The Long Good Friday


The Long Good Friday is a 1980 British gangster film directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, the film, set in London, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including mid-level political and police corruption and IRA fund-raising. The supporting cast features Eddie Constantine, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, P. H. Moriarty, Paul Freeman and Pierce Brosnan in his film debut.
The film was completed in 1979, 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] and won an Evening Standard Film Award for his performance as gangster Harold Shand. It was number 21 on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films list and provided Hoskins with his breakthrough film role. In 2016, British film magazine Empire 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 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 London swimming pool.
Harold Shand, a London firm 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 in association with local construction boss Councillor 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. Shand 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 Harris, he sent Colin and Phil to Belfast to deliver money to the Provisional Irish Republican Army 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 racetrack. He ostensibly offers the IRA £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 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 silently comes to terms with his fate.

Cast

Development

Barrie Keeffe later said he wrote the film "on a whim" after looking at the movie section on a long weekend and not seeing any films he wanted to watch; he thought about what movie he would watch, and came up with an English gangster picture. Keeffe went out to dinner with Barry Hanson, who had produced a play of Keeffe's for television. Hanson was enthusiastic about the idea of a gangster movie.
A drive around the London Docklands inspired Keeffe to use that as a setting for his gangster hero. The plot about American financiers was based on attempts by the Kray brothers to get the Mafia to invest in Britain. A visit to an Irish pub led to Keeffe coming up with the idea of the IRA clashing with a gangster.
The original title was The Paddy Factor. Hanson worked for Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television. 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's ITC Entertainment 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.

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 actor David Daker. Ultimately, Hoskins' voice was not dubbed.
The Long Good Friday was the film debut of Pierce Brosnan, then 25. It was also the final role of George Coulouris.

Filming locations

The film screened at the Cannes, Edinburgh and London Film Festivals in 1980.
After Grade saw the finished film, he allegedly objected to what he saw as its glorification of the IRA. He was also concerned about the IRA attacking any cinemas where the film played.
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'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.

Reception

Box office

According to Colin Dunn of Handmade Films, the film came close to breaking even on the British market, "but not close enough: you’ve really got to go some with this territory for a film to be viable."

Critical

On Rotten Tomatoes, 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 British Film Institute's list of the "BFI Top 100 British films" 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 Yardies 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."