One of the best films on this case I've ever seen -Warning:Major Spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2011)

Last night I watched 'From Hell' for the first time. IMO it is among the best of the 'Jack the Ripper' tales I've seen. In fact it may very well be the best. The only other one I can think of that came close is 'Murder by Decree'. From what I've read in the past on the actual Ripper case, i suspect it probably did involve English Nobility and cover ups in some way.
The film was wonderfully atmospheric. It reminded me of the recent 'The Wolfman' film in that regard. I really felt I was back in time walking the foggy streets of the Whitechapel slums. And I felt for the poor people living there trying to get money to survive any way they could. A sharp contrast to the rich and privileged who viewed them as worthless expendables. The lives of a few prostitutes were nothing compared to protecting even one noble or the crown. Just fiction here, but IMO historically true in that regard.
Johnny Depp did his usual fine acting job here. His inspector reminded me of Sherlock Holmes, even down to the drug use. His sergeant side kick was not unlike Dr. Watson. The story was imaginative and chilling, it was plausible and might actually be close to the truth. I felt bad for those poor women killed just because they had the misfortune to witness a friends wedding. A wedding and a child that were unacceptable to the crown.
To be honest I was not surprised at who turned out to be 'The Ripper', it was obviously meant to be a shock, for me it was not. The signs were all there. Ian Holm's was chilling in the role. I'm pretty sure in the scenes where he was in the heat of mad killing his eye pupils seemed a dark gleaming black, demonic in their appearance. In his calmer scenes they did not look this way and were blue or some other normal eye color.
The primitive lobotomy scenes were also unnerving. I noticed that as the judges gavel rang out three times it coincided with the three "taps" on the skull used to lobotomize Jack's brain in the next scene. Just like they had done to the unfortunate prostitute who had bore the princess' child. Queen Victoria herself was also depicted as cruel, when Mary went to the museum with Inspector Abberline she saw a portrait of the queen and commented on the coldness of her eyes. Turns out she was right. I know little about Queen Victory, so this may be unfair to her memory, I don't know. For some reason I keep thinking about the recent royal conspiracy theories associated with the death of princess Diana. I wondered just what the so called "Royals" might be capable of in the name of protecting the image of the monarchy. I'm not saying I believe those theories about Princess Di, just that it made me wonder "what if" after watching this film.
Thoughts about 'From Hell' will stick with me for quite a while. I wish my wife had watched it too so we could have one of our usual discussions after seeing a thought provoking film I keep going over scenes in it. I particularly liked the ending, the twist that the real Mary Kelly was not killed but lived on in the little seaside cottage she wanted to return to. Sadly the french prostitute was mistakenly killed in her stead. The inspectors reasoning for why he could never join Mary made cold hard sense. Unfortunately I knew in advance the Inspector was going to die from a comment I had accidentally read in a discussion group. At first I thought his was an accidentally death. Now I believe he killed himself...why else would he have the coins in his hand ready to pay the ferry man. He probably was so disillusioned with life, what he had learned, and not being able to join Mary that he decided to end his pain. His job was finished Jack was finished.
My wife didn't watch it with me. She was concerned it would be too gory. Turns out that, considering the subject matter, it really was not that bloody. There were a few scenes that were overly graphic, like of a throat being cut, but over all we mostly just heard a chilling slashing blade sound. The Masons tie in was a nice touch too. Though I don't think their society was depicted fairly. Still, you never know.
I look forward now to watching the bonus disk that came with the DVDs. I understand it has material about the actual case.