Bob Hoskins gives his breakthrough film performance as British gangster Harold Shand in John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday. Harold is about to pull off a deal with the American mafia that will make him the king of the London crime scene, when suddenly his associates start getting bumped off and his hangouts bombed. Harold and his crew, including Helen Mirren as his loving but firm dame Victoria, must find the culprits before their deal falls through and/or they themselves end up six feet under. Hoskins lights up the screen as the pugnacious yet tender crime boss, looking the part of a brutish, suit clad English Bulldog, setting a high standard for his illustrious career.
“This movie is one amazing piece of work, not only for the Hoskins performance but also for the energy of the filmmaking, the power of the music, and, oddly enough, for the engaging quality of its sometimes very violent sense of humor. 4 Stars” – Roger Ebert
“Hoskins’ bullish, black-comic Napoleonism makes this movie: pugnacious, sentimental, a cockney Cagney.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“A swift, sharp-edged gangster story in a classic mold … The Long Good Friday charts a perilous course through a world of powerful people, ghastly acts of vengeance and ominously shifting fortunes.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Kim Morgan discusses The Long Good Friday on the New Beverly blog.
