The Long Good Friday

The Long Good Friday
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Mackenzie
Produced by	Barry Hanson
Written by	Barrie Keeffe
Starring	Bob Hoskins Helen Mirren Derek Thompson Bryan Marshall Eddie Constantine
Music by	Francis Monkman
Cinematography	Phil Meheux
Distributed by	Black Lion Films Handmade Films Paramount
Release date(s)	United Kingdom November 1980 United States 2 April 1982
Running time	114 min.
Language	English
Budget	£930,000

The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film. It was voted at number 21 in the British Film Institute's list of the top 100 British films of the 20th century, and provided Bob Hoskins with his breakthrough film role.

Plot

The film's protagonist is Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins), an old fashioned 1960s-style London gangster who in the late 1970s is aspiring to become a legitimate businessman, albeit with the financial support of the American Mafia, with a plan to redevelop the then-disused London Docklands as a venue for a future Olympic Games. The storyline weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including low-level political and police corruption, Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) gun-running, the displacement of traditional British industry by property development, Britain's membership of the EEC (later the European Union) and the free market economy – the latter was strongly in the ascendant at the time the film was made, in the first year of the Thatcher government.

Harold is the undisputed ruling kingpin of the London underworld, when his world is suddenly torn apart by a series of murders and exploding bombs from an unseen foe. Uncovering his enemy's identity forms much of the film's subsequent plotline. His ruthless and violent pursuit of leads only points out the small-time tawdriness of the organisation he hopes to legitimise.

The story seems to hinge upon an act of betrayal by one of Harold's closest aides, the implications of which only become clear near the film's climax, when the solution to the mystery is suggested though not spelled out. He acts on the information with the same brutality that took him to the pinnacle of the London underworld in the first place, but his enemies this time follow motivations different from those of his local rivals.

The American Mafia representatives, led by actor Eddie Constantine, decide to leave England because of all the killings but Harold is determined to stay and go into business with a German consortium, saying that he will become a legitimate businessman. When he leaves their hotel, he gets into his car, which he thinks is being driven by his chauffeur but in fact has been taken over by two IRA men. The car then sharply pulls out from the hotel zone. Harold realises that his girlfriend, Victoria, is not in the car and sees her in the back of another car being driven away by armed men. Harold finds himself at gunpoint from the front seat passenger (a then-unknown Pierce Brosnan). As the car speeds away Harold is silent, but in his face we see a full range of emotions; at first astonishment which gives way to anger and then a slow realization that he is powerless and finally resignation to the fact that he is moments from death.

Production

The film was directed by John Mackenzie and produced for £930,000 by Barry Hanson from a script by Barrie Keeffe, with a soundtrack by the composer Francis Monkman; it was screened at the Cannes, Edinburgh and London Film Festivals in 1980.

The original story had been written by Keeffe for Hanson when the latter worked for Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television. Euston did not make the movie but Hanson bought the rights from Euston for his own company Calendar Films. Although Hanson designed the film for the cinema and all contracts were negotiated under a movie, not a TV agreement, the movie was eventually financed by Black Lion, a subsidiary of Lord Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment for transmission via Grade's Associated TeleVision (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. After Grade saw the finished film, he allegedly objected to what he saw as the glorification of the IRA. The film was scheduled for transmission with heavy cuts on 24 March 1981.

In late 1980, Hanson attempted to buy the film back from ITC to prevent ITV screening the film with these cuts which he said would be "execrable". and added up to "about 75 minutes of film that was literal nonsense". It was also reported at the same time that Bob Hoskins was suing both Black Lion and Calendar Films to prevent their planned release of a US TV version in which Hoskins' voice would be dubbed by English Midlands actor David Daker.

Before the planned ITV transmission the rights to the film were bought from ITC by George Harrison's company, Handmade Films, for around £200,000 less than the production costs. They gave the movie a cinema release.

Locations

The film was shot on location around London including:

• Heathrow Airport – Harold is seen arriving in London after having disembarked from Concorde there.
• St Katharine Docks – Harold's yacht is moored on the Thames at this location.
• St George in the East (Church of England) Church – used for exterior shots of the church where Harold's mother goes to a service and where his Rolls Royce is blown up in the churchyard, killing his/his mother's chauffeur.
• St Patrick’s Church (RC), Greenbank, Wapping – used for the interior scenes of the Church service.
• Canary Wharf/West India Docks is the venue for Harold's proposed marina development. The future location of One Canada Square is clearly visible as his yacht tours the site. There is also a small model of the proposed development in Harold's yacht.
• Paddington station.
• King George V Dock in the Royal Docks, now the site of London City Airport – Harold has a meeting here.
• The Savoy Hotel – where Harold meets the American Mafia towards the end of the film.
• Wigmore Street.
• The Salisbury pub, 1 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Harringay – used to represent Fagan's Pub in Belfast.
• The Lion and Unicorn pub, was a set built for the film in Wapping. Hoskins has said that they used to get members of the public knocking on the door asking if it was open. It is blown up in the film.
• The Governor General pub – where Harold finds Billy (Nick Stringer) – is the Waterman's Arms, a Thames-side pub at 1 Glenaffric Avenue on the Isle of Dogs.
• Harringay Stadium, Green Lanes, Harringay, a greyhound racing stadium at the time, now the site of a superstore – the banger racing scenes were shot here.

Cast notes

The film includes a large number of performances by young actors who later became famous.

• Paul Barber (Denzil in Only Fools and Horses and Horse from The Full Monty) plays Errol the Ponce, a police informant who is visited by Harold and his intimidating associate Razors.
• Pierce Brosnan, in his first film role, appears as an IRA hitman.
• Dexter Fletcher is the boy who asks for money to watch Harold's car.
• Karl Howman (Jacko in Brush Strokes) appears as a young Detective Sergeant who enjoys socialising with the criminal fraternity.
• Kevin McNally, star of many films and TV programmes, is seen in a Belfast bar scene.
• P.H. Moriarty ("Razors") and Alan Ford appear as members of Shand's gang. Both would later play chief villains in Guy Ritchie films.
• Daragh O'Malley, who plays Sergeant Patrick Harper in the series of TV movies based on Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series of historical novels, appears as Brosnan's fellow assassin.
• Gillian Taylforth, later of EastEnders fame, appears briefly as a young woman who finds the security guard nailed to the floor of a disused warehouse.
• Derek Thompson, who went on to find fame as Charlie Fairhead in medical drama Casualty appears as Harold's right-hand man, Jeff, who is killed by Harold in an argument on the latter's yacht.

External links

• The Long Good Friday at the Internet Movie Database
• The Long Good Friday at AllRovi
• The Long Good Friday at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Criterion Collection essay by Michael Sragow