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Features: DVD
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 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.
"Explosive and original." Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
"Brutal and brilliant...A benchmark British gangster classic!" Empire Magazine
"Engrossing and influential..." Gary Panton, Movie Gazette
"Nothing short of a masterpiece...Hoskins makes Brando's Godfather look like Mr. Rogers!" Richard Freedman, NewHouse Newspapers
"...amazing...a masterful piece of filmmaking!" Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Editor's Note
John Mackenzie's rabidly engaging, complex gangster film concerns the demise of a dominant English racketeer, Harold (Bob Hoskins), who is about to change his image and go straight. While negotiating a deal with an American organized crime organization to develop the barren Docklands section of London, his associates begin to turn up dead, and the tough Cockney businessman realizes that getting out will be more difficult than he had anticipated. This extremely tight British thriller made Hoskins a star.
Plot Summary
London underworld gangster Harold Shand controls a criminal empire built on every vice except narcotics. Even his gun moll, Victoria, is a vision of class. For his next racket, Shand plans to buy up moribund London dock yards and redevelop them for the 1988 olympics. Yet on Good Friday when Shand meets with an American Mafia chief to seal their financial partnership, somebody kills two of his right-hand men, attempts to murder his mother, and blows his favorite pub to high heaven. Directed by John Mackenzie and written by Barrie Keefe, this engaging complicated melodrama shows a man trying to control his animal urges and to act like a civic minded business man. He detests anarchy and tries to use violence only as a tool. Eventually he is doomed because his brand of capitalism can't defend itself against the terrorism of the IRA.
| Features | Audio Commentary With Director John Mackenzie | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono | | Cockney Slang Glossary | | DVD-ROM Feature: Screenplay | | Featurette: Bloody Business - Making Of The Long Good Friday | | Interactive Menus | | Original British & American Theatrical Trailers | | Poster & Still Gallery | | Scene Selection | | Talent Bios |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 9/3/2007 |
| Running Time: 109 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1979 | | Catalog ID: 12342 | | UPC: 00013131234299 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (1982) | | | British Academy Awards, Bob Hoskins, Best Actor |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...[An] absorbing, fast-paced narrative....Some nicely observed performances..." 05/28/1980New York Times
"...THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY is a swift, sharp-edged gangster story in a classic mold....Surprising, suspenseful drama..." 04/02/1982 p.C12 USA Today
"...The movie's IRA subplot makes it a juicy companion piece to John Boorman's great new Irish mob pic THE GENERAL..." 12/11/1998 p.8E Sight and Sound
"...This still holds up as one of the few British gangster films with the same intensity and drive as the best Hollywood has to offer..." 08/01/2002 p.60 Entertainment Weekly
"Hoskins is pure fire. It's the signature performance in a criminally underappreciated career." -- Grade: A 04/14/2006 p.69 Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "John MacKenzie's masterful thriller features a career-best performance from Bob Hoskins..." 10/01/2006 p.115 Variety 8 of 10
In many respects a conventional thriller set in London's underworld, The Long Good Friday is much more densely plotted and intelligently scripted than most such yarns...Bob Hoskins displays natural, and sizable, big-screen presence, and works out first-rate in the anchor role of a gangland boss faced with a series of seemingly gratuitous reprisals by unknown ill-wishers against his waterfront empire...He starts as a larger-than-life figure, confidently negotiating American finance for a massive land development project. But Hoskins' overweening exterior crumples as some of his best men are murdered...When it becomes clear that his adversary is the provisional Irish Republican Army, he pits his Mafia-style muscle against the IRA's professional terrorism...The narrative is steered competently, but visual style is too stolid to lend due gut-impact.
Apollo Movie Guide 9 of 10
As a rule, gangster films are built around a charismatic central figure with whose nefarious quests we are encouraged to identify. It is one of the perverse pleasures of film that we are allowed to empathise with characters whom we would rather cross the street than meet in "real life." Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is just such a character...This role was built for Bob Hoskins. His bulldog face and ferocious intensity perfectly serve the character of Harold. He is so firmly convinced that his cause is righteous, we are easily seduced into rooting for Harold's scheme...While not of the same thematic or cinematic sophistication as the Godfather films (this film lacks the narrative depth and visual appeal), The Long Good Friday boasts a smart, streetwise script by Barrie Keefe to go along with a handful of incendiary performances. Besides Hoskins, the thinking man's sex symbol, Helen Mirren, epitomizes the cool moll as Harold's girlfriend Victoria, while Dave King as Parky and a very young Pierce Brosnan as an IRA assassin give memorable turns...Empire Magazine, in an interesting series of head-to-head contests that included competition like Trainspotting and Withnail and I, named The Long Good Friday the best English film ever made. While this may be hyperbolic, Bob Hoskins undoubtedly delivers one of modern cinemas great performances. - Dan Jardine
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