I read that this movie takes place in the 1880s and as far as im concerned, flogging had mostly been done away with among the British a half century earlier. Would it have been legal to lash Mikey in this era? Thats the one part of the scene I found hard to believe. Also, how old was he supposed to be? I know the guy who played him was 20 during the filming.
shareFlogging was very much a part of British military and judicial reality far longer than your imply (which would be ca. 1830). It was only abolished in the military in the 1880s. In prisons and in outlying regions like Australia--which was set up as a penal colony, it lasted far longer. Even in Britain, we read in Oscar Wilde's memoirs about his hearing an inmate a few cells down being whipped, and Wilde didn't go to prison until 1895. What is probably inaccurate is the brutality depicted here, especially as applied to a 14-year-old; there were guidelines.
shareIs Mikey supposed to be only 14? And even if flogging was still done to some degree in this day, I don't think a sentence of 100 lashes would be done that seems way too severe for the time. Also, Australia forbade the combination of corporal and capital punishment, and since Mikey was already destined to hang, this would have been highly illegal.
shareIs Mikey supposed to be only 14? And even if flogging was still done to some degree in this day, I don't think a sentence of 100 lashes would be done that seems way too severe for the time. Also, Australia forbade the combination of corporal and capital punishment, and since Mikey was already destined to hang, this would have been highly illegal.
shareIt was mob mentality. I believe that by ordering 100 lashes, it illustrated that they had no idea what they were doing, only trying to placate the masses.
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even if it was not the 'fashion' in Britain, Ausralia is more of a penal colony and is the 'wild west' ... so that considered, the King's La
w was probably trated more as 'guidlines' rather than hard and fast laws ...
one thing to say for the flogging scene is that it's the only movie i can think of that portrayed it accurately ... no man can survive 100 lashes ... period ... but it's done and mentioned in movies and books as if it a server spanking rather than a flogging ...
take care,
cormac
"One star in the sky
so I named it Otis Redding"
-- John Hiatt
Flogging, done away with in rural 19th century Australia? You're kidding. I grew up in Arkansas when corporal punishment was verboten in the prisons BUT not in the schools. Common for kids to get "paddled" for indiscretions. Paddling was typically having a big man (usually the coach) hit you three times in the butt as hard as as possible with a wooden paddle. You were pulled out of your classroom and taken to a place without observers. I got the punishment on three separate occasions. First two offenses I remember my azz hurt so bad that is was numb after the first strike. My third and last session was worse. Each strike got worse. I fell to my knees. Never told my parents. (Jacksonville, Arkansas circa 1968) Go Red Devils!
He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.
good info for all on this discussion ... whether technically accurate it is the only film (or book for that matter) that i have ever seen where physcial aspect of the deed is shown in the most truthful detail ... you hear people mention or even show in movies abot giving a man 'a hundred lashes' as if it were a slap on the wrist ... i doubt there are more than one person in a billion that could survive a hundred lashes
take care,
cormac
"One star in the sky
so I named it Otis Redding"
-- John Hiatt
It's quite possible given the situation depicted, the remote Australian outback of the 1880's, that flogging could still be carried on. BTW, I don't think Mikey was supposed to be any older than 16, if that.🐭
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