The Long Good Friday (1980) – Film Review

Director: John Mackenzie
Cast: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

The music. The script. The acting. The direction. Occasionally all these things come together perfectly and create something really special. That was certainly the case with The Long Good Friday.

British cinema has produced its fair share of brilliant crime thrillers over the years, from Brighton Rock to Get Carter, and director John Mackenzie’s 1980 classic deserves to stand alongside them.

Bob Hoskins plays Harold Shand, a London gangster trying to go legit by developing London’s then-dilapidated Docklands area, albeit via investment from a shady American with links to organised crime.

“An enemy of the IRA”

However, Harold’s dream looks set to be shattered when his organisation is targeted by bombers for reasons he doesn’t initially understand. Eventually, over the course of the titular day, he pieces together the fact that thanks to the machinations of someone close to him, he’s inadvertently made an enemy of the IRA – a group who may be too big even for him to tackle on his own manor.

Hoskins is electrifying as Shand; he may have played many memorable roles after The Long Good Friday, but none were as powerful as this. He’s matched by Helen Mirren as Shand’s classy girlfriend Victoria. She signed up for the project on the understanding that the character would be far more than just as gangster’s moll; Victoria gives Shand style and class, as Mirren does for the film itself.

Other faces to look out for include Derek Thompson, who’s about as far away from his Casualty alter ego Charlie Fairhead as he can get, and Paul Freeman, whose character’s murder marks the start of Shand’s nightmare. A young Pierce Brosnan also pops up as an Irish assassin in his film debut.

“Taut screenplay”

Barrie Keeffe’s taut screenplay, which wastes none of the 1hr 45mins runtime, and Francis Monkman’s unforgettable, atmospheric score are also crucial to the production’s success, while views of London’s Docklands before the developers moved in make it, in a weird way, an important historical document.

The disc’s special features include a fascinating ‘making-of’ documentary, which was clearly produced some time ago (Hoskins, who has been dead for a decade is among the talking heads), but nevertheless offers wonderful insights into what went on behind the scenes – including the fact that it almost didn’t make it to our screens due to some of its backers believing it was too violent.

Well, it is violent, but it does take place in a gangster’s world; better to show that realistically rather than risking giving a false impression by depicting villains as lovable rogues.

And if you only watch one scene, make it the last one, an oft-copied but never bettered moment in which Shand realises what fate has in store – it’s a masterclass in acting from the much-missed Hoskins.