Harry Brown

...in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry’s life is torn ...
...despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970’s, ... more

If you followed the career path of Michael Caine you might well wonder what happened, from being crowned the King of Cool in movies such as Get Carter, Alfie, and The Italian Job; Caine almost dropped out of the popular movie genre. During the 80’s and 90’s with the odd exception (Educating Rita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The forth Protocol) his movies were generally bottom end stuff, most of his output in this time is available on super low budget DVD. For Caine however age made him turn a corner, and as the star tentatively spoke about a cameo in popular soap Eastenders, his movie career took of in ways he possibly never realised. With two Batman movies, Children Of Men, and the highly acclaimed Is Anybody There? Behind him Caine now returns in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry’s life is torn apart, firstly his wife dies, then in a suspicious incident Len is killed by the gangs that essentially run the estate. An ex marine, Harry’s killer instinct is revived in a late night attack by the banks of a canal, having easily despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970’s, Barbers London is a far darker place, more deadly than Afghanistan. What Barber does is shows how these essential ghettos work, some people seeing the trouble some of the time, while others see it all the time. Barber shows Harry Browns eyes widening as he sees the horror of what’s going on in the place he calls home. While Brown always knew it was there, he has always avoided the spots that the bad things happen, giving him a more sheltered view.

I suspect Barber has studied CCTV footage of gang related violence, because in the movies first portion he shows how one incident can quickly go out of control, in an instant you see a man protecting his property, to having his head smashed open more or less on his very front door; this is powerful stuff.

When faced with real menace, you go out of yourself you become a far stronger person, this is the stance of Harry Brown; whom with everything gone suddenly finds that the anger of loss is to much to bear, with one man already dead thanks to his quick reflexes you see Brown move from dwindling seventy year old to a man of unknown age fighting for what is right. Compassion gone Brown moves to man of action, and Caine portrays this fantastically. Its great to see the transformation from man who takes five minutes to make a cuppa, to the man that terminates wrong doers in a heartbeat. There is no reasoning with Brown, no time for regrets, Brown moves sleekly and does what he believes is right in order to create the best outcome for everyone.

Criticism has been given to the movie for being a little too trigger happy, and that’s probably right towards the back end of the feature. At the same time however, you do have to ask what you might do if placed in these circumstances. And if there is any criticism to make really its only towards the end when things develop into total riot, and Brown finds himself in the right place at the right time.

At the time I never considered the issue of race, but thinking on it seems that the casting team are not going to take the easy option of race behind this estates anarchy. These are proper white British gangs, ran indirectly by proper east end gangsters and associates, any minority race involved are there literally by minority. Its very easy in movies to lean heavily on the race aspect, but there are no cheap punches here.

I touched on the final portion of the movie, and it does get a little predictable, and essentially ultra violent, as one woman police crusader Inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) closes in on Brown who she has always suspected to be a little too involved in the spurge of criminal deaths. As the estate falls into anarchy, Frampton adds fuel to a fire by Scooby Doo style revealing a secret to Brown about relationships on the estate. While a little bit out of synch with the rest of the film, in fairness its difficult to decide where things would lead from the road the film has taken.

If I have one issue with the film it’s the blasé way that the deaths of the gang members (at the hands of Brown) are almost unmentioned by the police, almost thrown in as an afterthought. But beyond that, I have no issue with Harry Brown, and while it makes itself undoubtedly the best British movie of 2009, it also makes itself the best vigilante movie of all time.

Harry Brown opens in UK cinemas on November 11th.
 

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