The Long Good Friday - Criterion Collection

Starring:Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, Eddie Constantine, Paul Freeman, Leo Dolan, Kevin McNally, Patti Love, P.H. Moriarty, Ruby Head, Charles Cork, Olivier Pierre, Pierce Brosnan, Daragh O'Malley, Karl Howman, Brian Hall, Alan Ford, Dave Ould
Director: John Mackenzie
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire, and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins's career-making turn as a London mobster courting respectability and Helen Mirren's subtly detailed performance as his upper-crust mistress. Cockney wiseguy Harold Shand is a would-be burgher whose domination of the city's underworld stems from his shrewdness as a mediator and his skill at harnessing political and economic clout. As Easter approaches, he's poised to launch an aggressive real estate development scheme along the depressed Thames waterfront when all hell breaks loose: a trusted lieutenant is brutally murdered, Shand's mother is nearly killed in a car bombing, one of his pubs is blown apart, and the visiting American don crucial to the pending deal is quickly growing wary.

Barrie Keeffe's original screenplay keeps the viewer a step ahead of Shand, providing us with a telling but teasingly incomplete glimpse of the misstep by his underlings that has set chaos loose. At the same time, Keeffe underlines the bourgeois pretensions of the rough-hewn, barrel-chested Shand, how the elegant Victoria (Mirren) helps serve those ambitions, and the myriad parallels between Shand's minions and the local politicians and police only too willing to join in his scheme. Tart, funny dialogue and alternately playful and pungent Eastertide imagery complete Keeffe's shrewd design--two key scenes, in a meat locker and a warehouse, invoke the Crucifixion itself.

Amazon.com essential video

Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire, and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins's career-making turn as a London mobster courting respectability and Helen Mirren's subtly detailed performance as his upper-crust mistress. Cockney wiseguy Harold Shand is a would-be burgher whose domination of the city's underworld stems from his shrewdness as a mediator and his skill at harnessing political and economic clout. As Easter approaches, he's poised to launch an aggressive real estate development scheme along the depressed Thames waterfront when all hell breaks loose: a trusted lieutenant is brutally murdered, Shand's mother is nearly killed in a car bombing, one of his pubs is blown apart, and the visiting American don crucial to the pending deal is quickly growing wary.

Even with lesser performances, the script and John Mackenzie's solid direction would make The Long Good Friday a keeper, but Hoskins's explosive portrait of Shand and his descent toward brutal revenge elevates the film into the very front rank, earning admiring comparisons to The Godfather, Scarface, GoodFellas, and other classics of that genre. On DVD, Criterion's new digital transfer restores more than just the widescreen aspect ratio--the film has never looked better, even if an occasionally muddy sound mix survives to make the thick Cockney accents a challenge to decipher. --Sam Sutherland

Description

Bob Hoskins, in his breakthrough film role, stars as a London racketeer fast losing control of his gangland empire; Helen Mirren shines as his classy moll. John Mackenzie's stylish thriller is a marriage of gangster flicks from both sides of the Atlantic. Criterion presents The Long Good Friday in an exclusive widescreen transfer.

Customer Reviews:

Top British Film.......2007-06-07

This film, together with Get Carter (the original) are the two finest British crime/gangster films you can get.

Bob Hoskins gives his best ever performance as Harold Shand a cockney gangster whos trying to do a deal with an American over the (as was then) wasteland of London docklands. Unfortunately while he's in the states one of his gang has upset some rather nasty people. Upon his return things start to go badly wrong.

This film is full of great scenes - perhaps most memorably when the men Harold suspects are trying to muscle in on him are brought in hanging upsidedown from meathooks - Harold has a quiet word:

"For more than ten years there's been peace - everyone to his own patch. We've all had it sweet. I've done every single one of you favours in the past - I've put money in all your pockets. I've treated you well, even when you was out of order, right? Well now there's been an eruption. It's like f**kin' Belfast on a bad night. One of my closest friends is lyin' out there in the freezer. And believe me, all of you, nobody goes home until I find out who done it, and why".

Its all marvellously done, and the ending is very clever indeed - you will never forget it once you've seen it. The whole film is complimented by excellent music composed by Francis Monkman (who played with Curved Air and Sky).

Helen Mirren gives a great peformance as Harolds wife/girlfriend. The cast includes quite a few familiar faces such as Eddie Constantine and P H Moriarty as 'Razors'. The most noteable is a small role for the as then unknown Pierce Brosnan.

This film is also an interesting piece of British history as you can see docklands as it was before before Canary Wharf existed.

If you haven't already seen this, then you've missed a really cracking film.

You're Not Going To Find It Easy To Forget.......2007-03-23

"The Long Good Friday," (1980), made from an original script by Barrie Keefe, starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, directed by John Mackenzie, makes just about everyone's short list of greatest British gangster movies. In fact, greatest gangster movies, period. It was nominated for a BAFTA (British Oscar) on its release. Gangster movies are said to depend on the energy and performance of their protagonists -- see George Raft, Jimmy Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson-- and this one made a star of Hoskins, who captured the explosive violence of its protagonist Harold Shand, a cockney gangster.

