Latest / Citizen Frame / The Long Good Friday
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:06Were there any peculiarities? Unusual crowd.
- 0:10Regular punters, nothing really. Were no strangers? A few Arabs.
- 0:15It's a good night. Nothing unusual?
- 0:18Nothing unusual, he says. Eric's been blown to smithereens.
- 0:23Colin's been carved up. And I've
- 0:25got a bomb in me casino. You say nothing unusual? You know what I mean.
- 0:30Parking. Meeting King George V Doc now. Now, he's put out a story the bomb in
- 0:35the car was a gas leak by some time. Nice one.
- 0:38There was nothing unusual when I was in New York, was there?
- 0:46Nothing at all. Nothing alien?
- 0:47Music.
- 0:56All right, everyone, welcome back. We are back now to talk a little more crime drama.
- 1:02British crime drama, that is. We talked about Dead Man's Shoes.
- 1:07Quite a pretty effective little outing there for the Shane Meadows and the crew.
- 1:13Doesn't have a lot of replay value for me because it's fucking depressing as hell.
- 1:18But we're going to turn the tables here a bit. And Trevor has now picked a gritty
- 1:24crime drama from 1980, and it is called The Long Good Friday.
- 1:31Friday it's called that because it takes place on a good Friday and it's a long
- 1:37day yeah yeah but also as well I think that there were sort of the long good
- 1:44ban all the were sort of tapping into there so yeah.
- 1:48But I think it had a working title. It was something completely different,
- 1:51but it just escapes me at the moment.
- 1:53But yeah, but it's not just a long day, but it's actually a long weekend.
- 1:56It should have been called the Long Easter Weekend.
- 1:58But it started on Good Friday with all the, you know, assassinations.
- 2:04All right, we'll jump into it here.
- 2:06Before I begin, I do got to correct myself on the movie They Live.
- 2:09It's very minor, but I'm a classy guy.
- 2:13I'm very classy. And I admit if a mistake has been made.
- 2:18It's very minor, but out of respect to the writer Ray Harris,
- 2:24the short story that They Live was based from, it was called 3 o'clock in the
- 2:30morning. I call it 3 a.m. in the morning.
- 2:33I know. Was it not 8 o'clock in the morning? I'm serious. Is it 8 o'clock in the morning?
- 2:40Give me a second. I have, right, I'm going to check this now.
- 2:43Give me a second. I thought it was 3 o'clock in the morning.
- 2:45If you just give me a second. I thought it was 8 o'clock in the morning.
- 2:49I don't know. Quick double check.
- 2:51Check up Ray Harris short story, They Live, and they'll pop right up. Yeah.
- 2:57Well, basically, I haven't read the story. I think it might be,
- 3:01if you're probably with me, I'm just going to check it now.
- 3:06Yeah. They Live.
- 3:09Or maybe we're both wrong. That's so funny I get this wrong.
- 3:14I probably did say 8am, but my notes, I put 3. I don't know.
- 3:19So fucking professional. I'm getting it.
- 3:23I'm serious. Oh my god, dude. Give me a second. I'll do it. Short story.
- 3:27No, no, no, no. This is work to me. I'll not sleep. I'll not sleep.
- 3:32Ray Harris, may he live. Short story. See, there's not much coming up.
- 3:418 o'clock in the morning. Yes, 8 o'clock in the morning. And it's Ray Nelson.
- 3:46It's 8 o'clock in the morning. Okay, it's 8.
- 3:49Okay, so I'm retracting the retraction. Ray Nelson, 8 o'clock in the morning.
- 3:53Yeah, so it's 8 o'clock in the morning.
- 3:58I think I said 8 a.m. in the morning, more 3. I don't know. Either way,
- 4:02I'm correcting it. I'm correcting the name. Just in case.
- 4:05Because, you know, yes, it's his work, And he certainly, you know,
- 4:10even though it's something minor, whether an O'clock or an AM,
- 4:14it's still out of respect to the author.
- 4:17All right, let's dive back into The Long Good Friday. Long Good Friday is my
- 4:22first time watching it, so I like watching new stuff.
