THE BLACK PANTHER - Excellent account of the Donald Neilson killings unfolds like an avant-realist Crimewatch reconstruction (in my house, a good thing). Its subordination of narrative to an almost forensic level of documentation and long, chilly silences conjures a profound sense of alienation and detachment - not typical at all of UK cinema at the time. Donald Sumpter seethes with rage as Neilson and turns in a great performance which suggests calculated malice and a weirdly fragile sense of containment and desperation. An atmosphere of barely subdued dread pervades - totally ambient cinema which goes well beyond genre. It's just such a great film, utterly hypnotic - I can't believe it's been buried for all these years, what a crime. But here it is on DVD / BD for a new lease of life - and I unreservedly recommend it, simply a must see.
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