Harry Brown

If ever there was a movie to reinforce negative impressions of Britain's failing class system and spiraling poverty, Harry Brown is it. Less a movie than a violence-splattered social commentary, it  paints Britain as a dangerous, derelict breeding ground for all that is  unlawful and unclean.

I doubt the Tourist Board poured any money into this one.

While it does go ridiculously over-the-top in its portrait of Britain as  a drug-addled cesspool filled with the dregs of humanity, however, Harry Brown as least has a handful of strong performances to rest upon. Michael Caine is on top form in the title role, taking on the demons and monsters of  inner city London as a geriatric killing machine, while the support from  Emily Mortimer and David Bradley is never less than superb.

Harry Brown still struggles to engage us at times, though,  largely due to its ridiculously pessimistic outlook on modern life. By  harking back to better days so relentlessly (and stealing both its star  and its plot from the height of the Seventies) it creates a rather  twisted and warped version of modern reality that never quite rings  true.

Of course, there are housing estates where crime runs rampant - no one  is doubting that particularly sour truth. But when your drug dealers  look like Golem and everyone under the age of thirty wears a hoodie and  carries a weapon, you're in serious danger of lapsing into  good-versus-evil cliches.

Harry Brown (Caine) is a pensioner living in this hellish housing  estate, scared for his own safety whenever he leaves his flat and  constantly living in the shadow of drug abuse and criminal violence. His  best friend Leonard (Bradley) is even closer to the end of his tether,  and when Leonard snaps it inevitably ends in tragedy. Rather than  retreating further into his shell, Harry falls back on the military  training from his youth - and, naturally, bloodshed ensues.

If the sound of an aging Michael Caine raising hell among out-of-control  youths sounds vaguely ridiculous, then worry not - Caine is the most  convincing thing in the movie, and his performance adds layers to what  might have been a singularly shallow story.

Where Harry Brown's problems lie is in the relentlessly grimy  production, which makes Brown's housing estate look like the inner  circles of Hell. Its almost cartoonish squalor can't help detracting  from the film's believability, and the drug users are so villainously  deformed that they might be freshly-sprung from Mordor. Clearly the  production designers abandoned gritty drama in favor of soiled  melodrama.

Still, Harry Brown acts as an entertaining British counterpoint to Eastwood's Gran Torino,  and it's nice to see that Caine still has the old glint in his eye.  Just turn away if you're ever thinking of visiting British soil.

3/5

Vigilantism is a widely explored subject in cinema and it varies in delivery, intention, and whether or not it’s considered a good trait to practice or condone. There are films such as Death Wish that explores the deep roots of revenge while Taxi Driver ventures into the subjective seclusion of a man perturbed by society’s faults. So safe it to say the themes of vigilantism are typical but the way we can approach it are varied mostly due to the focus on character purpose and the successful depiction of the society’s ills that make it a believable or sympathetic position. And in Daniel Barber’s Harry Brown, a sort of hypnotic concoction of Death Wish and Get Carter, the remarkable Michael Caine embodies a man on the edge in a society that can’t seem to fight drugs, random violence, and basic unlawfulness. Caine is the strong suit in this uncomfortably gritty depiction of a lawless London balancing emotional frailty and chilling defiance delivering justice to those who deserve punishment in a city that is failing to follow through with their system of common law. Be forewarned that Harry Brown is just as unsettling as Get Carter and as atmospheric as Taxi Driver, which shocks you with its graphic presentations of violence and has an attention grabbing sound design that will demand your attention even as the more languid parts begin to distract you away from the film. This is a film that will divide those who have personal feelings towards gun laws and vigilante justice, but Caine’s performance transcends this trivial point of view problem and is both emotionally gripping and awe inspiring.
            The film’s opening is one of the most intriguing sequences of the film done splendidly with a handheld digital camera shot in a first person point of view. Here is where we understand the essential societal breakdown as two rambunctious teenagers shoot at a woman with a stroller and kill her in the intimidating cross fire. Harry Brown awakes the next morning to the news as his simplistic life of ritual is captured with stagnant camera work and methodically picked angles. Harry seems to be losing everything; his wife is hospitalized and his daughter is dead leaving him his only life long friend Leonard. Leonard, who is played by the wonderful British character actor David Bradley, is scared of his surroundings and the violent youth who constantly antagonize and threaten him on a daily basis. After Leonard is killed, an act that has faulty evidence due to Leonard’s own weapon being used against him, Harry’s rage that he has suppressed for many years ignites and goes on a vengeance rampage against the drug peddlers and down right evil youth in the underground of London. The story is familiar, which is an unfortunate rigidity to the vigilantism theme, but how it is delivered is the intriguing and gripping aspect of Harry Brown. From the riveting performances from Michael Caine, David Bradley, and Sean Harris, just off from the Red Riding Trilogy, and the haunting imagery, Harry Brown is a good film to experience despite its slower parts and occasional miscast roles.
            Cinematography can be an incredible tool to not only capture specific action but also accentuate the moods and actions of a film with framing, lighting, and camera movement. The opening is one of those successful uses of camera work that not only presents the underlining problem of the film but also is used as a chaotic way to introduce us to the modern youth mentality of entertainment. But everything in Harry Brown is visually stunning, from steady shots to moving suspense building sequences, the entire purpose of the camera here is to fully immerse you into a crime ridden and desperate London. The grainy imagery and slow paced sequences are quite hypnotic, if not down right unsettling, making the very essence of this character’s decision to fight against the wrong in his section of town more essential. Everything we see from Harry Brown’s perspective is border line evil and the film doesn’t try to back peddle on slating the behavior as a victim mentality. When we meet a drug dealer and gun peddler named Stretch, played exquisitely well by Sean Harris, it is like Harry is descending into hell where there is a girl overdosing on heroine, amateur rape porn being played on the television, and a backroom of illegal marijuana being grown by the pounds. It’s intensely gritty, and the violence that is captured is quick, shockingly real, and incredibly loud as each gun shot resonates in your very skin. All the technical aspects work in creating a crime ridden atmosphere and a world that needs a redeemer, even a flawed one, if it’s pacing might lull people away and find some of the acting a bit underworked.
            By underworked acting this can be attributed to Emily Mortimer, the only strong female role in the film, who just seems as though she is drugged in rigid pleasantry rather than feeling or expressing emotions. Her scenes are trumped by her police co-star Charlie Creed-Miles and, of course, the excellent performance of Michael Caine who not only balances his inner rage but also the familiar crying parts that only few can handle without being seen as overdoing it. It’s refreshing to see Michael Caine in a starring role again, considering his last main character portrayal was 2 years ago in his own remake of Sleuth, and he certainly can give a riveting and memorable performance. The other members of the cast luckily hold their own, including all of the teenagers that speak quickly and with a great deal of profanity it makes it very unlikely we’d be sympathetic once their own demise reaches them. But it really is Sean Harris who steals the show and will creep into your memory well after the film is over. His portrayal of a meth addicted sociopath is remarkably haunting and reinforces that victimless mentality, where people are responsible for their actions and should be held to it. It’s an interesting scenario to witness, considering Britain has one of the strictest gun laws in the world, and perhaps should contemplate why protection of yourself and property is an important consideration to take.
            Harry Brown is a familiar piece of vigilantism that will please anyone looking for another Death Wish or hoping to see Michael Caine revisit some of his earlier darker pieces of acting such as Mona Lisa or Get Carter. However, Daniel Barber’s intriguing depiction of the bleak city and the horrific actions being taken by a youth that is offered total security in the future will convince anyone that this is a film that isn’t replicated in plot. Most of the performances range from good to excellent and the haunting scenarios and atmosphere of the city created by the meticulously chosen angular and gritty cinematography is a strong presentation. The violence is realistic and shocking so it might be a bit much for those who don’t care for the sight of blood. However, its realistic grittiness has a purpose and is done in impeccable fashion making Harry Brown a better version of similar vengeance titles in the last couple of years including another aging vigilante film with Mel Gibson in Edge of Darkness. It’s a steady paced film that has memorable acting, action, and a successful presentation of atmosphere capturing a crime infested part of London.

