The Long Good Friday (1982)

Too much of everything

Absolutely the worst movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Without question "The Long Good Friday"is not just the greatest British gangster film ever but also one of the best gangster films of all time.The story of London gangster Harold Shand(an astonishing central performance from the late,great Bob Hoskins)and the fight to save his empire from outside forces is a true classic...and it still is even today.Add to that an excellent supporting performance from Helen Mirren as Harold's wife Victoria,a great script from Barrie Keeffe and an excellent music score from Francis Monkman and it all adds up to a real treat.I mean if the great Martin Scorsese rates this film highly that it must be doing something right.

Having just seen The Long Good Friday for the first time in its new cinema release (2015) I am at a loss to understand the praise it gets. The script is feeble and the characters completely absurd, especially the two mafia guys and Helen Mirren as the gangster's moll! The actors are very competent, but the film has no atmosphere, no pace, no rhythm; it's just a sequence of set pieces, almost of tableaux. A gangster film should at least have a sense of danger about it, but this one doesn't because the confrontations are so contrived and implausible. For me the best and only enjoyable part is the swimming baths sequence near the beginning, with Paul Freeman (Colin) and Pierce Brosnan (1st Irishman) giving superb performances, brimming with tension. Significantly here they are not hampered by dialogue. Brosnan makes a second chilling appearance at the end of the film, again without dialogue. You can well see from this why he would be offered the Bond role.

This movie is an amazing blend of story and action, and pulls off the amazing feat of having a gangster movie with some real heart and some classic charm that was missing from many similar movies of this period and most movies since. The characters are unforgettable and at the very least relatable, you see them and know their plight as they go through this dark period of time.So what's the bacon? Bob Hoskins plays Harold Shand, a London Gangster who's brought about peace in the Capital's gangster scene. However, on the day he plans to sign a giant East End development project with American investors, his organisation is rocked by the murder of his childhood friend and a bomb blowing up his Rolls Royce. Shand now has the ordeal of tracking down the people attempting to destroy his organisation whilst at the same time keeping it a secret from the Americans.So, the good stuff? All of it if I'm honest. It's got heart, with all the characters being at the very least human, not invincible husks with no personality and no real human traits. Shand isn't invincible, he's simply a man who's built himself up from the gutters of the London slums to become the kingpin of the city, and you can really feel for his emotions and really want him to find a way out all the way through the movie.The story is an absolute cracker, strong, coherent, chocked full of twists and really good fun to sit through. At the same time the film, unlike many of the same period, is surprisingly subtle. There aren't an onslaught of nauseating gun battles, nor is it just continual fist fights with no connection to the plot other than to cram in a load of action. It is a fantastic blend of story and style, which I love to bits!To top it all off as well, the soundtrack, although very simple, is fantastic and absolutely catchy. Bet your bottom dollar that you'll be humming the theme tune to this movie for a week after viewing!What else can I say? The story's great, the characters are great, the music's great, it's grounded, down-to-earth and overall a fantastic movie. One of my all time faves and definitely my favourite gangster flick!

'The Long Good Friday' is a perfectly dated late 70's/early 80's British Gangster flick staring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. Completed in 1979, but not released until 1980 (by George Harrison's company, no less), the film acts as a sort of bridge between the established violent grit cinema of the '70's and the coming slick synth aesthetic of the 80's.The movie is, mostly, perfectly balanced between classy, character driven, and wonderfully exploitive. When that balance does tip too far towards filmic excess it can sometimes take a good thing right up to the edge of self-parody. But ultimately this only serves to solidify the film's courage and amp up its spirit. Somehow the movie manages to become cooler in its few missteps than it would've been had it achieved perfection.A huge part of its elevation from "mildly inspiring" to "stupid awesome" are the performances at the heart of it. Bob Hoskins is virile, dangerous and genuinely alive. Helen Mirren is smart, collected and stunning. Their scenes together soar with such intense realism that they pull the more mundane thriller aspects of the piece up along with it. The two great actors are a rising tide for the whole endeavor.And to top it all off, the film now comes off as pretty prophetic regarding the gentrification of London and the arrival of the UK's role in New Europe, even as the UK struggled with their own militant troubles at home. This theme is perfectly capped when Hoskin's delivers a "Network"- style visionary speech about England emerging from the post-war dregs into the heightened capitalistic fervor of a new era at the end of the film. Along with the very last shot, it's a legendary piece of cinema.If the camera-work is sometimes pedestrian (it is) it's certainly saved by Francis Monkman's ridiculously cool, driving electronic jazz/funk score. The music screams - sometimes too loud - over the images, often drowning out all other sound until you're left with just the gleam of pure, stylish cinema, the kind that Michael Mann would soon after turn into the very look and feel of the '80's with 'Thief'.And if that's not enough to sell you on this great, great flick, it also features a baby-faced Pierce Brosnan in his first film role as a virtually mute hit-man.Such a good time.