Murdered for Being Different

A well portrayed summary of events that actually happened. A harrowing and emotional view of hate crime. Two young adults that have had their lives destroyed because (as the title alludes) they were simply different. I'm trying not to give to much away but as it is a true story (and I remember seeing this in the news in the UK) my thoughts are with the survivor, I hope that person is doing well. I was impressed at how well this made. After this, hopefully more people will think before doing. I recommend you watch this.

I first heard about the murder of Sophie Lancaster on the news - and remembered being horrified by the very notion that someone could be brutally murdered simply for the way they dressed.

The present time of the film, after the attack, is layered with minuscule to longer flashbacks of both Sophie and Rob's life together and the night of the attack. Sophie was well into Harry Potter and Rob was good at painting, using Sophie's back to portray wings.

The use of the songs throughout the film were brilliantly segued into the score - and the last one heard was a cover of Running up that Hill, by Kate Bush.

"If only I could make a deal God, then I'd get him to swap our places."

It's a really heartbreaking, well acted, tragic story of a beautiful life being so cruelly and senselessly cut short.

I was so impressed by the acting - especially the young actors and especially Reiss Jarvis playing Michael Gorman: he was a naturally brilliant actor and seemed to play the role effortlessly - every glance and shrug perfect. This is someone to watch. All the other young actors were excellent as well.

The weaving of the storyline was very powerfully and creatively done. It wasn't patronising, but could have done with a bit more time to expand some of the storyline/viewpoints.

It is not often that I watch a film about a topic as challenging as this and see a masterful combination of skills across the board.

The directing/editing and writing were also so good.

A wonderful BBC Drama based on tragic true events. It conveys the problems of our modern society, whilst presenting the idea of fighting for who you are; however, I do believe what would make this even better is to show some of the perspectives from Sophie's parents, but presides from that, this is definitely worth a watch.

I started watching this expecting to get bored but within the first few minutes - I was gripped . excellent script excellent depiction of a real life event. An excellent but very sad film film