The late George Harrison, of The Beatles, served, among others, as the film's Executive Producer. The film opens on Good Friday, and is, in fact, full of Easter imagery. Shand's mother goes to mass; and scenes set in a slaughterhouse and a warehouse present specifically Christian iconography. "The Long Good Friday" is also set at a significant time, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's own Euro version of the greed-is-good 1980's. In fact, at moments, it almost seems the film is quoting Dante Aleghieri's famous Italian Renaissance poem "The Inferno," that also is set at Easter, and concerns the greed is good crowd of its own time and place. At any rate, the film makes good use of its era, as Michael Caine's memorable "Get Carter" did of Britain's sourly swinging 1970's.

Shand appears to be on the top of the world as the film opens. During Thatcher's reign, London's extensive docklands are just beginning to be profitably redeveloped, and he's getting in on the ground floor. He expects to get additional seed money for his projects from Charlie, a visiting American gangster, nicely played by that iconic French actor Eddie Constantine. Shand's got a gorgeous, upper crust, tough, sexy, smart mistress, Victoria; as played by Helen Mirren, nobody could doubt that she has her say in his organization. But while he's in the States, hooking up with Charlie, things begin to go wrong for him. And it takes him too long to figure out what's happening.

Pierce Brosnan, then evidently at the start of his career, has a bit, nearly non-speaking part: apparently he improvised one line, and it stuck. But he plays a bare-chested pool scene, showing off a fine body, and a charming smile, but, oh, those terrible not-yet-improved-to-American standards teeth! And he drives the car in the movie's gripping final scenes. Hoskins and Mirren give remarkable performances, together and on their own, never more so than these final, almost wordless scenes together. You're not going to find them easy to forget.

The Long Good Friday.......2007-03-22

Watching this again after several years is like experiencing an episode of Life On Mars, only vastly superior. No need for flashbacks as we're actually there: with the clothes, the cars, the non-PC language and an undeveloped London Docklands. A time when gangsters had (supposedly) strict rules of behaviour and decency, and worked with corrupt police officials with little danger of media exposure. And although this is a violent, fairly realistic film, it all has a strange feeling of innocence about it. If only they knew what was around the corner!

Add to this Barrie Keeffe's marvellous script, lots of dry humour (it's almost a black comedy), Bob Hoskin's loveable villain, Helen Mirren as his upper class moll, and early appearances from Pierce Brosnan (hardly speaking, but wonderfully nasty), Gillian Taylforth and Eddie Constantine - and you have 109 minutes of pure pleasure. A lingering final sequence will stay in your memory. Unreservedly recommended.

Even gangsters have bad days..........2007-03-20

The Long Good Friday depcits the day in the life of a gangster who is literally going through hell. The film is somewhat unorthodox in terms of its unique narrative structure, primarily with its ambiguous, yet suprisingly complex opening sequence (although the original script called for a much more complex and extensive setup).
The lead performances launch this film into arguably the best British gangster film ever made. Bob Hoskins is ferocious and commanding as the sedentary king pin, Harold Shanz, and Helen Mirren redefines the role of the ganster's girl as the loyal, highly influential and intelligent wife, whose essence serves as the bridge between Harold's existence as a typical gangster, and as a civilized and powerful businessman. What makes Bob Hoskin's performance even more noteworthy is when he wrapped up filming Zulu Dawn (1979), he became terribly sick and soon discovered a monstrous tapeworm inside him (discussed in an interview on the DVD's supplemental material), but after reading the script agreed to do the film, tape worm and all, and in the end delivers an unforgettable performance. Overall, the movie is energetic, intriguing, and powerful throughout. The music to Harold's introduction is fantastic, and take note of the beautifully choreographed meat hook scene!

Noteworthy British crime thriller.......2006-10-07

Bob Hoskins in a ground breaking role in his career expertly pulls off his portrayal of Harold Shand, Cockney accented British mobster, in the cracklingly good gangster drama "The Long Good Friday". Shand, a powerful figure in the underworld, using politcal and law enforcement connections is at the precipice of concluding a huge real estate deal along the London waterfront. In the entrepreneurial times spawned by the philosophies of Margaret Thatcher, Hoskins is looking to legitimize his businesses. Advised and comforted by his cultured and level headed girlfriend Victoria played nicely by Helen Mirren, he hopes to enlist the financial backing of the American Mafia.

French cinema legend Eddie Constantine playing Charlie, the prospective American partner arrives in London to consummate the deal. In conjunction with his arrival, the sky begins falling on Hoskins' head. One of his chief lieutenants is knifed and another blown up in a car bomb. When a bomb is found in a Hoskins backed casino and another explodes in one of his pubs, his American counterparts become jittery. With the deal tottering, Hoskins, who can't imagine who could be muscling in on his turf, sends out his troops on a seek and destroy mission.

Notable in this film is the appearance of a youthful Pierce Brosnan as an IRA gunman. In his first movie role the dentate Brosnan had yet to have his teeth fixed and featured a typically dreadful English smile. Also of note is that one of the exective producers of the film was Beatle George Harrison.

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