The Long Good Friday [1980]

February 27, 2025

If you’re looking for a gritty and authentic British gangster thriller, The Long Good Friday is a perfect choice. It’s got everything you would want from such a movie and more. We will be following Harold Shand, a powerful gang leader who’s about to close the deal of a lifetime. A deal that would finally see him go legit. However, a string of murders and explosions over the course of just three days will have him scrambling to save it. Will Harold survive and find out who’s out to get him is up to you to find out. In the lead roles, we find two legends, Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. Both of them gave magnificent performances.

Not as flashy as Guy Ritchie movies but more methodical, The Long Good Friday is more reminiscent of French neo-noir movies of the seventies with a distinctly British touch. Highly immersive camera work and attention to detail will take you back to the early eighties in London. While there are a lot of moving parts in this crime tale, we never get overwhelmed or confused. Add to this copious amounts of mystery and you’ve got a movie where you can’t wait to see the next scene. The pacing is deliberate and character development superb cementing The Long Good Friday as one of the best crime thrillers of the eighties. And you know the competition was quite stiff back then.

It perfectly balances the “artistic” elements with its mainstream appeal. For example, one of the best scenes in the movie is the one toward the end, where Hoskins is in a car with young Pierce Brosnan. He doesn’t say a word during this ride and yet we feel the tension and his emotion exploding within him. The first ten minutes were no different showing events and characters that are quite puzzling. Yet, all the juicy ingredients are there: a suitcase full of money, guns, and deadly robbers. Not to mention a couple of dead bodies. So, the question is how is this all connected to Harold Shand and the deal he’s hoping to close this Friday?

The entire story unfolds over the course of just three days making the atmosphere suspenseful and tight. In fact, this whole movie is tight as fuck. Moreover, Harold’s big plan actually did happen in real life, just eight years later, back in 1988. Two Americans, Michael von Clemm, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), and G Ware Travelstead, were the first to start developing Canary Wharf. While these two were the public faces of the transformation, I wonder how many shady characters invested in this highly lucrative project in the background.

Bob Hoskins was the perfect choice for the lead role. Built like a bulldog, his screen presence was only overshadowed by Hellen Mirren’s graceful and intelligent Victoria. Hoskins even received letters from one of the Britian’s most vicious criminals, Ronald Kray. I especially liked his authentic accent which took me back to my Only Fools and Horses days. Even Paul Barber, who plays Denzel on that hilarious television show, will make an appearance. P.H. Moriarty as Razors and Paul Freeman as Jeff were just as good. We’ll also see a couple of really graphic and nasty scenes. The one on the boat was particularly shocking and that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Finally, if you’re looking for movies like The Long Good Friday check out slowburning masterpiece The Hit starring Terence Stamp. The Krays, another gritty crime thriller, is also a good choice. Especially since we already mentioned one of the brothers, Ronald. The Gold, based on the Brink’s-Mat robbery, is a BBC mini-series focusing on the aftermath of one of the biggest robberies to date. It also draws clear parallels between criminals fighting for their piece of the pie and old money hanging on to it.