A Prayer Before Dawn **** (2017, Joe Cole, Vithaya Pansringarm, Panya Yimmumphai, Billy Moore) – Movie Review

Gruelling and punishing but brilliantly done, and the kick-boxing kid Joe Cole is a knockout.

Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s 2017 prison action drama biopic Prayer Before Dawn is a gruelling and punishing but brilliantly done true story, based on a memoir written by Billy Moore. Mostly, it is a survival story, the survival of the fittest, that is. As such, it is encouraging, in its Midnight Express kind of way, though only just.

The kick-boxing kid Joe Cole is a knockout as Billy Moore, an English boxer fighting in Muay Thai tournaments to earn his freedom after being jailed in one of Thailand’s notorious prisons.

The real Billy Moore appears at the end, playing his own father, who died of cancer before filming began.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2017. The jail inmates are all played by men who have served time in Thai prisons. Before shooting started, Cole went through months of extensive boxing training and spent much time with the real Billy Moore and his family in Liverpool.

The screenplay by Jonathan Hirschbein and Nick Saltrese based on the memoir written by Billy Moore. He is lucky to be alive to tell the tale.

It has a lot of strong violence, including a brutal male rape sequence, drug use and strong language throughout, with some sexual content and nudity.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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