The Long Good Friday is a 1980 British gangster film directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, the film, set in London, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including mid-level political and police corruption and IRA fund-raising. The supporting cast features Eddie Constantine, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, P. H. Moriarty, Paul Freeman and Pierce Brosnan in his film debut.
The film was completed in 1979, but because of delays, it did not have a general release until early 1981.Mark Duguid "Long Good Friday, The (1979)", BFI Screenonline It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, and gave Hoskins his breakthrough – he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and won an Evening Standard Film Award for his performance as gangster Harold Shand.
The Long Good Friday is recognised as an all-time cinema classic. It placed number 21 on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films list, and Empire ranked it 19th on their list of the 100 best British films.
Plot
A man, Colin, delivers a large sum of cash to an unknown recipient in Belfast, by suitcase, in the process helping himself to some of the cash. Colin then goes to a bar with his driver Phil, where he picks up a young man. As the recipients of the cash counts the money in a country farmhouse, searching for the missing amount that Colin took, uniformed gunmen attack them. Back at the bar, the young man Colin has picked up goes out to the car with Phil, where they are immediately ambushed and abducted. Phil and the young man are killed and dumped on a country road.
Back in London, Phil's body is delivered by train. As his widow travels through London by car she sees a man, Jeff, sitting in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant having lunch with a corrupt councillor, Harris. She gets out and spits on him. Jeff is Harold Shand's right-hand man. The spitting incident is witnessed with concern by Razors, Harold's driver and enforcer. Harold is a London firm gangster who aspires to become a legitimate businessman. He returns from a trip to the US and is met by Jeff at Heathrow airport. Razors then takes Harold's mother in Harold's Rolls Royce to church to mark Good Friday, while Harold and his girlfriend Victoria hold a party on their boat by Tower Bridge for various London politicians, officials and policemen, designed both to curry favour for a casino project Harold wants to develop and impress American businessmen he is trying to persuade to invest in his concept for the redevelopment of the London Docklands. Colin meanwhile is at a swimming pool where a young man flirts with him; however the man is an assassin who, with an accomplice, stabs Colin to death in the showers.
As Eric, Harold's driver, starts the Rolls Royce outside the church, waiting to collect Harold's mum, a car bomb goes off, killing him. Unaware that a campaign against him has started, Harold continues holding his party on the boat. Coming on too brash and pushy, Harold gets off on the wrong foot with Charlie, one of the two American businessmen. When the guests have departed, Harold is informed of the car explosion and becomes apoplectic. He immediately demands answers as to who could be responsible, asking for Colin, his long-term friend and close accomplice. Harold is soon informed that Colin has been killed.
Harold is then told that a bomb was planted at his casino, but failed to detonate. He summons the senior police officer on his payroll, Parky, making him reveal his informer, and then, with his henchmen, sets out to investigate. Harold leaves Victoria to entertain the Americans and ensure they do not suspect the chaos engulfing him. However as Harold, Victoria, Councillor Harris, Jeff and the Americans arrive at one of Harold's pubs, where an elaborate banquet has been prepared for them, there is a large explosion, which they narrowly avoid. Harold ascertains that, a couple of days before the explosion, a couple of suspicious Irishmen had visited, but at this stage does not suspect the IRA. Harold tells Jeff that he suspects Colin was jealous of him (Jeff) and may be involved in what is happening
Victoria takes the Americans to an expensive London restaurant with Jeff and Councillor Harris. The Americans tell Victoria to tell them what is happening or they will leave immediately. She reveals that they are under attack by an unknown enemy but assures them Harold will quickly resolve the matter. They agree to give Harold one more chance. Harris is drunk and boorish at the dinner, and in front of Victoria, in response to her put downs of him, accuses Jeff of being the 'real bastard'. Returning to her apartment after dinner, Jeff makes a sexual advance on Victoria, which she rejects.
Harold and his men round up gangsters from across London, putting them upside down on meat hooks in an abattoir for questioning. Jeff behaves strangely during this, starting to punch one of the captives as he is speaking, having to be restrained by Harold. Parky then appears and tells Harold the London gangsters are not involved, and from analysis of the bomb it looks like the work of the IRA. Harold cannot comprehend why the IRA would be involved. Parky tells Harold that explosives used to attack him were stolen from Harris's demolition firm, but that the security guard is too scared to give evidence. Jeff making an advance on her, and Harris's statement about him being the 'real bastard' have caused Victoria to lose trust in Jeff, and suspect that he is involved in the attacks on Harold. Despite Harold becoming angry and aggressive due to stress, Victoria remains loyal to him, and she shares both her fear and suspicions about Jeff.
