The Long Good Friday

Gang land boss and wanna be land developer Harry Shand has a dream of turning London on its head and making it great again. Peace has reigned for over 10 years with no issues but now he begins to have more problems. Things have been going wrong since two American businessmen and mafia men to boot (who want to invest in the development) have turned up. His mothers car is blown up, a bomb is found in his casino and his right hand man is stabbed to death. With the increase in blood and body parts being shed, he has to find out who is responsible and what they want before everything he dreams of is shattered.

Truth be told I had found this film in the early 90s. I had a VHS copy of a copy and wasn't really sold on it. I had seen prior to this the excellent Mona Lisa on a superior copy and so had quite a film to compare it to. This film thankfully is also found on this set and deserves to be seen too. Then in the late 90s, on its DVD release I saw it again and was blown away (no pun intended). Now coming to it after so long and after seeing some of the terrible films floating around at the moment, I was a little excited! The film is not just a dark parable about the British criminal. Far from it actually, the film is a masterwork of cinema and a Shakespearean drama of the highest order. The violence is explosive and bloody, cutting across the screen and splashing you on the face. The explosions are vast in their enacting and loud in the rendering. Tonally it is a classic Greek tragedy with the problems of oedipal desire and patricide at its heart. Then you see visually how it moves forward to a new generation and it has vim and vigor all of its own.

This has much to thank in this regard to Bob Hoskins central performance. He was discovered due to this film and for good reason. He plays the role in a simmering, imploding and eventually unbalanced way. This adds tension to any scene he is in and allows the gauge to slowly build for maximum effect. Not to lose out, you have the awesome performances of Helen Mirren as a bitchy and snobbish gangsters moll, she is our eyes on the events and the driving force of desire and understated sexual tension. Derek Thompson heads off the trio of performances and gives us the dark reflection of greed that the eighties was about to unleash. Pierce Brosnan has his first role as an IRA hitman and Eddie Constantine (of vast fame but remember him mostly from Alphaville) among many faces that shine and you will know.

These performances are nothing without the power of the component works, the direction is a powerhouse of tension, measure and exciting framing. I had not noticed this before now but it made me watch it twice more to adore the choice of reflections of people ( a key that must be explored by someone.) The music is insane and very 70-80 cross over, with electro-synth that has a rhythm and power to capture ideas and emotions. The editing is slight and well paced, with the measure of tension and a pulse of fear at its heart. All in all everything in this film smashes and makes you have to ask the simple question....Why haven't you gone and bought a copy of these two great films?