We know what he did is just barbaric but to realize that he's just a hungry man far from his home country living in the wrong time/era, we would actually feel pity for him. That's what scary about hunger. And the filmmakers have done an excellent job to portray such unforgiving terrains of 19th Century Tasmania (shot in various locations in Tasmania and New South Wales) with all its emptiness and vastness. > If you like the horror and action versions relating to Alexander Pearce: Dying Breed (2008) and Van Diemen's Land (2009). © iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com Twitter: @movielogy posted: Tuesday, 8 November 2011 01:46 pm

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