The Long Good Friday
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Canada
Movie Reviews of The Long Good Friday
Movie Review: Francis Monkman
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fine film...tough and complicated. I'd rate it far superior to any American gangster film. It features a driving and under rated soundtrack from Francis Monkman. The acting is, of course, first rate.Movie Review: STILL "EXPLOSIVE" AFTER 24 YEARS!
Summary: 5 Stars
The second best ever Brit gangster movie is a brilliant energy-filled piece. Ritchie's "Lock, Stock..." is fine if you want a jokey gangster film bailed out by lucky coincidences, but this is the real thing, believable and intelligent. What really raises this movie into the stratosphere is the bravura performance by Bob 'Oskins. The much-praised ending is riveting. Surely it's the most dazzling display of an actor's craft to hold in close facial shot for a prolonged time showing a variety of emotions cross the features? Hoskins does this to perfection, showing (at least) disbelief, anger, realization, fear, grim amusement and acceptance over a 90 second period, all the while set to pounding soundtrack and flickering lighting from passing streetlamps.
If you haven't seen this, do yourself a favor and buy the excellent DVD which also has some neat features.
Movie Review: Great mobster flick!!! Bob Hoskins rules!!! Five Stars A+
Summary: 5 Stars
This great British mobster flick is on of the very best, on par with The Godfather and Goodfellas!!! Bob Hoskins is wonderful in the title role and and the supporting cast is awesome also, which includes Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan a pre James Bond role(He plays a heavy). This Criterion DVD is spectalular and the picture and sound a are first rate!!! The only extra is 2 trailers(American and British),but thats fine. Warning!!! This is a very violent film,this film is definately for adults,NOT for the kiddies!!!(This film originally had a X rating!!!) So if you like mobster flicks, this ones for you!!! Five Stars!!! A+Movie Review: A briliant film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classical tragedy turned inside-out: it even follows the classical unities of time, place, and action. Forget about all the English slang and the complaints about lack of translation--the meaning is plain, even if the terms are unfamiliar. The cast is brilliant, and the last 30 seconds of the movie, almost enitrely a close-up of Hoskins's face, can't be described: it's one of the best performances captured on film. The only downside is cheesy soundtrack--blame the studio for that.Movie Review: As good as film noir gets
Summary: 5 Stars
For the Americans unfamiliar with cockney slang:grass: (n.) informant, snitch; (v.) to inform, to snitch
agro: agravation, trouble
bottle: nerve
boozer: bar/pub
wanker: masturbator
gob: (as a verb) to spit
nancy boy: homosexual
Non-slang:
abattoir: meat-packing plant
Special Branch: governmental unit responsible for dealing specifically with (among other things) "the Irish problem."
There are a bunch of other Cockney words as well and lots of glottal stops, but for the most part you're able to understand the dialogue that really matters. Yes, subtitles would probably help. It's an unfamiliar dialect and you need to tune your ear. (Actually, compared to real Cockney, it's pretty easily understood.) In fact, when I watched it again last night, I specifically paid attention to how much of the dialogue I understood and realized I was missing 1/3 to 1/2. And I could still figure out what was going on.
And this is definitely a film worth watching over and over and over again. The plot is, well, "twisty" only begins to describe it. In fact, this is one of those films in which you're put very much in the position of the hero. Little facts are revealed to you in seemingly inconsequential order. Like a jigsaw puzzle, it starts by working around the edges, and then working its way to the center. Because you generally know only what our hero, Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins in a masterfully controlled performance) knows, you are as astonished as he is when the truth is finally revealed. (In fact, The Long Good Friday presages much of what you experience in Memento, but it's the better film.)
What all this means is that you have to be patient with it. In the beginning, you're shown a series of apparently random scenes. Then, gradually, the whole comes together and the previous scenes suddenly make sense. It may be this gradual development of the story that makes this film so much fun to watch over and over again. I've now seen it twice in the past week and will probably sit down and watch it again in the next few days.
Yes, it's tough, it's violent, it's very, very complicated. Which is, of course, what makes it so much fun. (And let's not forget the brilliantly jangling musical score, reminiscent of The Third Man's famous zither.) If you're looking for arty capers like The Thomas Crowne Affair (either version), or witty elegant capers like To Catch a Thief or How to Steal a Million, look elsewhere. But if you like, say, The Killing, or the Godfather trilogy, this one might be right up your alley. Just don't go down it alone.