''The Long Good Friday'' is a 1980 British

gangster film A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform certain illegal acts. The ...

directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. Starring

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor and film director. Known for his intense but sensitive portrayals of "tough guy" characters, he began his career on stage before making his screen breakthrough pl ...

and

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (; born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. With a career spanning over six decades of Helen Mirren on screen and stage, screen and stage, List of awards and nominations received by Helen Mirre ...

, the film, set in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including mid-level

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

police corruption Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which a law enforcement officer breaks their political contract and abuses their power for personal gain. A corrupt officer may act alone or as part of a group. Corrupt acts include taking ...

and IRA fund-raising. The supporting cast features

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine (born Israel Constantine; October 29, 1913 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of secret agent L ...

, Dave King,

Bryan Marshall Bryan Marshall (19 May 1938 – 25 June 2019) was a British actor, with a number of major credits in film and television to his name, in both Britain and Australia. Early life Marshall was born in Battersea, south London. He was educated at th ...

, Derek Thompson, P.H. Moriarty, Paul Freeman and

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...

in his film debut. The film was completed in 1979,Mark Dugui
"''Long Good Friday, The'' (1979)"
BFI Screenonline 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 Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognise an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in ...

and won an Evening Standard Film Award for his performance as gangster Harold Shand. It was number 21 on the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's Top 100 British films list and provided Hoskins with his breakthrough film role. In 2016, British film magazine ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' 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 Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

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

swimming pool. Harold Shand, a London 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 London Docklands is an area of London encompassing the city’s former docks. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, London ...

in association with local construction boss

Councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

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. He 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 Councillor Harris, he sent Colin and Phil to Belfast to deliver money to the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

(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 Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...

racetrack. He ostensibly offers them £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 The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1 ...

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 contemplates his fate.

Cast

as Harold Shand *

as Victoria * Dave King as Parky *

as Councillor George Harris * Derek Thompson as Jeff *

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 Nigel Humphreys (born 24 September 1950 in Bognor Regis, Sussex) is a British actor who is best known for his television work. His most prominent roles include Dickie Fleming in ''Coronation Street'' and PC Pete Dodds in '' Softly, Softly: Task ...

as Dave * Karl Howman as David * Gillian Taylforth as Sherry *

George Coulouris George Alexander Coulouris (1 October 1903 – 25 April 1989) was an English film and stage actor. He was perhaps best known for his collaborations with Orson Welles, most notably ''Citizen Kane''. Early life Of Anglo-Greek origin, Coulouris ...

as Gus *

Trevor Laird Trevor Laird (born 11 July 1957, London, England) is a British actor. Biography Born in Islington, London in 1957, Laird trained at the Anna Scher Theatre. Early roles included a 1976 role in a TV adaptation of the Peter Prince novel ''Pla ...

as Jim * Roy Alon as Captain Death *

Tony Rohr Harold Anthony Rohr (21 May 1939 – 29 October 2023) was an Irish actor. Career Rohr played Grandad in '' The Lakes'' and Solomon Featherstone in ''Middlemarch''. He also appeared in ''The Bill'', ''The Long Good Friday'', '' McVicar'', '' So ...

as O'Flaherty *

and Daragh O'Malley as IRA men * Leo Dolan as Phil *

Dexter Fletcher Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by th ...

as Kid *

Kevin McNally Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He began his acting career in the BBC TV adaptation of ''I, Claudius'' (1976), but is best known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fran ...

as Irish youth * Susie Silvey as Erroll's girlfriend (uncredited)

Production

The film was directed by John Mackenzie and produced for £930,000"''Association of Independent Producers' magazine'', September 1980. by Barry Hanson from a script by Barrie Keeffe, with a soundtrack by

Francis Monkman Anthony Francis Keigwin Monkman (9 June 1949 – 12 May 2023) was an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of both the progressive rock band Curved Air and the classical/rock fusion band Sky. Life and career ...

; it 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. Under the title ''The Paddy Factor'', Keeffe wrote the original story for Hanson when the latter worked for

Euston Films Euston Films is a British film and television production company. It was originally a subsidiary of Thames Television, and operated from 1971 to 1994, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network. Euston ...

, a subsidiary of

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

. 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 Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a Ukrainian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production ...

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in the production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme C ...

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. 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. Because of the planned cuts, in late 1980, Hanson attempted to buy the film back from ITC to prevent ITV from screening the film. The cuts, he said, were "execrable" and yielded "about 75 minutes of film that was literal nonsense". Before the planned ITV transmission,

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

's company, HandMade Films, bought the rights to the film from ITC for around £200,000 less than the production costs. It gave the film a cinema release.Robert Sellers, ''Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: The Inside Story of HandMade Films'', Metro, 2003, pp. 56–70.

Casting

The role of Harold Shand was written with Hoskins in mind. In 1981, it was reported that Hoskins was suing both Black Lion and Calendar Films to prevent their planned release of a US TV version in which his voice would be dubbed by

English Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshi ...

actor David Daker. Ultimately, Hoskins' voice was not dubbed. ''The Long Good Friday'' was the film debut of

, then 25. It was also the final role of

Filming locations

St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a former dock in the St Katherine and Wapping ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies in the East End of London, East End on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London an ...

* Civic Centre, Dagenham *

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Haml ...

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

* Paddington tube station *

* The Salisbury pub,

Harringay Harringay (pronounced ) is a district of north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is centred on the section of Green Lanes running between the New River, where it crosses Green Lanes by Finsbury Park, and Duckett's ...

Harringay Stadium Harringay Stadium was a major greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway venue in Harringay, north London. It was built and opened in 1927 and closed in 1987. Construction Harringay Stadium was the third greyhound racing stadium to open in Br ...

St George in the East St George-in-the-East is an Anglican Church dedicated to Saint George; located on Cannon Street Road, between The Highway and Cable Street, in the East End of London. Behind the church lies St George's Gardens, the original graveyard. Histor ...

* Ladywell Leisure Centre,

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

* St Patrick's Catholic Church,

Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...

Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth Town Hall is a municipal building on the corner of Wandsworth High Street and Fairfield Street in Wandsworth, London. The building, which is the headquarters of Wandsworth London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building. Histor ...

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

* 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

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 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

''The Long Good Friday'' was number 21 on the

's list of the "

BFI Top 100 British films In 1999, the British Film Institute surveyed 1,000 people from the world of British film and television to produce a list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. Voters were asked to choose up to 100 films that were " culturally British ...

" list. In 2016, ''Empire'' ranked ''The Long Good Friday'' 19th on its list of "The 100 Best British films".

Unproduced sequel

Keeffe wrote a sequel, ''Black Easter Monday'', set 20 years after the events of the first film. It opens with Shand escaping from the IRA after police pull his car over. Shand retires to Jamaica, then returns to stop the

Yardie Yardie (or Yaadi/Yawdie) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora, to refer to people of Jamaican origin; however, its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jama ...

s from taking over the East End. 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''."

Notes

References

External links

* * *
''The Long Good Friday''
an essay by

Michael Sragow Michael Sragow (born June 26, 1952) is an American film critic and columnist who has written for ''The Orange County Register'', ''The Baltimore Sun'', ''Film Comment'', the ''San Francisco Examiner'', ''The New Times'', ''The New Yorker'' (where ...

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Long Good Friday, The 1980 films 1980 crime drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s gang films 1980s mystery films British crime drama films British gangster films British mystery films Edgar Award–winning works Films about the American Mafia Films about corruption in the United Kingdom Films about the Irish Republican Army Films directed by John Mackenzie (film director) Films set in Belfast Films set in London Films shot in London HandMade Films films English-language crime drama films English-language mystery films