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Amazon.co.uk Review
Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins' 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.
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 TheGodfather, Scarface, GoodFellas and other classics of that genre. --Sam Sutherland
Amazon.co.uk Review
Straddling two decades, The Long Good Friday is a gangster film with a thoughtful and provocative core. Made in 1979, but not released--after a near-comical saga of proposed re-editing and overdubbing recounted in the booklet--until two years later, it combines the gritty realism of 1970s movies (Get Carter, The Sweeney) with the nouveau riche, fake-glamour culture of the 1980s. Bob Hoskins gives one of his most engaging screen performances as Harold Shand, top London mobster whose grandiose ambitions are doomed to failure of Shakespearian proportions. Helen Mirren is understated and alluring as his wife, and there's a strong support cast--even a brief, near-silent cameo from Pierce Brosnan! Director John Mackenzie controls tension impressively over the 109-minute span and if the IRA angle now seems a tad contrived, the prolonged final image of Shand coming to terms with defeat is breathtaking; heightened by Francis Monkman's punchy synths and saxes score.
On the DVD The Long Good Friday is presented on disc in a 16:9 full-frame picture that reproduces well, and is enhanced by stereo and 5.1 Dolby surround sound options. There's a photo gallery and the original trailer, detailed biographies and film notes, a running commentary from Mackenzie, and an interview with Hoskins and Mackenzie taken from the National Film Theatre presentation in 2000. There must be a whole archive's worth of these interviews by now, so let's have more of them included in future DVD releases. --Richard Whitehouse
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a true classic, for so many reasons. It has telling things to say about the 80's in Britain, and it's a great London film, a cinematically unfamiliar London of the yet-to-be redeveloped Docklands - it stands on the threshold of something. At the same time it's a timeless, Shakesperean drama of ambition and power, politics and hubris. It moves at a cracking pace, and it it still has a visceral effect. Like most great films, the music adds a dimension, driving the film forward. And Hoskins. A bravura performance, a modern tragic hero, raging against the inevitable, never truly understanding his fate, until the incredible final scene. I saw this film years ago on tv, and its images have stayed with me; it's great to say that it is as fresh and involving now as I remembered it. And I have to say, the accident of fate that is Pierce Brosnan - with the hindsight of Bond, he looks as beautiful as the Angel of Death in this now.
DVD seems good, the commentary informative. A film for the library, with a DVD that does it justice.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
The Long Good Friday is possibly the best British Gangster film of all time. Only Get Carter (1971) can compete in the same league. Bob Hoskins portrays the part of the London Gangster superbly. With a strong cast, this film had all the makings of a winner. There have since been many british gangster films ie. Snatch, Lock Stock, Sexy Beast etc but for me this film will always be the greatest gangster film ever made.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This was the first British ganster movie I ever saw, and I was blown away by the acting, storyline, and direction.
The only film that can challenge this monster of a movie is Get Carter(1971)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of the finest British films ever made
The Long Good Friday was and still is a great piece of British Cinema. After watching the film after a good many years it still holds the power to shock, amuse and thrill. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lord Anon
Know your Limits!
The Long good Friday is a true masterpiece. A film with a great plot, cast, music score and direction. Read more
Published 10 months ago by j.r
"I'll crush them like beetles!"
So says Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) when he hears that a rival criminal organisation is moving in to take over his manor - the whole of London. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Honest Accountant
Best British film ever ever ever
First saw this film over 20 years ago. Still as good now as it was then, if not better because of its 80's realism. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2005 by Alan Gregory
Without doubt the best british film ....................EVER
Oh my word ....... BUY THIS FILM!!! Im sorry but i cant understand why amazon are only charging £8 for the best british film ever! Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2005
The Best British Gangster Movie
Long before Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels existed the quintesential (and still the best) british gangster movie. Read more
Published on 1 May 2003 by Mr. J. C. Healy
gangs of new york
gangs of new york is an excellent film and this is what you would expect from a great directer such as MS although the middle does drag a little everything combines into a great... Read more
Published on 4 April 2003 by "stuffjunkie"
An excellent early UK gangster film
An interesting film, an early prototype for the more recent UK-based gangster genre. Bob Hoskins is very effective as the schizophrenic London hood. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2001
'Cor Blimey guv'nor East meets Fist.
This is one of the best gangland films about. It has pace, style and Bob Hoskins. What more can you ask for! Well if you asked for more you'd have it. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2000
The best gangster movie ever with an uneasy touch of realism
Few gangster movies leave the audience with the feeling that this might just be real but the Long Good Friday does so in large quantities. Read more
Published on 20 April 2000
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