Review of The Long Good Friday (1980) by Will S — 26 Nov 2007

Made by George Harrison's company Handmade Films in the early eighties, this is one of those rare things, a British gangster film. Bob Hoskins is like a younger, scarier Danny DeVito. The best moments in the film are those in which we just hold on his face; we see him change his mind and suffer, and it's so personal and so close that it's painful and weirdly inspiring.

Helen Mirren, the only significant female presence in the film, is wonderful (and looks incredibly like Laura Dern). The score tries to ruin the film, sounding something like Manheim Steamroller jogging music.

It chugs along at inappropriate moments and the Casio strings are sort of cloying. There's a fantastic scene that takes place in a meat-freezer, and a great, classic confrontation towards the end (watch closely so you don't miss Hoskins slitting an associate's throat with a bottleneck.

..it's really a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment). I could have done without the banal religious imagery, as if every gangster film has to acknowledge the existence of the church as an opposite extreme in human behavior (and the Godfather-esque duality of man theme really has no place in this movie at all).

Overall, I don't know what it's saying, but it's fun and occasionally pretty exciting.