Directed by:
Daniel BarberCinematography:
Martin RuheCast:
Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles, David Bradley, Iain Glen, Sean Harris, Ben Drew, Jack O'Connell, Joe Gilgun, Liam Cunningham (more)VOD (2)
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A modest law-abiding citizen, Harry Brown is a retired Marine and a widower who lives alone on a depressed housing estate. His only company is his best friend Leonard (David Bradley). When Leonard is murdered by a gang of thugs, Harry feels compelled to act and is forced to dispense his own brand of justice. As he bids to clean up the run-down estate where he lives, his actions bring him into conflict with the police, led by investigating officer DCI Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and Charlie Creed-Miles. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (8)
If you want to fight against evil, you have to become evil. An atmospheric genre movie that the awesome Michael Caine steals for himself. The screenplay isn’t at all original, but Daniel Barber squeezes the maximum out of it anyhow and does it almost blindfold. Many will compare Harry Brown to Clint’s Gran Torino and they won’t be far off. And even though Harry is more predictable than Clint’s latest film adventure, it’s much rawer, harder and more brutal. And that’s what won my heart. Listen to me. If you don’t tell me, I’ll shoot you in the kneecaps. First one, then the other, until you tell me. So, what do you say?
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Elite Squad is widely thought to be a fascist film, but no one will say anything like that about the idea of Harry Brown, because it stars a nice pensioner with the face of the beloved Michael Caine. Otherwise, the films are similar in many ways – in the reenactment of criminal scum as a primitive tribe, in offering an easy solution, and in a certain clarity of vision of the world (a fair marine vs. the scum). I didn't mind it when it comes to Padilha, and I don't mind it when it comes to Barber - I'm under no illusions that the situation is any better in selected English housing estates. Otherwise, Harry Brown didn't do much for me. The social tone is rather untrustworthy (I thought it was too arranged), Barber didn't get an impressive performance from Cain, and the script is very clichéd, although he tries to disguise it as the realism of the environment... Overall, I didn't understand what it was supposed to be – a social drama or an unconventional thriller? Eastwood did it a notch more convincingly, although some of the scenes in Barber's film got under my skin. But not too deep.
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Some comments compare this film to Eastwood's much more famous film Gran Torino. The characters of both pensioners who have decided to stand against injustice and stop the rampage of a criminal gang somewhat suggest this, but personally, I consider the thematic similarity of the two films misleading. This British film develops the tradition of stories about a lonely avenger who takes justice into his own hands and cleans the streets of the city from crime. This theme, once so popular in the western genre, was newly taken up by Michael Winner when he made Death Wish. That film became extremely popular in the United States during the turbulent 1970s when crime in New York spiraled out of control in several neighborhoods, and it led to several sequels. Harry, who, after the murder of his friend, remembers the years spent in Her Majesty's Navy, has, despite his advanced age, a precise aim in reducing the number of members of a youth gang that controls a vast housing estate on the outskirts. Within this category of films, I consider Harry Brown to be the best work, not only thanks to the acting performance of the famous film veteran Michael Caine in the lead role. The script is also of high quality, as it effectively works with emotions and carefully doses tension. Overall impression: 90%.
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A superb film that will be enjoyed (especially) by fans of Michael Caine, the typically dense atmosphere of British films and the emotions of people who find themselves in hopeless situations against their will. All delivered in a fantastic visual package with perfect music. The best scene: the junkies’ den. Five stars.
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This is almost better than Gran Torino. The opening scene on the motorbike is the best filmed scene this year, Caine is more uncompromising than anybody I have seen recently and for seventy minutes this really is a five-star movie. But then it starts to go wrong and the finale in the pub totally wrecks it. If it had remained on the “modest level" of pensioner versus local youth in front of a tenement block, I would have been much more content in the end. P.S.: Comparison with Gran Torino is essential, like it or not. Although in the end they are completely different genres, Eastwood worked and relied on the premise that everybody expected precisely what they get here from Harry Brown.
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