Review of Legend (2015) by Robert H — 14 Jun 2016

"Aristocrats and criminals have a lot in common: theyâ(TM)re both selfish, get bored easily and have access to wads of cash they didnâ(TM)t have to work honestly to get. The topper? Neither have any interest in bourgeois rules or morality. Put it all together with roulette wheels? A stunning recipe for success." Thus Frances Shea explains the success of her husband Reggie Kray and twin brother Ronnie in making 1960s London their underworld empire. She captures the amoral glamour of the Krays' rule, but understates the brutality. Both Kray brothers are played by Tom Hardy, a specialist in realizing shameless, even exhibitionist thugs. Reggie is Frances' handsome East End street fighter, the one who pretends and promises to be a legitimate casino owner, even as he bloodies his way across London. Ronnie is portrayed as openly homosexual in an era when this was still illegal in the UK. But the Krays never lack for impunity. One wonders whether Ronnie's apparent paranoid schizophrenia, the insistent and indiscriminate abusiveness that is more characteristic of him than his various boyfriends, is as related to his forbidden sexuality as his hardscrabble East End roots. Yet Frances is right: aristocratic ties make the Krays impossible to prosecute. They share in the ruling classes' impunity. All this brings nothing but frustration to Chris Eccleston's flat-footed Scotland Yard investigator, Nipper Reed, who lives to take down the underworld princes.

I've been fascinated by the Krays since seeing Peter Medak's haunting but unfinished-seeming The Krays, which focused more on the politics of working class and underworld masculinity, in particular the brand of misogyny that built into the tough guy identity.

Legend is at once more coherent and less artistically satisfying than The Krays. The storyline is complete and clear, the performances intense and engaging, the period music and costumes are pitch-perfect, but the film's retrospective voiceover condescends to the viewer more than it adds.