And the award for the most jarringly intrusive incidental music goes to… Francis Monkman, for his work in repeatedly attempting the audible derailment of The Long Good Friday. The film's first act is fairly light on dialogue, so thankfully not too much of it is lost as Monkman's synths go full-belt to drown out shootings, stabbings and an exploding car. And in all fairness, it's not necessarily his music per se, but this film has one of the worst audio mixes I've heard in a long old time.
But from the fantastic archival value seeing of Paddington station when you could still drive cars in there, and London Docklands when it was still docks, all the way through to Bob Hoskins' rousing capitalist address sailing down the Thames, framed with Tower Bridge receding behind him, this is a truly iconic film. John Mackenzie's seminal British gangster flick is one of those movies I finally see that almost switches on a light, highlighting the previously unrealised (to me) influence on several of my other favourite flicks. In this case, the result was me thinking "Oh, so that's where Guy Ritchie got all his ideas from" (notwithstanding the number of Long Good Friday's cast he'd go on to purloin over the years). From a narrative point of view, I can also see the impression this has left on the Grand Theft Auto series. Again, not complaining one jot.
Mackenzie's assembled one hell of a cast to translate Barrie Keeffe's screenplay, with a swathe of character actors from the time, all of whom play things relatively downcast - with the exception of Hoskins, who ensures that not a single piece of scenery is left un-chewed by the time the credits roll (the beautifully drawn-out final scene being a case in point).
Fairly ordinary in a cinematic sense, but utterly magnificent in a historical/influential one, tLGF loses a point for its a few of its sensibilities being seemingly lifted from a Jim Davidson set.
But it gains a point back because one of these features in it:
Really, never.
It was always the sort of film that my Grandad had on the TV, late on a Saturday night. And while I could probably have got away with watching it when I was round there, I wasn't really that interested in my childhood. He had a thing for unflinchingly grim 70s and 80s thrillers, of which this is a defining example.
Fuck, yeah.
For a night in with a few beers, yes.
Not that I heard.
The film Harry Fielder as a policeman (albeit uncredited); the actor who also played a Death Star Trooper in the original Star Wars (albeit uncredited).
There's also Ralph Morse, who appears in the church congregation in The Long Good Friday (albeit uncredited). He appeared in The Empire Strikes Back as a Stormtrooper, Imperial Comms Officer and a Rebel soldier (albeit uncredited).
But if it's actual household-named, facial-recognition, evidence you're after, Paul Freeman appears here, and he played Belloq in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, opposite Harrison 'Solo' Ford. It's just not as cool as Harry and Ralph, somehow…
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Ponderous without being self-indulgent, quirky without being twee, Felix Herngren assembles a centenarian and an expanding array of waifs and strays, gangsters, neo-n*zi bikers, plus an elephant. By the time you bolt on a solid mcguffin in the shape of a suitcase full of cash, it's like an episode of Last Of The Summer Wine written and directed by Guy Ritchie.
Never less than smile-inducingly enjoyable, Robert Gustafsson's Allan ably narrates the way through this English/Swedish mishap fable. The narrative following the case containing the SEK50m (that's fifty million Swedish krona, which I thought would look better abbreviated, then instantly doubted once it was typed, although not to the point where I'd replace it and remove the need for this parenthesis) leads off on a series of flashbacks in which Allan tells us of his childhood, adolescence and ultimately his role as a munitions expert and key-player in more than a few of the twentieth century's primary military events.
The pacing between the two strands is a little uneven however, almost as if the film can't decide which one it should be dedicating its time to, which is a shame as they're each compelling, individually. The film which this results in often feels like Forrest Gump With Dynamite.
The crucial element of the outlandish screenplay is its humour, which can often be derailed in foreign language*2 films by subtitles removing (or at least crucially altering) the timing. Thankfully, the similarity in vocal-tone between the languages, along with the fact that the majority of the jokes are dry deadpan, means that it translates very well for an English-speaking audience (although the woman two rows behind me seemed to be finding it far funnier than I suspect even the writers intended. Fair play).
