Harry Brown

Daniel Barber, so far I have never heard of this director which is normal, this is his first major flick. And what a great movie this is. it's a revenge flick but as real and brutal as it can get. It's funny that I as a horror geek was recommended Harry Brown. But I didn't regret it watching it and I must even say that I got goosebumps by some scene's. And people who know me do know that I can take the goriest pieces without a problem. But again, it is really the reality and the brutality that makes the movie and of course Sir Michael Caine. Admit it, he always has something macabre over him but he's now in his 70's (°1933)and still can deliver the creeps. His acting is surely an Oscar worthy. But also worth mentioning is Sean Harris. he really is believable, in fact all hoodies are believable and of course the language used and the dialect gives it also its reality. This is an all points an excellent movie. Not in Rambo or Arnie style with a lot of shooting but just a straight in your face flick, big thumbs up to the director, Sir Caine and the whole bunch involved.

Harry Brown is a pensioner, and former Marine, living in a very run-down apartment complex (or is it flat) in the urban quarter of London. It's a crappy place to be; kids ling their drugs and guns, and beat up those who happen to venture just a little far out into the path. One of those is Harry's friend, Leonard Atwell, who tries to defend himself against the scum on the streets and winds up stabbed with his own knife. Brown is distraught over this (already he's been all alone since his wife just died and a daughter died many years before, perhaps during childbirth or as a child), and knows the cops won't do much about it despite doing some investigations. So, Brown takes his skills as a former Marine, before facing off against the Northern Irish years before, and uses it to exact payback.

Immediately moviegoers will flash to Gran Torino, as a story of a lonely, grumpy old man mixing it up with gang-bangers in a part of town he should have moved out of. But it actually owes more to Taxi Driver in some part- an ex-Marine wiping "the scum off the streets"- and of course Charles Bronson in Death Wish. But as Michael Caine points out in interviews, there was a certain underlying joy Bronson had with his character of Paul Kersey in the Death Wish movies, even in the first one which was most gritty. This film, about the horror of gang violence and drugs and prostitution as an everyday occurrence, really hits the spot far better than the shots of gang-bangers in Eastwood's film. In fact, I would go as far as to say Harry Brown trumps Gran Torino in the department of being about "something" (Torino about racism, Brown about vigilantism).

And at the center of a film directed with an artful, patient eye by newcomer Daniel Barber, and written with wisdom and tough attitude when it needs to be by Gary Young, is Michael Caine's performance. He's so good in a film like this because we believe this is Harry Brown, or what he might be like, and we can see ourselves in a part of Brown due to Caine's sympathy (or even empathy) with the character. This is a man of reserve, but also resolve, and when he takes to the streets it's because it's really a last resort, a kind of fight for survival as well as revenge, and Caine doesn't hold back when Brown needs to shed some tears, or to have that fierceness in his eyes against these young punks. One such scene, which I'll not soon forget, is after he plugs a bullet into the gut of a junkie dumbass who tries to pull a gun on Brown as he's purchasing a few weapons, and tells a story about a fellow officer he was fighting alongside who had to die in the trenches because of a lack of medical care.

It's one of the best scenes I've ever seen with Caine in it, and overall the film provides him the opportunity for another piece of superb work. Less remarkable, though still decent, is Emily Mortimer, who provides some sensitivity but also is a little soft in a way for the character of a no-nonsense detective hot on the heels of the Atwell/young-punks case (in some scenes, frankly, I just didn't buy her as a detective). But this is so small a flaw that it's hard to judge the film against it. Harry Brown takes its subject matter by the throat, treats it cinematically with care, and when it's violent you get shaken up and when Brown is in the shadows one suddenly wonders why Caine didn't play Batman in Nolan's movies. A serious near-classic on street violence and revenge. 9.5/10

Despite Emily Mortimer's ever vapid presence, in no way suited to be convincing as a cop. Michael Caine is masterful as always, film gives him an opportunity to show off his incredible range credibly, from fragile pathos and sorrow to hard unrelenting man in the field you do not want to cross. It's hard to take any satisfaction though in the hunting down and brutalising of miserable wretches at the bottom of the have not pile. Well directed scripted and edited. Love seeing Michael Caine always, he's so damned good nuance by nuance it's spooky.

The pre main-credit sequence, shot to resemble mobile-phone footage, had the desired effect: the sense of shock from the capacity audience was palpable. The film then slows down to show the reality of Harry Brown's life as a pensioner on a South London high-rise estate . Showing his routine of walking to the hospital to visit his very ill wife, having to walk a long way round to avoid confrontation with an unseen group of youths who use an underpass as their base and his meetings with his old friend and chess partner Lenny in the estate pub. There aren't many other people walking about the estate, even in daylight, out of fear of the gun-carrying teenage gangs.

Michael Caine's performance as Harry Brown is wonderful. His timing is spot-on. Credit to director Daniel Barber for allowing him space to breathe and not be hurried. In fact the overall pacing is excellent. There is good use of the soundtrack with the lack of intrusive music adding to the reality feel of the film. The night scenes are beautifully lit as well with a good balance between just enough to see what's going on and making the lighting realistic: the night scene in the pub with the lights out, for instance.

This film has been compared to 'Death Wish' and 'Gran Torino', but those films haven't got this film's bleak, realistic look at how life is in these areas. There always remains a sense of watching a film, of entertainment, of it being 'Hollywood'. This is a lot more down to earth. This film has more in common with Mike Leigh's TV drama 'Meantime' and with 'Gomorra'.

This isn't an easy 'first-date' film but it is a superior Brit film, one of the best for many years. I'm glad to see that it has got some marketing push behind it and has generated column inches talking about the subject of these 'no-go' areas and society in general.

Shocking and brilliant.

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.