The Long Good Friday

Plot synopsis:
A shady character, Colin (Paul Freeman -Raiders of the Lost Ark), carrying a suitcase of money pockets a couple handfuls of cash before making the delivery. In a country farmhouse the three men dividing the money in the case are attacked by gunmen. Outside a pub Colin's accomplices are abducted and killed. Colin is later murdered at a swimming pool.The leading gangster in the London underworld (Harold Shand - Bob Hoskins in his breakout movie role) is forming an alliance with a group of rich, shady Americans to fund the very profitable London docklands development of the 1980s.On Good Friday while Shand's mother attends church, her waiting driver is killed when her car explodes. The news of this is an outrage to Shand who is shocked at the declining code of conduct among the underworld. This decline parallels the decline of his empire throughout the film. He is given 24 hours to fix the situation or the Americans will walk away from the deal.Shand is further unnerved at the news of his friend Colin's murder as well as the discovery of a bomb (which fails to detonate) at his casino. He covers up Colin's murder, the car bomb, and the later explosion of a restaurant where he is about to dine. He frantically rounds up and coerces informants and underworld bosses in an attempt to discover who is behind these events and what they want. He is brutal but he believes his behavior is within civilized boundaries.Throughout he laments the decline of neighborhoods, respect for the church, respect for his power, England's economy, and honor among thieves. At the same time he professes to be appreciative of history, of what has been great about England, and is driven to build great things on the site of now idle dockyards.Shand finds out that the bombings are caused by the IRA in revenge for Colin's having stolen the relatively small sum of 5,000. We also learn that the three men from the farmhouse at the beginning were also IRA. The IRA has connected Shand to Colin even though Colin was moonlighting as a courier without Shand's knowledge. Shand's top man tells him there is no fighting the IRA as they don't care about money ("they're fanatics") and that even if you kill them dozens more will always be ready to take their place. The IRA is taking over his empire and there is nothing he can do about it.In a last attempt to end the fight Shand meets with the IRA under pretense of paying them off with 60,000 but he murders them instead. However, the Americans walk away from the deal anyway, dismissing Shand as a gangster. Shand lectures them on how they have no guts or vision and that he will deal with the Germans instead and not be stopped by them. But Shand is abducted by the IRA as he leaves the meeting and his downfall is complete.

Tags: comedy, neo noir, murder, realism, cult, violence, plot twist, revenge

Review:
He's on his own with two or three of his most trusted accomplices attempting to discover what the hell's going on and this is very interesting as we find out what they find out, and at the same time as they do creating a nice, steady, plodding feeling of consistency.As the battles and discoveries occur whilst the film wears on, numerous desperate situations are dragged out in a gritty and entertaining way such as Harold's relationship with his girl that is starting to fall apart amongst the terror and confusion, the personal battle with the American businessmen who foil Harold on several occasions and the question marks that arise over loyalties within his own organisation, as well as disagreements with his crooked policeman colleague and rival gangs.
Our anti-hero gets more and more angry and each scene gets more and more intense, culminating in pure chaos at a race car track and a monologue of insults at the American's who, up to this point, have had Harold and his outfit rolling over for them.With strong acting performances all round and an impressive, well paced plot; The Long Good Friday has managed to sneak into my personal favourites list and definitely withstands the test of time..
After watching the film after a good many years it still holds the power to shock, amuse and thrill.Bob Hoskins pulled off a performance comparable to James Cagney's tour de force in 'White Heat' as the tough London gangster whose empire starts to tumble, as he's trying to seal a massive development deal with the aid of the US Mafia in London's Docklands.Helen Mirren gives an impressive performance as Hoskin's love interest, who basically calls the shots in Hoskin's organisation almost as much as he does.
One of the most memorable of the support cast is Derek Thompson, who would later go on to play Charlie Fairhead in BBC's long running 'Casualty' drama, who takes the 'Introducing' credit.Also, look out for the actor who played 'Denzel' in Only fools and Horses, and a mute role for Pierce Brosnan before he went to the States to play Remington Steele.A fine film, thats quick in pace, and excellently directed by John McKenzie, who will probably be always most remembered for this film..
