Product Description

Academy Award® nominee Bob Hoskins delivers a ferocious performance as mobster Harold Shand, the all-powerful boss of the London underworld. But on the day he is about to close the ultimate deal with an American crime family, Shand’s empire suddenly — and literally — begins to explode around him. Who would dare attack Britain’s most ruthless gangster? How far will he go to find the truth? And what is the deadly secret behind the havoc of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY? Oscar® nominee Helen Mirren (GOSFORD PARK, CALIGULA), tough guy icon Eddie Constantine (ALPHAVILLE), and Pierce Brosnan (in one of his first film roles) co-star in this now-classic crime drama that critics compare to THE GODFATHER and SCARFACE as one of the greatest gangster films of all time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29966 in DVD
• Brand: Anchor
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .15 pounds
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire, and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins's career-making turn as a London mobster courting respectability and Helen Mirren's subtly detailed performance as his upper-crust mistress. Cockney wiseguy Harold Shand is a would-be burgher whose domination of the city's underworld stems from his shrewdness as a mediator and his skill at harnessing political and economic clout. As Easter approaches, he's poised to launch an aggressive real estate development scheme along the depressed Thames waterfront when all hell breaks loose: a trusted lieutenant is brutally murdered, Shand's mother is nearly killed in a car bombing, one of his pubs is blown apart, and the visiting American don crucial to the pending deal is quickly growing wary.

Barrie Keeffe's original screenplay keeps the viewer a step ahead of Shand, providing us with a telling but teasingly incomplete glimpse of the misstep by his underlings that has set chaos loose. At the same time, Keeffe underlines the bourgeois pretensions of the rough-hewn, barrel-chested Shand, how the elegant Victoria (Mirren) helps serve those ambitions, and the myriad parallels between Shand's minions and the local politicians and police only too willing to join in his scheme. Tart, funny dialogue and alternately playful and pungent Eastertide imagery complete Keeffe's shrewd design--two key scenes, in a meat locker and a warehouse, invoke the Crucifixion itself.

Even with lesser performances, the script and John Mackenzie's solid direction would make The Long Good Friday a keeper, but Hoskins's explosive portrait of Shand and his descent toward brutal revenge elevates the film into the very front rank, earning admiring comparisons to The Godfather, Scarface, GoodFellas, and other classics of that genre. On DVD, Criterion's new digital transfer restores more than just the widescreen aspect ratio--the film has never looked better, even if an occasionally muddy sound mix survives to make the thick Cockney accents a challenge to decipher. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Must see high powered and provacative British gangster epic
Talented English director John MacKenzie knew that the English gangster genre needed a good shot in the arm...and he delivered the goods with this tightly scripted and brilliantly acted crime drama.

Bob Hoskins is outstanding as London mob boss, Harold Shand...masterminding a major construction development along the river Thames that will nett him, and his American backers, millions of pounds. Shand has everyone on his payroll...politicians, police and enforcers...but then suddenly everything starts to unravel, and Harolds world turns upside down in the space of a day. MacKenzie's film moves with intent and purpose and Barrie O'Keeffe's screenplay keeps the suspense at a finely tuned pitch. A terrific support cast headed by the sulrty Helen Mirren as Harold's wife, Victoria....Derek Thompson as the cowardly, opportunist Jeff....P.H. Moriarty as the aptly named bodyguard "Razors"....and Bryan Marshall as the drunken councillor, Harris, further contribute to the success of this challenging film.

Clever use of authentic London locations and creative cinematography lend a further hand to enhance the claustraphobic atmoshpere closing in upon Harold Shand and his crew...the viewer really feels through Hoskins emotional range, the unnerving pressure that is causing him to come apart at the seams. Excellent transfer to DVD...sound and color both superb...it's a pity that Criterion didn't add a few extra goodies that they usually package with their fine presentations.

A solidly crafted, gripping film with A grade performances by a splendid English cast...and keep your eyes open for a very youthful Pierce Brosnan in a minor role.

FOOTNOTE : MacKenzie also made another powerful movie three years prior in 1979 called "A Sense of Freedom"...based on the true story of Glasgow gangster, Jimmy Boyle, and his life in jail and out. It's a harrowing, gritty prison film that doesn't pull it's punches...unfortunately it's not on video or DVD at present...but hopefully it will return. Another A class crime film !!

STILL "EXPLOSIVE" AFTER 24 YEARS!
The second best ever Brit gangster movie is a brilliant energy-filled piece. Ritchie's "Lock, Stock..." is fine if you want a jokey gangster film bailed out by lucky coincidences, but this is the real thing, believable and intelligent.

What really raises this movie into the stratosphere is the bravura performance by Bob 'Oskins. The much-praised ending is riveting. Surely it's the most dazzling display of an actor's craft to hold in close facial shot for a prolonged time showing a variety of emotions cross the features? Hoskins does this to perfection, showing (at least) disbelief, anger, realization, fear, grim amusement and acceptance over a 90 second period, all the while set to pounding soundtrack and flickering lighting from passing streetlamps.

If you haven't seen this, do yourself a favor and buy the excellent DVD which also has some neat features.

Great film, shame about the dubbing.
Am i the only person to notice the shameless dubbing of a great film. I originally purchased the Region 2 version.Special Edition! I naturally expected the full uncut, un-edited, and certainly ud-dubbed version to be there.When the Criterion version came out i expected more but unfortunately it was the same. The worst part is that in the extras in an interview with Bob Hoskins and Barrie O'Keefe,Hoskins tells of how horrified he was on first seeing the original version released by the American studio and how they had dubbed his own voice to make him sound like 'a Geordie'(thats someone from Newcastle for any Americans who may be reading ).He was so outraged he threatened to sue the company.Eventually he managed to persuade Hand Made Films to buy the rights from the original owners.The only way to see the film as it was supposed to be seen is on VHS