The Long Good Friday

Cockney gang boss Harold Shand wants to go legit and make London the “capital of Europe” by building an Olympic stadium in the Docklands. He is hoping to persuade the New York mafia to invest in the venture. But no sooner have its representatives arrived before Harold runs into problems. Two members of his gang have been murdered and he himself is almost killed by a bomb. To save face with the Americans, he needs to find the culprits right away – and he’s not squeamish about how he does it…
Behind every successful man is a strong woman. In this case, she’s Helen Mirren. In The Long Good Friday, she eschews playing Victoria as a typical eye-candy gun moll in favour of embodying a self-reliant woman. When Shand starts to lose control over not only his business, but also himself, it’s Victoria who calls the shots. Helen Mirren had a great influence in how the role was written during script development. Just as the film almost prophetically envisions a reshaping of the urban landscape into a “new London”, Mirren’s portrayal provides a role model of a new image of women.

details

  • Runtime

    114 min
  • Country

    Great Britain
  • Year of Presentation

    2020
  • Year of Production

    1980
  • Director

    John Mackenzie
  • Cast

    Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, Eddie Constantine, Brosnan Pierce, P.H. Moriarty
  • Production Company

    Black Lion Films/Calendar Productions
  • Berlinale Section

    Homage
  • Berlinale Category

    Feature Film

Filmography John Mackenzie

1971 One Brief Summer | 1980 Rififi am Karfreitag (The Long Good Friday) | 1985 The Innocent | 2000 Allein gegen das Verbrechen | 2003 Quicksand - Schmutziges Geld