The gangster world is not glamour, it's not a world we should dream about being in.This film is gritty and realistic, it's one of the best pictures ever to be released from the U.K. Bob Hoskins is in terrific form here, so damn perfect.
There are a few faces which you'll recognise, most of them appeared in famous British Television dramas!The film setting is gritty and shows the real London underworld in the early Thatcher years.The direction is confident as is the script, and by the end you'll realise that they had guts!
Very much in the tradition of the American gangster films of the 30s and 40s, this movie centres around a bravura performance by the central gangster (Edward G Robinson/James Cagney then; Bob Hoskins now).
A London gangster boss takes a short break abroad and returns to find someone has it in for him.The film that took Bob Hoskins from minor British actor to Hollywood and the rest of the cast back to mainstream British television.
The setting of London gives it novelty and like all British pictures it has an array of small parts played with gusto by local actors.The film seems to borrow from real events (at one time the Mafia did want to bring gambling junkets over to London) but is mostly a work of fiction.
Forget Lock Stock and the rest of Guy Ritchie's overrated rubbish,this is a real British gangster film.Great performances by Hoskins and Mirren and great support from a variety of dodgy looking geezers from TV.
"The Long Good Friday" is about a London crime boss, Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins), who on the brink of his greatest triumph, runs into a series of hostile actions by unknown enemies which bring down his enterprise and, at the end, seem likely to cost him his life.
Viewers have no doubt seen Hoskins in this kind of role before or since "The Long Good Friday," but -- as far as I know -- they've never seen Helen Mirren in anything like the role she plays here.
The Gangster film is certainly a genre that has brought forth more than a few great films, and John MacKenzie's breathtaking British Gangland Thriller "The Long Good Friday" (1980) must be one of the grittiest, exciting, most outstandingly acted and greatest specimen of all-time.
In one of the most charismatic criminal performances ever, the great Bob Hoskins plays Harold Shand, a rich and powerful London crime boss, who is about to make a lucrative deal with the American mafia, when he and his associates are suddenly victims to brutal attacks by phantom enemies starting on Good Friday.
Bob Hoskins delivers one of the most charismatic performances I have ever seen in the role of gangster Harold Shand.
"The Long Good Friday" is a Gangster film as they should be: gritty, violent and uncompromising, incredibly stylish without being glorifying, brutal and sometimes disturbing; a masterpiece.
The Long Good Friday is a British gangster picture that owes more to the Paul Muni and Edward G Robinson pictures from the golden age than something like The Godfather.
Where the characters are men of the street, working class villains who literally could be living around the corner from us, their respective antics giving them a reputation as infamous stars to be feared, and grudgingly admired.What many modern day film lovers may not be aware of is that The Long Good Friday had its release delayed, held back a year as Margaret Thatcher and her merry men frothed at the mouth due to the films portrayal of the Irish Rebublican Army.
This is one of the chief reasons that lifts The Long Good Friday high above many of its contemporaries, it may be a simple story, but it's not merely about two gangs striving for power on one manor!.Barrie Keeffe's script positively bristles with a hard bastard edge, some of the set pieces play out as true Brirtish greats, once viewed they are not to be forgotten.
Helen Mirren is fabulous as Harold's wife, Victoria, loyal and unerringly calm in the face of the madness unfolding, the supporting cast are also highly effective, with a cameo from Pierce Brosnan that is icy cold in making its point.Perhaps now it feels like The Long Good Friday is only of its time, and it may well be that it's only British viewers of a certain age that can readily embrace the all encompassing thread of gangland London at risk from insurgents.
While a very intelligent and well scripted film, the action is intense, the body count high and the violence more graphic than is usual for a British film of its era.The central character in this crime drama is Harold Shand, a highly successful East End gangster who has just returned to London after a business trip to the U.S. Upon his return he finds his mob under attack, several of his employees killed and his organization the target of an unknown foe.
This may leave him exposed as, like most movie gangsters, his arrogance and belief in his own invincibility are what will bring him down.Bob Hoskins, in his first starring role, plays Harold in a performance that conjures up images of other little big men of the silver screen like Edward G.
