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. It received positive reviews from critics, and Hoskins 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. It was number 21 on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films list and provided Hoskins with his breakthrough film role. In 2016, British film magazine Empire ranked The Long Good Friday 19th on its list of the 100 best British films.

Plot

A man delivers a large sum of cash to an unknown recipient in Belfast and in the process takes some of it for himself. As the recipients count the money in a country farmhouse, uniformed gunmen attack them. Soon afterwards Phil, the driver for the delivery, is kidnapped and killed. Later, the delivery man, Colin, is murdered at a London swimming pool.

Harold Shand, a London firm gangster, aspires to become a legitimate businessman and is trying to form a partnership with Charlie, an American mafioso, with a plan to redevelop London Docklands in association with local construction boss Councillor Harris. Shand's world is suddenly destabilised by a series of bomb attacks on his property and murders of his associates, including his old friend Colin. Shand and his henchmen try to uncover the attackers' identities by threatening corrupt police officers, informers and other criminals, whilst simultaneously trying not to worry their American visitors, who they fear will abandon Shand if they think he is not in full control. Shand's girlfriend, Victoria, tells the Americans Shand is under attack by an unknown enemy but assures them he will quickly resolve the matter. She starts to suspect that Shand's right-hand man, Jeff, knows who is behind the attacks.

After some investigation, Shand confronts Jeff, who confesses that under pressure from Harris, he sent Colin and Phil to Belfast to deliver money to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on Harris's behalf. He explains that three of the IRA's top men were killed on the same night the money was delivered. Shand realises the IRA have concluded that he sold them out to the security forces and pocketed the missing cash, and are targeting his organisation in revenge. Vowing to destroy the IRA in London, he accidentally kills Jeff in a rage.

After confronting Harris, Shand sets up a meeting with the IRA's London leadership at a stock car racetrack. He ostensibly offers the IRA £60,000 in return for a ceasefire but double crosses them and has them and Harris shot as they are counting the cash. Believing his enemies are dead and the problem solved, Shand travels to the Savoy Hotel to triumphantly inform Charlie and his assistant Tony, only to find the Americans preparing to leave, having been spooked by the carnage. In response to their derisory comments about the UK, Shand berates them for their arrogance and dismisses them as cowards.

Leaving the hotel, Shand steps into his chauffeur-driven car only to find it has been commandeered by IRA assassins. He sees Victoria also kidnapped in another car. As his car speeds to an unknown destination, Shand silently comes to terms with his fate.

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. Hanson was enthusiastic about the idea of a gangster movie.

A drive around the London Docklands inspired Keeffe to use that as a setting for his gangster hero. 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. Hanson worked for Euston Films,

HandMade Films

The film screened at the Cannes, Edinburgh and London Film Festivals in 1980.

After Grade saw the finished film, he allegedly objected to what he saw as its glorification of the IRA.

The film was scheduled to be televised with heavy cuts on 24 March 1981. (The company would later do this for another Mackenzie film, A Song of Freedom.)

Reception

Box office

According to Colin Dunn of Handmade Films, the film came close to breaking even on the British market, "but not close enough: you’ve really got to go some with this territory for a film to be viable."

Critical

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads "Bob Hoskins commands a deviously sinister performance in The Long Good Friday—a gangster flick with ferocious intelligence, tight plotting, and razor-edged thrills."

Awards and nominations

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Award

! Year

! Category

!Nominee

! Result

|-

|British Academy Film Award

|1982

|Best Actor in a Leading Role

|Bob Hoskins

|

|-

|Edgar Award

|1983

|Best Motion Picture Screenplay

|Barrie Keeffe

|

|-

|Evening Standard British Film Award

|1982

|Best Actor

|Bob Hoskins

|

|-

|Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award

|1982

|Best Foreign Film

|John Mackenzie

|

|}

The Long Good Friday was number 21 on the British Film Institute's list of the "BFI Top 100 British films" list. In 2016, Empire ranked The Long Good Friday 19th on its list of "The 100 Best British films". The film was never made. In one of his last interviews, Keeffe seemed unconcerned by that: "In some ways, I’m glad we didn't, because sequels are usually diminishing returns. To put it up there with Casablanca, no one wants Casablanca II."

Bibliography

Notes

References

  • The Long Good Friday an essay by Michael Sragow at The Criterion Collection