The Long Good Friday (film)

The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film.

The composer of the classic theme of the movie is Composer Francis Monkman.

The film was spoofed in one year's edition of Comic Relief. Titled "The Wrong Good Friday," it featured Bob Hoskins asking for a payment from Jimmy Nail, although Hoskins' character had come to collect on the wrong date. Clips are featured in the DVD "Seriously Funny."

Locations

Heathrow Airport.
St Katharine Docks - Harold's yacht is moored on the Thames there.
St George in the East (CofE) Church - used for exterior shots of the church where Harold's mum goes to a service and when his Rolls Royce is blown up in the churchyard.
St Patrick’s Church (RC), Greenbank, Wapping - used for the interior scenes of the Church service.
Canary Wharf/West India Docks is the venue for Harold's proposed marina development. The future location of One Canada Square is clearly visible as his yacht tours the site. There is also a small model of the proposed development in Harold's yacht.
Paddington station.
King George V Dock in the Royal Docks, now the site of London City Airport - Harold has a meeting here.
The Savoy Hotel.
Wigmore Street.
The Salisbury pub, 1 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Harringay - used to represent Fagan's Pub in Belfast.

Tagline:Who lit the fuse that tore Harold's world apart?

Cast
Paul Freeman - Colin
Leo Dolan - Phil

Kevin McNally - Irish Youth
Patti Love - Carol
P.H. Moriarty - Razors
Derek Thompson - Jeff
Bryan Marshall - Harris

Bob Hoskins - Harold Shand

Helen Mirren - Victoria
Ruby Head - Harold's Mother
Charles Cork - Eric
Olivier Pierre - Chef

Pierce Brosnan - 1st Irishman
Daragh O'Malley - 2nd Irishman
Dave King - Parky
Karl Howman - David
Brian Hall - Alan
Alan Ford - Jack
Dave Ould - Don
Paul Kember - Ginger

Bill Moody - Boston
Alan Devlin - Priest
Eddie Constantine - Charlie
Stephen Davies - Tony
Bruce Alexander - Mac
Nigel Humphreys - Dave
Brian Hayes - Pool Attendant
Georgie Phillips - Eugene
Mary Sheen - Lil
Pauline Melville - Dora
Trevor Laird - Boy Under Car
Paul Barber - Erroll

Dexter Fletcher - Kid
Billy Cornelius - Pete
Ryan Michael - Waiter Ricardo
Robert Walker - Jimmy
Nick Stringer - Billy
Gillian Taylforth - Sherry
Robert Hamilton - Flynn
James Ottaway - Commissionairer

Roy Alon - Captain Death
Tony Rohr - O'Flaherty
Alan Talbot - Snipe

Early roles for famous actors
The film includes a large number of performances by young actors who later became famous.

Paul Barber (Denzil in Only Fools and Horses and Horse from The Full Monty) plays a police informant who is visited by Harold and his scary associate "Razors".
Pierce Brosnan, in his first film role, appears as a hired assassin. The role was supposed to be silent but he improvised one line of dialog.
Dexter Fletcher is the boy who asks for money to watch Harold's car.
Karl Howman (Jacko in Brush Strokes) appears as one of Harold Shand's gang.
Kevin McNally star of many films including High Heels and Low Lifes and latterly seen as one of Johnny Depp's sidekicks in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, and as a corrupt Police Chief in TV's Life on Mars has a early role in a Belfast bar scene.
P. H. Moriarty ("Razors") and Alan Ford appear as members of Shand's gang. Both would later play the chief villains in Guy Ritchie films.
Daragh O'Malley, who plays Sergeant Patrick Harper in the series of TV movies based on Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series of historical novels, appears as Brosnan's fellow assassin.
Gillian Taylforth, later of EastEnders fame, appears briefly as a young woman who finds a man nailed to the floor of a disused warehouse.
Derek Thompson, who went on to find fame as Charlie Fairhead in medical drama Casualty appears as Harold's right hand man, Jeff.

Plot

The film's protagonist is Harold Shand (Hoskins), an old fashioned 1960s-style London gangster who is aspiring to become a legitimate businessman, albeit with the financial support of the American Mafia. The storyline weaves together current events of the time, including low-level political and police corruption, IRA gun-running, the displacement of traditional British industry with property development and the emerging free market economy.

Harold is the undisputed ruling kingpin of the London underworld, when his world is suddenly torn apart by a series of murders and exploding bombs from an unseen foe. Uncovering his enemy's identity forms much of the film's subsequent plotline.

The story seems to hinge upon an act of betrayal by one of Harold's closest aides, the implications of which only become clear near the film's climax, when the solution to the mystery is suggested though not spelled out.

The American Mafia representatives decide to leave England because of all the killings but Harold is determined to stay, saying that he will become a legitimate businessman. When he leaves the hotel, he gets into a taxi that sharply pulls out from the hotel zone. Harold realizes that his girlfriend, Victoria, is not in the car and sees her in the back of another car being driven away by armed men. Harold finds himself at gunpoint and realizes he's going to his death.

Even though it appears Brosnan and Hoskins share a car near the end of the movie, neither actor was present when the other was captured in close-up, so Brosnan and Hoskins never did get to actually work with one another throughout the shoot.

Famous quotes in the flick include

It's my manor! ,

You don't crucify people! Not on Good Friday!

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