In this case, we have Bob Hoskins, whose performance is so powerful that it will be the only thing you remember, except for a vague picture of Helen Mirren looking exquisite but uncharacteristically bland.
Bob Hoskins plays an old school East End Villain at the point where his long built up empire is collapsing and his stubborn refusal to accept this leads to ever more desperate and violent attempts to stem the inevitable which perfectly portrayed making this a must see for anybody who is a fan of gritty, powerful and sometimes violent gangster films..
The Long Good Friday, with Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren introduces us to characters I won't soon forget.
The rest of the cast is truly excellent also from Helen Mirren's performance as Shand'sbusiness-like wife, to PH Moriarty's role as one hell of an enforcer aptlynicknamed "razors", this movie really does send a chill down your spine.
Superb gangster film with a top-of-range acting by Bob Hoskins and brilliant Helen Mirren as his sexy mistress.
Entrepreneur Harold (The part of Harold Shand was written specially for Bob Hoskins), an underworld boss , is about to close a lucrative new deal with American mobsters (Eddie Constantine , Anthony Franciosa was originally cast as the Mafia boss Charlie but left after three days filming, claiming to be annoyed with the script alterations) when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places...
Breakthrough film role for British actor Bob Hoskins , giving a terrific acting .
This is one of the rare movies where you learn what's the major issue along with the main character and this is a good 45 minutes into it at least.The film opens with a lengthy sequence of scenes strung together by Francis Monkman's excellent score.
He launches an investigation and needless to say, things are a surprise to him.What makes this film interesting is Bob Hoskins' portrayal of Harold Shand.
In The Long Good Friday, it was something else entirely but no less important to what the landscape of London looked like in the late 70's and early 80's A young Pierce Brosnan has a dialog free role but no less important to the story.
Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is a successful London gangster aspiring to be a legitimate owner of the abandoned Docklands for a casino and other developments with American mafia money.
Sure, he responds with machetes, but the point is the script delves into vulnerable places that lesser gangster movies wouldn't dare.It might not have the grim grit of the likes of Get Carter (although one particular death is genuinely shocking), but for me Good Friday's more self-deprecating tone gives it the edge, and a timelessness that elevates this made-for-TV-for-under-a-million movie to classic status.
It is epic in scope, and brutal in its narrative - following the rise and inevitable fall of a gangster, Harold, played with some kind of fury by Bob Hoskins in one of his most unforgettable roles.
The British crime lord (Bob Hoskins) with his smarter half (Helen Mirren) are playing to make billions in redevelopment projects by going in with the Americans.
The Long Good Friday is an excellent British entry in the gangster genre, with great performances by Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren.
This has to be one of the best Brit gangster films to come out of the UK and is lead by a towering performance from Bob Hoskins."Ya don't go blowing people up outside a church...not on Good Friday!" There are some funny realistic lines in this sometimes violent film and it also shows the death of the old London society.
The director told Bob in this scene to just think of that his character has gone through to that point.A classic piece of work.K. Triumphant British Gangster Film.
I rewatched this for the first time in 15 years last night (on Film 4) intending to watch just a few minutes to stir my memory (I had an early start today) and couldn't tear myself away for the whole film.It probably helps to have grown up in the UK in the 80s because as well as being a very straight gangster film it has a great deal of period context that others will miss (cf the obvious comparison Get Carter which has lots of seedy-1970s-provincial-corruption context).
Certainly people like some of the commentators here who "watch gangster movies for gratuitous violence and topless molls" will be disappointed.As for "it's dated and has a cheesy 80s soundtrack".
This isn't Miami Vice.Anyway, apart from the excellent script and acting and very British understated camera work and directing (it makes Get Carter almost look flashy) it has hidden depths if you know the period and context.My favourite being that as the mystery unfolds, people keep warning Shand that he shouldn't take on his unexpected opposition because "they aren't interested in money, Harry, they're political!".
The Long Good Friday will go down, or should, as one of the all time great gangster movies.
