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Hope everyone has a good Christmas and a great new year! x
Member since:07.02.2009
Reviews:44
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Harry Brown is an ex military man who is out to set the world to rights single handed. He lives on a rough council estate and in order to visit his wife who is ill in hospital he has to walk past an underpass where the local gang of kids hangs out. It would be quicker for him to walk that way but he doesn’t dare. The kids throw abuse, both verbal and physical to everyone who dares to pass them. They terrorise the locals but no one is doing anything about it. Then one day, Harry’s best friend decides to confront them and ends up dead and Harry decides that enough is enough.
I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy this film when I saw the trailer and I felt it was quite slow to start. But after the first 20 minutes in really captured me and I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.
It started with quite a lot of different story lines which didn’t really seem relevant, especially the part where his wife was ill. The only relevance I saw in this was that the gang being in the under pass was holding him up, and was an introduction to the kids involved.
There were two parts of the film that stood out for me – one in the middle of the film where Harry goes off to buy a gun. He visits two blokes who he has been told would be able to supply him and walks into a drugs factory. There are cannabis plants growing to almost life size heights and one of the guys is a heavy drug addict with scars and bruises all over him. At first I thought this was just a film and is really exaggerated, but then I realised that actually there are people like this out there and it was quite a shock.
The second part was towards the end where the police serve 15 warrants to the estate where the kids live, which ends up in hardcore rioting. I thought this scene really highlighted the fact that the police are trying to do what they can, however these gangs of kids are far too powerful and manage to overrule and drive out a whole army of armed officers.
This film is very controversial and is quite shocking, but I think that was the idea. It focuses on three main groups of people – the gangs of kids who are causing the trouble, the OAP’s who are bearing the brunt of the gangs violence, and the police, who are trying their best to try and control the situation and reduce the violence in areas such as this, but sometimes they are just not strong enough. When guns and knives are involved sometimes there is nothing they can do but walk away.
There were some references to drugs throughout as well but apart from the scene at the heroin addicts’ house, this was not a major theme. It could have been built in a bit more because it was quite a weak, sideline theme and drugs and gangs normally fall in naturally together. It had to be mentioned or it wouldn’t have been true to life but on the actual estate there wasn’t that much dealing going on, just the odd occasional jolt and you knew that something had exchanged hands.
Michael Caine played Harry Brown really well, coming across as the weak old man who the police think is the most unlikely candidate to kill, even knowing his military background. He really shows force as well when tackling the gangs and is not frightened at all.
I felt that it was quite a topical subject that needed addressing and perhaps bringing it to the big screen will help raise peoples awareness of what is really going on out there. It really portrayed the power the gangs have and how situations can quickly spiral out of control for no reason. I would recommend this film, but prepare to be shocked.
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