Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bulger dad’s fury at ‘heartless’ new film tipped for an Oscar
Bulger dad fury at drama on son’s killers
THE dad of murdered toddler James Bulger has slammed the producers of a film about his son’s killing for not telling the family.
Ralph Bulger branded Detainment, which has been tipped as a potential Oscar winner, “offensive” and claimed it was too sympathetic to the pair who attacked his boy in 1993.
The 30-minute drama is based on police interviews with Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were both 10 when they kidnapped and murdered two-year-old James.
Ralph, 52, said: “Not once has the maker of this film contacted me or any of James’s family about this film.
“It has been 26 years since my son was taken and murdered and so I have seen many documentaries and news stories about him.
“But I have never been so cut up and offended by something that shows so little compassion to James and his family.
“I accept this is a murder of such magnitude it will always be written about and featured in the news but to make a film so sympathetic to James’s killers is devastating.
“He may consider it to be in the public domain but he is making films and a career from the murder of my son. The very least he could have done was to contact us and let us know what he was planning.
“It will be horrific if this film wins an Oscar or any awards, given the disregard shown to James’s family.”
Former police chief Albert Kirby, who led the investigation into the murder, agreed with Ralph.
He said: “I think it lacks any form of taste or decency and has been made without any consideration of the effect on Denise [Fergus, James’s mum], the family and also any number of other people who were involved in the sensitive issues of the investigation.”
Director Vincent Lambe admitted last week he did not contact Ralph or Denise , 51, before releasing the film last year. He said: “I think they wouldn’t want a film like this to be made.”
But the 38-yearold defended his take on the movie about Venables and Thompson, believed to the first drama about the killing. He told Good Morning Britain: “A lot of people might feel it’s wrong to humanise those boys but I think if people can’t accept the fact that they were human beings they will never be able to begin to understand what could have driven them to commit such a crime. And the only way to prevent something like this happening again in the future is to understand the cause of it.”
Detainment was released last year and shown at a number of European film festivals. It won the Don Quixote Award at the Krakow Film Festival and is on the Academy Awards shortlist for best Live Action Short Film after scooping best International Film at Odense in Denmark last August.
In June it received a standing ovation at the Young Directors Award Ceremony in Cannes.
Mr Lambe said at the time: “Detainment is a film about something very sensitive which divides public opinion, but I think people should remember that while the film is factual, it really just gives a brief glimpse of one aspect of the case.
“There is a much wider story there and it is a heartbreaking one. It’s impossible to show the unimaginable pain of James Bulger’s family in the space of a short film.
“I would hope that audiences would be left wanting to know more and start researching the case for themselves. And if it sparks a debate, then that’s probably a good thing.”
But Ralph said: “If the film maker had done his homework he would see he brings nothing new to the table other than a macabre fascination and obsession about James’ murder.”
The youngster was killed after being lured away from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, by Thompson and Venables.
The pair were convicted the same year and granted lifelong anonymity when released from prison aged 18.
Venables, now 36, has since been jailed twice for child porn offences.
He is played by actor Ely Solan and Leon Hughes portrays Thompson.