djdave

Apparantly, at the time the film was made, they were toying with the idea of a sequel.

My understanding is that the idea was for the Jaguar to run out of petrol. I kid you not. Then Harold was supposed to end up in America - I can't remember the details of how - where he attempts to rebuild his criminal empire. Completely bonkers, I know....

Incidentally, in the famous car scene at the end, the camera man was sat where Pierce Brosnan's character was sat - Brosnan and Hoskins filmed their bits separately - with the sound man in the boot and the director driving!! According to something I saw on BBC 2, he was instructing Hoskins when he should have had his eyes on the road....

Interesting also how Sir Lew Grade's ITC got cold feet and dropped the project because of its IRA content. Then George Harrison's Handmade Films picked it up, but he didn't really know what he was buying.

Nevertheless, a fantastic film...and I agree totally thatFfrancis Monkman's music - where is he now? - adds immeasurably to the ending. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

claudia

I just watched this movie tonight with my son and loved it.
What was all the building going on by the Thames,and what did it eventually turn out to be ?

djdave

Glad you both enjoyed the film, Claudia.

My memory might be playing tricks, but I seem to remember reading/hearing that some of the Thames and Thames-side filming with Harold's boat was done somewhere else.

If - and I say if - I remember correctly, it was someplace like Glasgow. So the building work you refer to may have not been in London at all. However, they certainly did film on the Thames - St Katherine's Dock and Wapping - so it may have been.

But in the last 25 years that whole stretch of riverside from the Tower of London downstream has been redeveloped to a greater or lesser extent - into apartments and offices and shops - Canary Wharf being a good example..

It's ironic, really, that Harold's plans involved the Olympics and now London is going to stage the Olympics.

What about the ending, though? Wasn't it fantastic? [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

samkydd

I think it's a great film but I think you have to leave a few years between viewings.

I was going out with a chambermaid at the time who worked at The Tower Hotel adjacent to Tower Bridge, and this hotel appeared in many TV programmes of the era and also in the motion picture film Sweeney. Across the water from there was St Catherine's Dock (I think) and nestled amongst the disused derelict dockside warehouses there was a pub called The Dickens something or other, which set the trend for modern pubs up to the present day in that it was a converted barn-like building selling loads of different beers and decent food, with basic fixtures and wooden floors.

I've been along parts of the river in recent years and it looks like just about everything on the waterfront or in the small side docks has been redeveloped into offices or expensive apartment blocks, and so Harold Shand's vision did come true! He's probably propping up one of them in a concrete overcoat!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

claudia

I think it has one of the most stunning endings in movie history.
It just sucker punched me.

A masterpiece.

David Brent

I totally agree, it is an excellent and very powerful film. I think it affects many viewers the first time they see it.

You're right Sam. A lot of the film was made around the St.Catherine's Dock area in Wapping, London.

Dave.

Madame de...

The idea of H finally getting what he wants in the teeth of Councillor Harris, the IRA, the Mafia and good ol' Charlie from Casualty is a sweet idea indeed. Did Bob Hoskins do anything as good as this since or did the famously framed Roger Rabbit do for him?

L de...

samkydd

It's similar to Get Carter in that the "hero" gets what's coming to him and although, just like Carter, Shand is a scum of the earth bully boy who you'd dearly love to spend 10 minutes alone with in a soundproofed room with a baseball bat, despite their flaws you sort of want them to succeed and come through it unscathed.

This is very skillful writing and acting, and as the audience you reluctantly find yourself feeling sympathetic towards both characters and no matter how much you loathe their type, their enemies become your enemy because the evil things they've been getting up to are far worse than anything Shand and Carter are guilty of.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

thirdlady

I've not seen this movie who stars in this movie?

A.S.Carroll
"Happiness isn't sold in bottles you have to achieve it in your own lifetime!"

JamesM

Bob Hoskins.

Cuffy

I largely agree with all of whats been said about the film. The final scene in particular, is undeniably one of the all time cinematic masterpeices.

What actually stays with me though is the scene when Shand realises he's been pitted up against a force he can't compete with - that look of horror upon his face is brief but memorable.

Yeah, some good scenes in the film - too many worthy ones to really list, although as a highlight I particularly liked the dialogue in the scene where Dave King, as the clean-cut-but-bad copper, meets Shand in some murky location and informs him that the forensics boys have been all over the remains of his Rolls Royce (which is on a trailer hitched to a Range Rover in the background) without success.

A good flick for car spotters too - for me the black Series 2 Jaguar XJ6 represented a dark force in itself.

djdave

I may be mixing him up with somebody else with the same name, but I believe that Dave King was a singer-cum-comedian in the 50s and 60s before he turned to acting.

Apparantly, Bob Hoskins was in hospital being treated for a tapeworn infection when he read the script for The Long Good Friday. He'd appeared in Zulu Dawn and had wanted to eat local, African food, but came back with more than he bargained for.

I don't believe he has acted better than in this classic gangster film.

Steve Crook

Except maybe in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Just consider what he did there, especially when he was handcuffed to Roger.
It's not easy to react to something that's going to be drawn in afterwards.

But he was very good in The Long Good Friday as well
In fact I think he's done a lot of good performances and it's hard to choose between his best ones.

Steve

Cuffy

You are quite correct, it's the same Dave King.

Cuffy

Until I first saw this flick (which by sheer coincidence, just happened to be on a Good Friday a few years back) I'd never really rated either Bob Hoskins nor Helen Mirren. I was so wrong!! I've never seen either of them in the same light again.