The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce (2008)

Director	Michael James Rowland
Writers	Nial Fulton, Michael James Rowland
Starring	Adrian Dunbar, Ciaran McMenamin
Genre	Cannibal
Tagline	Hunger has no limit.
Country

Talk us through it

In 1822 colonial Tasmania life is bloody hard both for the convicts transported to the arse end of the world and for the English colonials forging a new Nation from the bush. The hardest place of all is Sarah Island, which has the reputation for turning men into animals due to the harsh treatment dealt out to the inmates. Alexander Pearce along with a band of desperados escapes from the Island and journeys deep into the wilderness of Tasmania hoping to reach the settlement of Jericho. With lack of provisions or game they can catch the convicts must find other sources of nourishment. Pearce is the sole survivor but when he is re-captured no one will believe his story of murder and cannibalism.

Pearce is returned to Sarah Island but another convict, Thomas Cox, convinces him to escape again. This will prove to be a bad mistake by Cox. Alexander Pearce is once again captured, this time he has some keep sakes from Cox on his person that lead to his ultimate conviction and sentence of hanging.

Ready to check the Tasmania cuisine, I hear the pies are particularly good.

Review

Seems Australia has gone Alexander Pearce crazy recently with Last Confession being the first of a bunch of movies featuring the "pieman" being released to what I would wager is an audience that was largely unaware of Pearce prior to Dying Breed. I had certainly never heard of Australia's prototype for Jamie Oliver, however my excuse is I'm not an Aussie. I'm still intrigued about the whole "pieman" thing to be honest as no where in this movie are pies involved in any shape or form. Pearce could just as soon have been nicknamed the "roastman", include your own Nicole Kidman "Sunday Roast" joke in there as you see fit. So how did Auntie do with their early attempt to dramatise the Alexander Pearce legend?

I was impressed with the framing of the movie and the use of flashbacks to get us to where we are in "real time". Last Confession starts with Pearce's body in the back of a horse drawn wagon heading off to an autopsy, guess they wanted to work out if cannibals are physiologically different from what we hope is the vast majority of the film's audience. I liked the intro piece that informed us that conditions are pretty primitive and life is cheaper than a two bob watch. We learn the dude accompanying the wagon is Phillip Connolly, a Priest who heard Pearce's last confession and who accompanied the galloping gourmet to the gallows. It's through Connolly's recollections that Alexander Pearce's story will unfold, though I think any comparisons to the disciples who wrote the books of the new testament is sort of drawing a long bow that wasn't the intention of the film makers.

Director Rowland spends just the right amount of time indicating Sarah Island didn't feature heavily on Tasmanian tourist advertisement back in the 1820s, with a stunning money shot of some dude tied to a post on a small Island being the highlight. Things are pretty squalid, tough, and brutal. Rowland also takes some time out to introduce one of his themes for the night, the English colonials have a very dim view of the largely Irish convicts and are quite happy to let everyone know about that, including the Catholic Priest Connolly. Rowland will revisit this theme constantly culminating with a Connolly speech at a diner party being pretty effective in getting the point across.

Rowling continues the tradition of having the Aussie bush almost appear as a sinister antagonist, the white fellas are not safe or comfortable in it's imbrace

Pearce and six cohorts escape from a work gang, that was apparently felling trees in the bush. It would appear the plan was to steal a whaling boat and sail away to freedom, but things don't quite work out as expected and the seven convicts are headed overland to the dubious safety of Jericho on the other side of Tasmania. What's interesting about Rowland's vision in Last Confession is that he's keeping it historically accurate, the Director isn't interested in adding some "Hollywood flourishes" to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The movie is more like a historic drama than anything else, with the horror elements submerged in the true horror of the action events and more importantly what lead to them happening. Actually thinking about it the movie appeared on the bonnet loving ABC, I'm surprised no one has leaped on Pride and Prejudice and Cannibals. Back to the meat lovers special, sorry for the divergence. Last Confession was heavily advertised as "the incredible true story of one of Australia's most infamous convicts", and you have to say the movie lives up to it's billing.

It's not long before our escapees find out living off the land in the Tasmanian bush isn't exactly easy. Interestingly enough, for those of us with a taste for macabre facts, it wasn't Pearce who decided on the menu. Greenhill came up with the idea of cannibalism having heard about it from some bloke who was ship wrecked off the coast of Africa. The first victim is Dalton, who seems to have been chosen due to having administrated flogging to his fellow inmates. Director Rowland simply goes buck wild with the first murder. Excellent use of night time vision to show the murder by axe, with night falling and cloud formations giving an external metaphor for the dark act we are sort of witnessing in a Tobe Hooper Texas Chainsaw Massacre fashion. Got to love a Director that tries to nail a major turning point in his movie with all sorts of visual indications and without neon signposting things.

With things turning bloody two of the band flee back toward Sarah Island, perhaps fearing that they will be next on the menu. Doesn't do them much good as they die of exhaustion anyways. We are left with a band of four, remembering Dalton is apparently roast of the day, and Director Rowlands spends the middle of his movie covering the band's battle with each other and the bush, that is viewed as ominous and full of barely conceived dangers. Rowland uses time lapse photography to show the passage of time and in a nice touch changing terrain to show the group is actually covering some ground in between snacking on each other.

Things culminate with Pearce and Greenhill being the sole survivors and Rowland keeps the tension up as both men circle each other waiting for the other to make a mistake and become dish of the day. Naturally, given the title of the movie, Pearce is our last man standing. In one of the best scenes in the movie Pearce is having a midmorning snack when he comes face to face with an aboriginal hunter, who through facial expressions conveys his distaste for what Pearce has become. Rather than the natives being something Pearce should fear, they are hiding from him and what he has become.

Director Rowland simply nails things and has his movie chomping at the bit in terms of pacing, use of some glorious location shots, and getting the story across to the audience. The sub plot involving anti Irish and catholic sentiments by the local English is well covered as is the slightly ironic twist of Alexander Pearce's body being dissected for science.

For those interested on July the19th 1824 Alexander Pearce was hung at the goal wall Hobart. Fact can be more disturbing than fiction folks.

Adrian Dunbar (Philip Conolly) is excellently cast as the Irish Catholic Priest who is faced on the one hand with the inherent racism from the English authorities and on the other with Alexander Pearce. Ciaran McMenamin (Alexander Pearce) is menacing and believable as the convict who was simply doing what he needed to do in order to survive his harsh conditions. McMenamin almost elicits sympathy for his character. The supporting cast, as one would expect from the ABC, give fine performances all round.

The score by Roger Mason ranges through various heavy orchestral movements in the dark with a violin influence adding to an eerie sounding background in parts. All in all it adds to the historic flavour of things and amply backs up Rowland's visuals.

Summary Execution

Alexander Pearce's time would apparently seem to have come with The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce being one of three recent movies either based on his legend or directly covering events he was involved in. Dying Breed covers fictional descendants living in a remote village called Sarah and having a local pie industry. What sort of pies? You don't want to know. This Thursday Van Dieman's Land further explores Pearce's trek across the Tasmanian wilderness, and I've got my fingers crossed that my local cinema will be screening it. Probably not as it would take a screen away from the latest brain dead Boredwood cookie cutter offering.

Full recommendation on The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce, the movie is historically accurate and covers the long day's journey into night involved down in Tasmania in 1822. It's not often that I get to cover a historic drama so if I enjoyed things you are probably going to be taking your bowl back asking for more. Check the movie out to see what you can do without needing to spend a million bucks on CGI. Finally a movie you can sink your teeth into.

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