Herngren's supporting cast all do him credit, although it feels like Alan 'Brick-Top' Ford is a little out of place; especially as he's playing the same shouty-gangster we've seen work so well elsewhere. After Cockneys vs Zombies, it appears that Ford has finally parked up in typecasting Hell…
What 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man' lacks in narrative direction, it makes up for in curiosity, floating between intriguing and delightful.
Worth watching if you've ever wanted to see an elephant kill a skinhead by sitting on his head.
That's what you'll get, yes.
Mostly.
Well, judging by the Wiki entry for the book (which I haven't read, admittedly) it's been heavily trimmed in places, so I'm not altogether sure. It's certainly 'good', but I suspect the book will be better.
Flicks if you can, but you won't lose much by watching it on DVD.
I won't.
I will, but not for a while.
There BLOODY WELL IS, as well. When Allan's breaking out of the Gulag camp..
Does the young-look of Allain remind you of Stellan Skarsgård? Is it just me? Am I being inadvertently racist for even mentioning that?
*1 The poster says "Climbed Out Of The Window", but the film's title-card says "Climbed Out The Window". Whatever.
*2 I know how snobbish (and/or reverse-snobbish) that sounds if you haven't seen the film. The narration takes place in English, but the present-day 'action' in Swedish, and this is where the bulk of the comedy lies. It works well, trust me.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
"What would it take. For you. To have sex. With Ray Winstone? Oh, and in a pub toilet? Yes, yes, I know you played the female-lead in Captain America, we saw you in that and that's why we want you to be in The Sweeney. But that thing we asked you about just now, it's kind of a deal-breaker. It is the deal, in fact. And yes, he'll be walking around in his pants."
I won't lie to you, I fucking well enjoyed The Sweeney. As gritty as it tries to be (and the number of shootouts in public places with civilian casualties is alarmingly plausible), there's a layer of slickness that's constantly pulling the film away from reality. Armed robberies and gunfights with middle-aged men haven't seemed quite this cool outside of a Guy Ritchie flick*1. The main difference here, of course, is that we're seeing it all from the point-of-view of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad - not that we get to see any of the paperwork being done; being in the Sweeney means putting your feet up on the desk or fiddling with your phone with your hood up. And this is indicative of a larger phenomena, whereby loose-ends seems to get conveniently ignored with few or no questions being asked. But this movie is told firmly from Jack Regan (Winstone)'s POV, and that is how his character manages his career, much to the annoyance of his superiors, so it seems strangely fitting.
Now I know this film won't be for everyone. It's pretty much The Ultimate Ray Winstone Vehicle™, where he gets to play the part he's constantly acting out in his head anyway, and the rest of the cast follow suit by not wasting time making their characters appear likeable or anything. So y'know, you're either on their side or you're not. I was, and so I thoroughly enjoyed just under two hours of shooting, swearing, drinking, crashing geezers. There is some amount of substance, but style definitely has the greater share. Plantagenet Beaumont puts in a good turn as Regan's protege, George Carter, and again is almost inexplicably amiable as a young, cocky, surly misanthrope-in-training. Damian Lewis and Steven Mackintosh pop up regularly as their put-upon bosses trying to keep them on the right-side of the law, and apart from the aforementioned Hayley Atwell, everyone else is pretty much window dressing (including the villains). So again, it fits perfectly with Regan's point-of-view on the world. Oh, and if you're going to put Alan Ford (Brick Top from Snatch) in there as Regan's connection to the cockney underworld, wouldn't you use him a bit more?
The Sweeney's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be. Entertainment is all that's required, and it excels at that. As with a couple of other films this year, this would make an excellent jumping-off point for a TV series, if they were going to reboot it for the small screen. Then again, the TV version wouldn't be able to incorporate lines like Carter's…
"…but you didn't count on one thing… me, you cahnt."
Like I said: not for everyone. And how many other films have you seen whose finale is a car chase and shootout at at static-caravan park in Gravesend?
The Sweeney is all mouth and all trousers.
*1 On a violence-related note, I'm not entirely sure why the BBFC have classified this as a Cert.15, while Dredd gets the Cert.18 treatment. There are plenty of 'meaty' head-shots in Dredd, and a few cuss-words, but it's in a clearly-defined fantasy setting, and the violence and language on display in The Sweeney far outweighs it, and in an environment we see on the news every day.
DISCLAIMERS: • ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
