The Long Good Friday

Pierce Brosnan is a young bit player in this film as an IRA hit-man. The bombs start going off in London and the bodies start piling up in what at first appears to be a MOB turf war, but is actually a delivery gone bad? The acting is first rate here and we believe the London MOB with manners that we see. Soon after this era they started putting up cameras on all the London street corners. But the bobbies can still be bought? Labor in London is Irish in construction and the paths cross in a very strange way.

Before this movie was released, with the exception of Michael Caine`s Get Carter, British gangster movies were little known around the world and even at home, they were little appreciated. With Harold Shand, a brash, rough pint sized gangster on the make, Bob Hoskins changed that and paved the way for a whole raft of gritty crime thrillers set in the British Isles. Although few of the later movies rose to the heights claimed by Caine and Hoskins. Harold Shand is a London gangster from the old school, he is the man that the real life Kray twins might like to have been, bursting with ruthlessness, animal cunning, aggression, hubris, charisma and ambition he sets out to transform himself into a businessman cum developer who will succeed because the qualities that make him a good gangster will allow him to defeat any legitimate business rival. He is assisted by his girl Victoria (Helen Mirren) - several grades above the classic Barbera Windsor style of gangster`s moll - who understands ... Read more

The Long Good Friday, considered one of the best British gangster flicks, takes the classic story of hubristic downfall and sets it in late-seventies London. Bob Hoskins plays Harold Shand, a gangland kingpin trying to "go legit" by investing in some shorefront property which will one day host the Olympics. After a trip across the Atlantic to meet with his American gangster counterparts, he brings them back to East London where he hopes to convince them to invest with him in the shorefront property. That's when things go wrong: his henchmen start dying and his local haunts get blown up, raising doubt in the Americans about the security of their potential investment. Harold Shand, in an interesting twist, turns from gangster to detective, and ruthlessly investigates all his known associates. Some unforgettable ultra-violence ensues, as he hangs his suspects on meat hooks, stabs his right-hand man in the throat with a broken Scotch bottle, and eventually discovers that it's all been a... Read more

The best thing about this film is the soundtrack. 79 Euro disco and hypnotic psyche prog rock. I give the sounds track 5 stars. The movie itself. Not so good. Unless you like boring. none of the characters are sympathetic or fascinating. theres a lot of dead air where nothings is going on. the violence is sudden sadistic and revolting, and very rare. theres not much sense of impending doom or walls closing in. theres an obvious shakespear influence - but its no where close to that kind of quality. then tried to prop it up. the lead gangsters rant against americans at the end seems sudden and not really fitting with the theme of the film. there is a xenophobic undertone to the film - the bad guys are black, irish, or american. this one doesnt seem up to criterion quality. more like they licensed cheap back catalog. I could barely stay awake. My GF fell asleep in the first 20min. I held on hoping it was building to something... not really.

Refusal to adapt, refusal to comprehend... This is the story of a 'big time' London crime-lord's fall -- at the hands of his own ignorance. Hoskins and Mirren deliver the filmic goods, to their credit. *Pierce Brosnan* makes the scene with a signature feral gleam already a-twinkling in his eyes, and that's worth seeing. That gleam will still be in his eyes decades later while playing the leading man (with Davis and Kinnear) in The Matador. On the other hand, the soundtrack is annoying, whether you like 70's nostalgia or not. This combined with more flab and distractions (intentional and otherwise) almost made me rate the film a mere two stars -- and I won't bother writing about a two star. Then it hit me: The Long Good Friday is a nearly perfect allegory of the USA's Middle-Eastern foul-ups & follies. Examined in that light, I discerned the faint glimmering of a third star.

One of the best gangster pictures of all time,with great performances by Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren.

Bob Hoskins takes on the IRA in London as even the American Mafia leave town.Hoskins was gangster made for the part.