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The Long Good Friday (Special Edition) [DVD] [1979]
 
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The Long Good Friday (Special Edition) [DVD] [1979]

DVD ~ Bob Hoskins
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Long Good Friday (Special Edition) [DVD] [1979]
56% buy the item featured on this page:
The Long Good Friday (Special Edition) [DVD] [1979] 4.8 out of 5 stars (11)
The Long Good Friday [1981] [DVD] [1979]
17% buy
The Long Good Friday [1981] [DVD] [1979] 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)
£2.98
The Long Good Friday - 25th Anniversary [1979] [DVD]
14% buy
The Long Good Friday - 25th Anniversary [1979] [DVD] 4.9 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.98
The Long Good Friday [1981] [DVD] [1979]
7% buy
The Long Good Friday [1981] [DVD] [1979] 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
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Product details

  • Actors: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman, Leo Dolan, Kevin McNally
  • Directors: John Mackenzie
  • Writers: Barrie Keeffe
  • Producers: Barry Hanson, Chris Griffin, Denis O'Brien, George Harrison
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English, French
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 10 Jun 2002
  • Run Time: 109 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000067NQM
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 26,546 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

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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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Have a Bloody Mary, 22 Oct 2002
By Number 6 (The Village) - See all my reviews
  
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.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Long Good Friday, 1 Sep 2003
This review is from: The Long Good Friday [VHS] [1979] (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.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING, 11 Feb 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Long Good Friday [VHS] [1979] (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

5.0 out of 5 stars The Long Good Friday
Watching this again after several years is like experiencing an episode of Life On Mars, only vastly superior. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2007 by papaya bueno

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars '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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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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