Harold sends his men to investigate the explosives storage facility. However, the security guard has been brutally murdered. Harold starts to suspect both that it is the work of the IRA and that he has been betrayed by someone in his inner circle. He goes to see the widow who spat in Jeff's face, Carol, and she confirms that Jeff has been involved in money-trafficking with the IRA, without Harold's knowledge, and he recruited her husband Phil as a driver. Harold confronts Jeff on his boat. Jeff confesses that, under pressure from Harris, he sent Colin and Phil to Belfast to deliver money to the IRA on Harris's behalf. Jeff explains that three of the IRA's top men were killed on the same night the money was delivered. Harold then realises the IRA have concluded that, because Colin is his man, he must have sold them out to the security forces and pocketed the missing cash, so they are now targeting him. Harold further confirms that Jeff was likely involved in the killing of the security guard who could have told Harold that it was the IRA who were coercing him. Jeff tells Harold it is futile to fight the IRA and he should work with them as they are too strong. Harold vows to destroy the IRA in London; however, when Jeff provokes him by telling him he is 'nothing' to the IRA, Harold realises that Jeff has betrayed him and glasses him to death in a rage.
Harold, in a fury, wants to kill Harris immediately for his betrayal, but Victoria talk him out of it. Instead, she tells him to exploit his advantage over Harris to gain control of the situation. Harold calms down and confronts Harris, who reluctantly sets up a meeting with the IRA's London leadership at a stock car racetrack. In the IRA's office, Harold offers them £60,000 in return for a ceasefire. The IRA chief appears to accept this offer. However, as he is counting the money, Harold has them and Harris shot and killed. Believing his enemies are dead and the problem solved, he goes to the Savoy Hotel and triumphantly informs Charlie and his assistant Tony, only to find the Americans preparing to leave, having been spooked by the carnage. In response, Harold berates them and the Mafia he associates them with for their arrogance and dismisses them as cowards that he could take care of anytime.
Leaving the hotel, Harold steps into his car, only to find it has been commandeered by IRA assassins. He sees Victoria held captive in another car. As the car drives through London, the assassin who killed Colin smirks as he keeps his gun trained on him. Harold reflects on his predicament, ultimately even smiling ruefully.
Cast
Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand Helen Mirren as Victoria Dave King as Parky Bryan Marshall as Councillor George Harris Derek Thompson as Jeff Eddie Constantine as Charlie Paul Freeman as Colin P. H. Moriarty as Razors Stephen Davies as Tony Brian Hall as Alan Alan Ford as Jack Paul Barber as Erroll Pauline Melville as Dora Patti Love as Carol Nigel Humphreys as Dave Karl Howman as David Gillian Taylforth as Sherry George Coulouris as Gus Trevor Laird as Jim Roy Alon as Captain Death Tony Rohr as O'Flaherty Pierce Brosnan and Daragh O'Malley as IRA men Leo Dolan as Phil Dexter Fletcher as Kid Kevin McNally as Irish youth Susie Silvey as Erroll's girlfriend (uncredited)
Production Development Barrie Keeffe later said he wrote the film "on a whim" after looking at the movie section on a long weekend and not seeing any films he wanted to watch; he thought about what movie he would watch, and came up with an English gangster picture. Keeffe went out to dinner with Barry Hanson, who had produced a play of Keeffe's for television, and Hanson was enthusiastic about the idea of a British gangster movie.
A drive around the London Docklands inspired Keeffe to use that as a setting for his gangster hero, Harold Shand. The plot about American financiers was based on attempts by the Kray brothers to get the Mafia to invest in Britain. A visit to an Irish pub led to Keeffe coming up with the idea of the IRA clashing with a gangster.
The original title was The Paddy Factor.Bloody Business: The Making of The Long Good Friday, documentary film, 2006 Hanson worked for Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television. Euston did not make the film, but Hanson bought the rights for his own company, Calendar Films.
Hanson designed the film for the cinema and all contracts were negotiated under a film, not a TV, agreement, but the production was eventually financed by Black Lion, a subsidiary of Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment for transmission via Grade's ATV on the ITV network. The film was commissioned by Charles Denton, at the time both programme controller of ATV and managing director of Black Lion.
Casting Although he wasn't a big star at that time, the role of Harold Shand was written with Bob Hoskins in mind. The role was Hoskins' breakout role and made him a star.
The film established Helen Mirren as a British film star.
The Long Good Friday was the film debut of Pierce Brosnan, then 25. It was also the final role of George Coulouris.
Filming locations
St Katharine Docks Civic Centre, Dagenham Isle of Dogs Heathrow Airport Paddington tube station Savoy Hotel Morden Swimming Baths, Morden, Surrey The Salisbury pub, Harringay Harringay Stadium St George in the East Ladywell Leisure Centre, Lewisham St Patrick's Catholic Church, Wapping Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth No.1 London WallThe building was used in the scene when Harold and Victoria return to their flat. It was the offices of Orion Bank.
Reception Release and box office The film screened at the Cannes, Edinburgh and London Film Festivals in 1980."Producer seeks a £ 1m buyer...": news report in movie trade magazine Screen International, 22 November 1980. After Grade saw the finished film, he allegedly objected to what he saw as its glorification of the IRA. He was also concerned about the IRA attacking any cinemas where the film played.