The creator of Peaky Blinders explains his film, the ending and his dramatic choices
Who died in the epic grand finale uploaded to Netflix? The conclusion of the cult series deserves some explanation. Steven Knight justifies
The movie Peaky Blinders sometimes takes on the appearance of a bloodbath.
Steven Knight made drastic choices to conclude the Shelby saga. Choices that will not necessarily delight early fans. So he explains it to Entertainment Weekly.
Warning: spoilers for the film The immortal !
From the first moments we understand: Arthur Shelby is dead and Tommy is paying his respects to his grave. And the screenwriter and director describes why it was necessary to put his hero face to face with his remorse, at the bottom of the hole: “We have a man who has spent his life protecting his family. It’s all about his family. This is how he justifies his actions, to protect his own, even if that includes breaking all the rules…“
Then, another member of the Shelby siblings dies: Ada, the sister, the only daughter of the clan, is murdered in the street. A heartbreak for Steven Knight: “I always liked the character of Ada. She is named after my grandmother,” he said before detailing: “Ada was a force of nature, who kept the family together throughout the series. Whenever Tommy has a strategic problem, he turns to Polly, but whenever he has grief, he turns to Ada”.
A tragic ending that the director justifies by a need to reflect very hard times:
“It’s an expression of natural violence and the idea that at that time, death could occur at any moment. A bomb falls and you die. So I wanted to portray this idea…”
And then comes the moment that everyone has been dreading. This tragic end which awaited Tommy Shelby for almost 15 years. No, the hero of Peaky Blinders isn’t going to get away with it and head off into the setting sun for new horizons. Mortally wounded in his confrontation with the Nazis, it was his son Duke who ended his life and finished him off in a gesture of mercy. So that Tommy finally finds peace. A dramatic ending planned from the start by the screenwriter, who could not imagine ending otherwise. Steven Knight assures:
“From the beginning, when creating this character, I wanted someone who didn’t care if they lived or died. It’s their superpower, inherited from the First World War. They were convinced that they would die with their brother. Then they don’t die…. From there, everything becomes a bonus: ‘We died on this battlefield, and now we’ve been given time. We can do whatever we want, since we’re already dead.’ So he ended up dying here. It was inevitable. To conclude his story, he had to leave.”
Not so Immortal that finally. Peaky Blindersthe film, is currently available on Netflix.
