HARRY BROWN
UK, 2009, 103 minutes, Colour.
Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, David Bradley, Iain Glen, Ben Drew, Liam Cunningham, Charlie Creed- Miles, Sean Harris.
Directed by Daniel Barber.
Since Michael Winner directed Charles Bronson in the 1974 Death Wish and it became the archetypal movie for a reference to urban vigilante films (and led to several sequels and imitations and derivatives), it is very difficult to review this kind of film. On the one hand, one must deplore an individual taking the law into his or her own hands and executing in the streets those who have committed crimes that have eluded official justice. We are not executioners. On the other hand, the atrocities committed by thugs who have no compunction on ordinary citizens do, as the scriptures say, call out for vengeance. Audiences can identify emotionally with the pain, frustration and, sometimes, the inefficiency of police and courts in achieving just penalties.
Of course, any film, Death Wish or Harry Brown, is not intended as a final answer one way or the other. Audiences will bring their values to watching the film and assess the situations and the characters' actions accordingly. A vigilante mentality will cheer. A non-vigilante mentality will empathise with the suffering and the experience of thug victimisation and try to think further on what needs to be done in society to break cycles of unemployment, drug dealing and consumption and develop the proper means of justice. This is what a story can do well: offer us experiences that challenge our presuppositions and make us question the society in which we live.
This is a review by someone based in London for some years. The film's picture of the estates, the dangerous underpasses, the young people hanging about, the propensity for mindless violence are part of the headlines and the radio and TV news. Interestingly, Harry Brown avoids the race and ethnic issues which seem to dominate the headlines. The gangs here are all white men and women.
Again, the media is frequently alarming as stories of innocent elderly people being assaulted, robbed and even killed in their own homes. The week of Harry Brown's UK release saw the story of three young men putting fireworks through a letter box which led to the burning down of the house and the death of a mother and daughter.
Harry Brown spends quite some time establishing its elderly characters, Michael Caine very effective as Harry whose wife dies after a long illness, and David Bradley as Len, his friend and chess partner at the local pub who is harrassed by the thugs and is not going to take it any more. Harry was a marine in Ulster but has left that in the past. However, his disgust at the behaviour of the unrepentant men and the drug-dealing scum of London sends him back to his weapons and his going on a confrontation and killing spree. The sequence where he meets with the scarred and disfigured dealers in their squalid house (with Sean Harris – memorable as Thomas in the Jeremy Sisto Jesus – giving a powerfully seedy performance) is frighteningly tense.
The police are represented by Emily Mortimer and Charles Creed-Mills?. They are limited by their abilities and what they can actually do in the face of lawyers' advice to criminals, lack of evidence and police work on more important issues than the deaths of old age pensioners. Iain Glenn is the rather smug police chief.
It was Peter Finch's character in Network who got people to yell out from their homes, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more. That's what happens in vigilante films like Harry Brown.
1.British? London film? The 21st century, the London estates, pensioners, the gangs, violence, drugs, the police? Vengeance?
2.In the tradition of vigilante films, Death Wish? The emotional response, the reason response to such violence? Anger and revenge? Justice and the law? The law ineffectual?
3.The realism, the estate itself, the flats, interiors, the grounds, hospitals, pubs, streets and underpasses? The drug dealer’s house? The police precincts?
4.The point of view of the film-makers concerning crime, injustice, vengeance and the law?
5.Michael Caine and his presence, giving legitimacy to the film? To the vengeance?
6.The introduction to Harry, his age, his disabled wife in hospital, her not being aware, his having to hurry to find her dead? The funeral? His talking with Len about meeting his wife, the dance, love, the long life together, having no children? The background of his being a marine, in Ulster, what he saw, his experience and stories, killing someone? Putting that life behind him?
7.Sid and the pub, Len and the chats and the drinks, playing chess, their friendship? Len and his anger, harassed by the gangs, his reaction? His being laughed at and despised? His showing Harry the bayonet?
8.The news of his death, the photos of the dead Len, the police and their visit, tact, Frampton and Hickock? Their handling of the situation, the questions?
9.The investigation, Frampton and her work in the past, her hopes for promotion, Hickock and her comment about his saying ‘deathogram’? Childs and his discussions with her, her detective work? Frampton and her hunches, seeking for evidence?
10.The view of the gangs, white only, racist issues avoided? The group at the underpass, their bravado, drugs, harassing the young couple, the drug deals?
11.The arrests, Noel and his mother, his defiant attitude, her protest? Noel and his smugness, the rest of the group, the details of the interrogation, the tactics of Frampton and Hickock, the gangs’ silence, their lawyers? The frustrating experience?
12.Harry and his anger, watching the gangs from his flat? The revelation on the phone of the photographing of Len’s attack, his death? Harry getting his gun, going out, going first to the dealers? The dealers and their personalities, physical appearance? Their talk, the deal about the gun, Harry and his observations? Their being wary, Harry despising them – shooting them?
13.The role of the police, Childs and his briefings, the effort concerning the drug dealers? Leaving the issue of pensioners aside?
14.Harry and Noel, the ultimate chase, the interrogation? The young man and the drug dealer and the sex in the car? Harry taking the young man, hidden in the shadows, Noel and the others shooting? Deaths?
15.Harry, his collapse, by the river? In hospital? Frampton’s visit? Discharging himself?
16.The police, the information about Sid? Noel being his nephew? Noel’s going to the pub, Harry finding him? Sid telling him what to do?
17.Harry and the confrontation with Sid, Sid’s criminal attitude, the confrontation – and the boy defying Harry, shot? The sniper killing Sid?
18.The police, the confrontation, the argument, Hickock and his being wounded, the treatment of Frampton? Hickock’s death? The confrontation with Childs and his estimate of the situation? Frampton’s transfer?
19.Harry, Frampton’s suspicions, confirmed? Harry Free, wandering the streets, looking at the underpass?
20.Audience response to this kind of film, disgust at the gangs, their treatment of old-age pensioners, the issue of revenge, the ineffectual law, vengeance?