'Michael Caine is awe-inspiring in this dark, bleak portrait of life in Modern Britain.'
In the same vein of Gran Torino, the film sees an elderly, recently widowed ex-marine named Harry Brown (Michael Caine) initiate a one-man crusade against the local drug-dealing, gun-wielding hoodies. Harry’s best friend Leonard (David Bradley) is murdered and even though the police (Emily Mortimer) know who did it, they are powerless and are unable to charge his killers. Harry, seeing the constant decay of the estate at the hands of the local gangs, reluctantly decides that enough is enough and, using his own form of justice, he bids to clean up the streets once and for all. From the opening scene of mobile phone recorded footage of hoodies initiating members in to their gang with Guns you know you are in for an unsettling ride. It all feels a bit too familiar. We are so used to seeing stories of gang terror on the news that we have almost become desensitized to it, but this film certainly makes you re-evaluate the current state of our country.Caine's Harry is dark, touching and satisfyingly full of vengeance. His performance as the vulnerable pensioner turn vigilante is believable throughout. Ben Drew aka Rapper Plan B (Adulthood) also plays a completely realistic and believable part as one of the gang's main ringleaders.

Harry Brown is British director Daniel Barber's debut full length feature. Barber was previously nominated for an Academy Award in 2008 for his short film 'The Tonto Woman'. The script is excellent and all the fight/riot scenes are realistically done and full of tension.

It's also worth mentioning the rest of the supporting cast, which included excellent performances from up-and-coming British talent. Including Liam Cunningham (Hunger, The Wind That Shakes the Barely), Jack O'Connell (Skins, Eden Lake), Sean Harris, (Creep, 24 Hour Party People) Lee Oakes (Two Pints of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps), Joseph Gilgun (This Is England) and Iain Glen. Yes it can be extremely violent but in no way does it exploit it, this film has a clear message and true intelligence to it. By far one of the best and most important films of the year, a must see.

Harry Brown Director: Daniel Barber. Running Time: 103 mins . Released in cinemas nationwide from 11 November 2009.

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Last updated: 2010-03-29 09:14:19 by Robinolly

In this sinister, 21st century version of "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly," Sir Michael Caine takes on a slightly bizarre role of an aged avenger of the innocent, a ficticious new type of Robin Hood, only fighting in a scenario where the roles have been strangely reversed: the part of the oppressor here has shifted from the Sherrif of Nottingham to the Outlaws, while the police and authorities are pictured as rather helpless victims...
Now just how realistic that is, only the good Lord knows, but one thing seems to be certain: Modern Darwinist education, with the help of Freddy Krueger on TV, Death Metal, Gangster Rap and Computer Games that will make a ruthless killer out of any six year old, have created a Frankenstein's monster that is turning upon its once so clever creators, and it seems as if the cradle of Evolution is one of the hardest hit proofs of that statement.
- Perhaps making many a Brit over 40 wish there were a little more truth to this film than there actually is...

But then we all know that in real life, violence is not the solution. Not for those who know better. But it may remain the only weapon of those who were not equipped with the knowledge and morals of the older generation, grounded in whatever vague beliefs in some higher power, and instead were reared in the firm assurance that all they are and ever will be is the result of a cosmic accident, proceeding from the jungles of their ancestors; and so, back to the jungles it shall be...

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-03-14 20:18:39 by McDozer