Razors, or as the youth of the day call him, "The Human Spirograph", is one of the most menacing bodyguards I've ever seen.The accents are a bit hard to understand at points to those of us here in the US ('ands across the ocean!), but it adds to the authenticity and helps make this movie stand out from the typical Hollywood gangster film.
all at the same time just completely liking the character they have created.Helen Mirren is very sexy in this movie and she plays her role perfectly...
Hoskins acts more in the final two minutes of this movie than in the rest of his career put together.What makes The Long Good Friday so special, (apart from stylish, but not ostentatious, direction and a superb theme score) is its variation on the typical crime theme.
But it also reveals how versatile genre is, and so we have the best ever critique of Thatcherism (with Harold Shand an embodiment of entrepeneurial culture, beset by the same problems that would dog the Tories (IRA, Americans, drugs etc), but also a hangover from the Welfare State in his misplaced loyalties - this schizophrenia tears him apart); a great London film, with an insightful sense of change and place, and meanings bound up in different spaces; and an extraordinary character study cum love story, which becomes an existential journey in the Bressonian mould.
It's also the height of the IRA bombings around Britain at that time.Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren (most of the rest of the cast have fallen away on the side lines and joined the ranks of the ITV's police series 'The Bill'); although it is surprising to see a young Pearce Brosnan appear as (in many ways) a mute Irish terrorist/assainian.
At times it almost feels like your watching an repeated episode of 'The Bill'; (British readers will understand what I'm talking about).But the one thing that places 'the icing on the cake' is the final scene in which Hoskins' wordless and astounding performannce concludes the film.
The film costars Helen Mirren and features a young Pierce Brosnan in a blink- and-you'll-miss-it role.Those in my generation will remember Bob Hoskins as the gruff private dick Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
Certainly, the film does, in parts, look rather more threadbare than contemporary U.S. productions, but it doesn't matter anymore: the Brits had finally evolved their own style.Central to the film in every way is (the now late) Bob Hoskins whose character, gang leader with ambitions Harold Shand, finds his well-ordered world and criminal empire unravel in just 48 hours.
'The Long Good Friday' is a perfectly dated late 70's/early 80's British Gangster flick staring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren.
So I just saw the classic British gangster flick "the long good Friday" from 1980, starring Bob Hoskins and a very cute Helen Mirren.
I have always been a fan of British gangster flicks, I don't know if it is the accents or the propensity for violence mixed with smart dialog, but everything from "sexy beast" to one of my favorite films of all time "lock stock and two smoking barrels" I find just wonderful.
Considering the fact that i love gangster movies , its a bit surprising that i had never got around to seeing one of Britain's most famous gangster films in The Long Good Friday.The first thing i noticed about this movie is the vast amount of well know British actors who were big in the 70's & 80's , who pop up in it.
Apart from the obvious Bob Hoskins , there is the likes of Helen Mirren , Pierce Brosnan and Kevin McNally , to name but a few.The second thing is , is that this film looks extremely dated but not in a bad way.
It reminded me of when i was 12 living in London (story aside).The film itself was not nearly as good as i was hoping but i would imagine , 30 years ago , there had been nothing like this on the British Cinema scene since maybe the like likes of " Get Carter".Bob Hoskins was really good and pretty much steals the show and the violent scenes are quite extreme even for a film if it was released today.I can totally see why people look back at this film with such affection , i just wish i had seen this back in the day..
It draws some comparisons to classic and contemporary gangster movies, especially Get Carter with Michael Caine, but Bob Hoskins' performance takes it beyond others in its genre.
Brilliant direction from John Mackenzie from a good script by Barrie Keeffe, It captures early eighties Britain and Thatcherism at a time when money and power where wanted by everyoneOne of Bob Hoskins best performances with great support from Dererk Thompson and Helen Mirren.
As for this film's story Hoskins, as "Harold Shand," is ably cast the boss of the docks in London.
I also love the romantic view of London in this film, and Bob Hoskins was so great in his role..
Bob Hoskins is a tough as nails gangster in The Long Good Friday, a British gangster movie set in 1970's London.
This movie is probably one of the most slept on films ever not just in the gangster genre as it is a true classic The story is about Harold Shand(Bob Hoskins)in what is considered his breakthrough role as king of the underworld & gangland empire in London.
Great performances by the main cast members Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren.