Harry Brown

Watched this at a London preview screening

This is an enjoyable, and often tense vigilante film. But don't look for a radical plot line or unpredictable twists because this is simply a straight forward and predictable Death Wish style vigilante story. I'll give absolutely no credit to the screenplay writer for that.

But full marks to the director for turning up the high tensions to make this still an exciting film. Having lived in a council estate myself, I know how frightening some youngsters are and can be more terrifying than the recent flurry of zombie films.

However, this is Michael Caine's show and is a fine addition to the recent surge of old tough guys fighting back movies such as Gran Torino. Caine was brilliant as usual. He makes the most of a pitifully typical script. That is of a widower seeking violent vengeance on the youths who killed his friend. He played it subtle and his vigilante transition was done just right. He isn't turned into some unrealistic slick killing machine or a Rambo. He has typical elderly obstacles such as breathing problems, slow reflexes and old bones but some of his military skills give him a chance. There is a also a sub plot involving a female detective on his trail but it so underwritten, I just didn't care.

The actors playing the youths were very very convincing and help to root for our pensioner hero even more. So it is satisfying to see our legendary cockney actor clean up some really nasty bad guys.

This is a dark film about an underside of living in London. It brings together a variety of people who live in public housing projects called sink estates, and the underworld culture of drugs and crime. Apparently, London has problems with its "social" housing projects and high crime. Pictures on the Internet show the poor conditions of some of the projects. It reminds me of our American experiment with large public housing projects in the 1960s. I saw some of the burned, dilapidated and destroyed public housing projects in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s. They were abandoned buildings less than five years old.

"Harry Brown" centers around a senior whose wife has just died, and a fellow senior. The two friends meet each day to play chess in a neighborhood pub. Both men live in "the estate" complex. We see Harry's apartment, and it looks quite nice. From the exterior, the large apartment building looks fine. But, below and around the complex teens lurk and hang out in gangs, occupying a pedestrian tunnel, doing and dealing drugs, and harassing and intimidating couples, women and children. These young criminals – those we see up close already have juvenile records and more – also live in the estate. We see that their apartments aren't as nice or well kept. Later in the film, we see Leonard's apartment when Harry goes to look over his things. It's been ransacked and burned.

Harry and Len go about their lives in old age and retirement not bothering anyone. But, both have fear of the gangs and hoodlums who have directly taunted and threatened Len. The story involves police efforts to clean up the area, and a young police woman who investigates the murder of Len.

I won't describe the plot further, but just observe that this film is fraught with emotions – from the characters in the film and from our viewing it. We are only human when we are moved with anger at the young thugs. We see their senseless disregard and disrespect for people. It's difficult not to want their civil rights stripped so that the police can round them up and jail them for years. It's apparent to any viewer that that would save lives – many of their own in time, and of countless other innocent victims and bystanders. Detective Inspector Alice Frampton is a check on the righteous indignation of Harry and others who would take the law into their own hands to rid the neighborhood of its scourge. Many of we viewers might be in that group as well. Yet, Frampton is conflicted later by what she sees and experiences.

This is a film to make us think about right and wrong, justice and injustice, security and gang rule and fear. And, the one obvious message that comes across clearly is that a culture of drugs destroys everything good and beautiful and innocent around it.

Michael Caine is excellent as Harry Brown. All the rest of the cast of this film are very good. One must be braced to endure constant vulgarity and crude behavior during much of this movie. In a drug culture such as this, man seems to revert to his most barbaric, primitive self. This isn't entertainment, by any stretch of the imagination. It is a type of film that all people should see from time to time. The vast majority of us living in the western world don't live in conditions or places like this. But, we should know that it exists, and how it must be for innocent people to live in fear most of the time – in free countries. Whether they intended it or not, the producers of this film have given a strong testimonial of support for the war on drugs.

This is the known story of a man become into vigilante . An elderly ex-serviceman and widower , Harry Brown , (Michael Caine) looks to avenge his best friend (David Bradley)'s murder by doling out his own form of justice . As a retired man turned vigilante and taking the law into his own hands as judge , jury and executioner. As every man has a breaking point . Harry turns the one-man vigilante when his friend is attacked , beaten and then stabbed to death in an underground passage carried out by furious band formed by some ominous punks . Then he stalks the slums of London and takes the law into his own hands, searching vengeance on crooks, hoodlums, druggies , muggers, pimps , making the neighborhood safer and bumping off delinquents and street scum . Meanwhile , police officers D.I. Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and D.S. Terry Hicock (Charlie Creed-Miles) are investigating the deeds and Police Superintendent Childs (Iain Glen) orders a major arrest operation believing the recent violence is related to a gang war. The late-night raids on the neighbourhood result in a massive riot .

This interesting picture has suspense , emotion , intrigue , thrills and lots of violence . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the Harry Brown's side . Michael Caine with his usual top-notch acting displays efficiently his weapon such as ¨Harry the Dirty¨ and killing mercilessly nasties . Michael Caine saw a lot of himself in the character of Harry Brown, e.g. they're both combat veterans , as Harry is a Marine who served in Northern Ireland, Caine served in the British Army during the Korean war , and Caine lived in the same area that Brown does , it was things like these that drew him to the film . Secondary cast is frankly excellent such as Emily Mortimer , Charlie Creed-Miles , David Bradley , Iain Glen , Sean Harris, Ben Drew and special mention to Liam Cunningham as Sid Rourke . This is Daniel Barber's nice feature debut , he's now shooting ¨The keeping room¨ with Hailee Steinfeld , Sam Worthington and Brit Marling .

This exciting and above average film belong to ¨Vigilante genre¨ whose main representations are ¨Charles Bronson's Death Wish¨ , successful crime thriller that created the Vigilante genre with Bronson as the main star such as ¨Death wish II¨ ¨Death wish III¨ , ¨Death Wish 4 : The crackdown¨and ¨Death Wish: The face of death¨ and , of course , ¨Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry¨ movies , such as ¨The enforcers¨, ¨Sudden impact¨ and ¨The dead pool¨ . Furthermore , other notorious movies on the ¨Revenger¨ genre that achieved their splendor in the eighties are the followings : ¨Exterminator¨ I and II with Robert Ginty ; ¨Vigilante¨ by William Lusting with Robert Foster , Fred Williamson ; ¨Walking the edge¨ by Norbert Meisel with Robert Foster and Nancy Kwan ; ¨Dark Angel¨ with Betty Russell ; ¨Steele Justice¨ with Martin Kove ¨; ¨The Punisher¨ with Dolph Lundgren , ¨Joe Don Baker's Walking tall¨ saga ; ¨Lorenzo Lamas's Snake eater¨ saga , ¨Arnold's Raw Deal¨ , ¨Stallone's Cobra¨ and many others .

I recently reacquainted myself with Harry Brown which I hadn't seen for 7 or 8 years, to find that the past decade has been kind to it. It seems even better now, than when I first saw it and thought it was pretty good then. Harry Brown represents a fine debut feature film from director Daniel Barber and it is surprising to find he has only directed one other production since.

The story follows Harry Brown, a widowed, Royal Marines veteran who had served and seen plenty of action in Northern Ireland, living on a London housing estate plagued by youth crime. After a violent gang murders his friend, Harry decides to take justice into his own hands.

The story outwardly would seem to follow any number of revenge thriller templates, perhaps most obviously Death Wish. But Harry Brown is one of the most grounded depictions of conflicted vigilantism that I've seen. The set-ups are realistic and the outcomes believable, though undoubtedly exaggerated at times for dramatic emphasis. And make no mistake, this is a suspenseful, dark, but thrilling film, that carries both an emotional and physical punch.

In the title role Sir Michael Caine is sublime and completely in his element as the aged ex-warrior who is seemingly forced into actions that he thought he'd probably left behind decades previous. Imagine a rehabilitated, very senior, Jack Carter, who'd survived the events we saw in Get Carter. That sums up our Harry, who crosses paths with Set. Insp. Alice Frampton, who oozes genuine sympathy and condolences for his losses, but later suspects him of taking the law literally into his own hands. Emily Mortimer is excellent, as the talented detective, genuinely trying to make a difference in some of the worst of London's slum areas. One of the great strengths of the film are the dual storylines of both the protagonist and the police officer who feels a need to keep looking over his shoulder. There are also great turns from Game of Thrones alumni, Liam Cunningham, Iain Glen and David Bradley. Mention must also be made of Ben Drew, better known apparently as a rap singer called Plan B. He manages to personify an inherited evil in his role as gang leader Noel Winters.

Despite not really being an action movie, Harry Brown does feature a couple of quite electrifying set pieces; one involving a visit to a sordid drug den and another being the climactic aftermath to a riot in the housing estate central to the story. As mentioned above, there have been other films like this before, but none quite as believable. Daniel Barber has created a debut film that is maybe not for everyone, but is gripping from start to finish.

I saw this last night and found it a stirring experience. I believe it although aware it was a movie. I'm close to 70 years old and had to take this on board as such. I believe such areas exist and I find it frightening bordering to paranoia. I often hate undue violence and extreme language in cinema, Yet here I did not mind it because I believed this was real. I did not mention anger above, but it certainly was part of my emotion during viewing anger but also hopelessness and helplessness. That right, not everyone is an ex marine or has the character to go through H.B's motion, but we're all exposed to home violent home invasion or other violent event. Perhaps the chance of this happening may equate to winning the lottery, but the media and the 7th art have a filled day with it. Yet it is real and it's a hard task to know if one should bury one's head in the sand and pretend this does not exist or to think one can look after one's self and be able to stand the heat where ever it is. Just as to evaluate if this side of society should be portrayed with positive result or the reverse. I think thugs will always see themselves as heroes in such movies even if they end up with the bad result. As for others they may want the vigilante side of it with possibly dire consequence. Death Wish (I have not seen, and G.Torrino, I have) are mentioned and compared with in many reviews, yes G T did come to my mind too, although for me it was more entertaining than H. B. as I did not feel it to be continuously real. But here I became part of the experience and forgot I was watching a movie. It is also described as being English portrayal. I don't know if this was intended but I certainly don't believe this scene is exclusively English. I'd be surprised if it's not a western world reality and possibly a wide world situation in large urban population, in other words "a jungle rule world" Law and order are becoming increasingly more complex, with so called human right rules, so police efficiency is also increasingly more challenging as the whole scenario is becoming a game where one competitor has to play by the rule and the other just has to win. And victim relatives and Friends are also at odds with perpetrators relatives and friends. I only read, perhaps a dozen of reviews here about Harry Brown and could see it did impact most reviewers. I do agree it is not a perfect movie, with a perfect balance, but I think it perfectly portrays some sad imperfection of our society. It was so good to see Michael Cain acting once more, as for those young people... this was a piece of work too, I hope they, and we always remember it was acting! If you feel like thought provoking entertainment go for it.