Sunday, 30 May 2010

Harry Brown (2009)

Darkly violent and poignant movie about endemic drugs and crime amid a London sink estate. Former Marine, Harry Brown (Michael Caine), a widowed Northern Ireland veteran and senior citizen lives on an Elephant and Castle housing estate rapidly descending into serious youth crime. Harry takes up vigilante methods to curb crime after an old friend is murdered. IMDB 7.5/10


From The Grauniad filmblog:


The Tories have taken to presenting Harry Brown as somehow authenticating their "Broken Britain" campaign. "Once in a while, a movie comes along that has genuine social and political content and deserves to be treated as a commentary on contemporary mores," avers former Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona. Apparently, the Brit vigilante flick "most definitely falls into this category". The film "portrays a society that is utterly disfigured." All Londoners should see it, because it will show them "the brutal reality" of life on their city's "forgotten estates, especially south of the river". (The writer begs to differ ...read on here)