A film recreating the events surrounding the murder of two-year-old James Bulger has been nominated for an Oscar despite protests from the boy’s family.
The film is called Detainment and two child actors portray the toddler’s killers before and after the killing. It was made in Ireland however, none of James family knew about this film being made until it hit the news and rumours were out there.
James was nearly three-years-old when he was abducted by two 10-year-old boys at the Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside in February 1993. His mother, Denise, was in a butcher shop when James was taken from the doorway by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, they took him to a railway line where they killed him. He was found two days later. The killers being two young boys shocked the nation and the world. The pair were convicted of murder and have been given new identities. James was beaten to death with bricks and a metal bar.
MERSEYSIDE POLICE/PA
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in the original police photos
The 30-minute film recreates film interviews with Venables and Thompson, they used transcripts from the original interview tapes, which were played in court during the trial. Some of the key scenes that had taken place outside the police interview room were dramatised but was as close to the real events.
Its director Vincent Lambe said: “The popular opinion is that those boys were evil and anybody who gives any alternate opinion or reason as to how it could have happened gets criticised for it, and as a result it stifles debate on the whole issue,”
“I think what they did was evil, but I think there’s a lot more to it. I don’t think you can simply dismiss them as being evil – I think it’s important to try to understand how it happened.
“The film was made in the interest of understanding why it happened in order to prevent something similar happening again in the future.”
James’ mother has called for the Oscars to remove it or for Lambe to remove it. More than 150,000 people have now signed a petition set up before the nominations were announced on Tuesday, asking the Oscars to disqualify the 30-minute film and stop it from being shown.
Denise said: “If he gets away with this, if he gets this Oscar, then it’s going to give anyone the right to go and pick on a family who’s been through something like this and do whatever they want with it,”.
bethkent ✅