You avoid posting in here because you just don't know what to say. You post in other threads and think others will have their say in this thread. But it's important that we bump it. We all should have watched it. Harrowing.
Yes. This.
Also, I'd like to add a word of warning to anybody who hasn't watched it yet: this film makes for a really difficult and uncomfortable viewing. I felt a tightening across my chest at certain moments last night, especially during the first hour. I've never suffered from panic attacks or anything like that; however, watching certain parts of this film brought back memories of being on a packed football terrace during the 1980s. I was lucky that day in April 1989, I was in the North Stand but had mates on Leppings Lane. I didn't experience half of what they went through, but it takes little imagination to put yourself in that end, behind that goal. With those unlawfully killed people. Even on the Anfield Kop, during the early 80s as a kid, I've had that feeling that the pressure was never going to cease and that I could be crushed against the barrier. A fleeting thought that was easily repressed because of past experience: you knew it would eventually ease off. Somebody older, more experienced, would highlight your plight, make space so you could manoeuvre your way clear from the worst of it. Or you could duck under the barrier if need be. Get your back against that firm steel holding back the pressure of the sway and the push. You'd catch up with your mates later. You knew they'd be okay too.
Think that's why I instinctively held my hand against my chest watching it last night during the scenes behind the goal. The Missus was alarmed for a second. Even though I was lucky not to be on Leppings Lane, (long story) I can still imagine being on that terrace. Up until yesterday, I could never really imagine those fans' final moments. Still really can't. However, this film comes as close as anything to giving you the chance to do so. It's that harrowing. Don't watch if you're easily upset or easily distressed. The warnings beforehand don't fully capture this film's power, or ability to put you at the heart of this tragedy. I don't know what it was like to watch for people who didn't attend the game that day. To be on that pitch within minutes of the players leaving for the changing rooms, like I was, looking for friends, arguing with ineffectual police, trying your best to be of help...It was extraordinary powerful and emotional. For me, this was the most difficult watch on the whole subject I've seen in 27 years.
And that's just the first half. What the families went through is incomprehensible.
What this film also reveals, and it can't be stated enough: this tragedy occurred because those poor people being crushed to death on the Leppings Lane terrace were not thought of as human beings by the authorities, with a range of inalienable human rights. They were football fans first. Human beings second. A striking distinction during the 1980s. Something you took for granted as you travelled the length and breadth of the country back then. And something you rarely questioned, unless you wanted a copper's truncheon waved in yer face. As a football fan, your were stripped of most of your rights. That's why people were allowed to die. That they were from Liverpool, or associated in some way with the city, made the task of blaming the fans easier. We were reviled by Thatcher's government. A city fit to fall into managed decline...Who would give a fuck about them! Football fans. Scousers. Liverpool fans. The low of the low. That was why the cover-up, the conspiracy, the perversion of justice was allowed to continue for so long.
Watching this, you will cry with rage. Cry with pity. Cry with sympathy for the deceased and their families. Cry with disbelief. Cry with exasperation. Cry with joy at the verdict of the inquest. Then, return to rage again. The emotion that is most difficult for me to overcome.
I literally had to get that off my chest.
This too:
Harrowing,Graphic & extremely emotional to watch.
Lets be very clear,without the work undertaken by Phil Scraton we may have waited another generation to get Justice.
No words could ever explain our profound gratitude for this great man.
Thoroughly deserving the freedom of everything associated with Liverpool,our club,our fans & the wider community who have supported the cause.
The city council need to get its act together sharpish.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
We can't thank him enough. Thanks Phil.