- 4:25There's a funny story about how they were concerned about Bob Hoskins' accent.
- 4:32Set and they dubbed him for the American side because they were concerned so
- 4:38the Americans wouldn't get his dialogue.
- 4:41And obviously he sued yada, yada, yada. They decided not to do it. I'm glad they did it.
- 4:46You know, it's not fair to the actor, of course.
- 4:50But I got to say, I can see where they're coming from. Now, I've lived in the
- 4:54UK now for about, you know, a good 12 years here.
- 4:57And I've never had a problem with accents.
- 5:00I've adapted, I think, quite well.
- 5:03But before anyone watches this, especially if you're stateside,
- 5:09I will say that it's kind of like subtitles with Bob Hoskins.
- 5:15Once you start reading the subtitles, you kind of forget you're reading them.
- 5:20So once you start just getting into the characters, his accent gets clearer and clearer.
- 5:26That makes any sense of what I'm saying? I understand it perfectly,
- 5:28but here's the issue. It's not even so much, I don't think, the accent.
- 5:31There is a lot of Cockney slang used.
- 5:34So if you're not up to speed with Cockney slang, which is basically arguably
- 5:38a different, you know, sort of, you know, it's made up sort of slang words for
- 5:42regular words in the English language.
- 5:45So there's a fair bit of Cockney slang going on here too.
- 5:48I, you know, I don't even, yeah, I mean, that could be a two,
- 5:51but I, Bob Hoskins in this character, he talks really fast, so all of his words blend.
- 5:59So that's where the problem, but you eventually, you kind of.
- 6:03Adjust. You kind of start adjusting. Yeah. And you start adapting to it.
- 6:08So the first 10, 15 minutes, it's like, I can't, I have to turn this off.
- 6:11What's he fucking saying?
- 6:13What's he saying? Fucking leave it out, you slag. Yeah.
- 6:18And I was like he didn't sound anything like this when he was talking to Roger
- 6:21Rabbit or when he was Super Mario yeah but.
- 6:26Trust me go with it everyone else is fine but for some reason yeah his sticks out but uh,
- 6:33I'm glad they didn't dub it it's not fair to the actor apparently they were
- 6:38going to dub it with a Midlands accent which I suppose is a bit softer but it
- 6:41wouldn't make any sense in terms of it's set in the East End docklands so you know Yeah, but again,
- 6:48if it's going to a different market outside the UK, maybe that wouldn't matter.
- 6:52They would get away with it, yeah. Yeah, but out of respect to the actor, all good.
- 6:57And this is directed by a man called John McKenzie. I just looked him up.
- 7:01He's done a couple of stuff I really enjoyed, including a Pierce Bronson action
- 7:04film called Fourth Protocol, which is kind of a fun movie.
- 7:07He did in the late eighties. We'll certainly get to our boy Pierce.
- 7:10And then he did a movie you guys know as Blue Heat. I know it as the last of
- 7:15the finest, which I really enjoyed.
- 7:18Last of the finest started a really cool ensemble of character actors,
- 7:21Jeff Fahey, Joe Pettiniano, I know, but it had the great Bill Paxton and Brian Dennehy.
- 7:29Yeah. I remember Blue Heat. Yeah. So. There was no one here.
- 7:33Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, check those, those are, you know, quite,
- 7:36quite solid little films there.
- 7:38And he's kind of done his own thing. He's always been working,
- 7:41but never found the success as he did with this Long Good Friday.
- 7:46It's pretty well. I think he's done a bit of TV as well.
- 7:48Yeah. But like I said, he's, you know, like a lot of directors in the eighties,
- 7:52we talked about all that with peter hyams and john biden they
- 7:55all still all still direct but pretty much in
- 7:58tv now but you know good on him this this this
- 8:01one here was actually originally made for
- 8:04tv then i believe it was the bbc got cold
- 8:07feet i think it was made for the bbc they got cold they
- 8:10were going to edit it um heavily anyway you know because of the violence the
- 8:14scenes of violence but i think they got cold feet luke great or was it michael
- 8:18greatest son i don't know but anyway they because of the The troubles were raging
- 8:22at the time because they saw it as glorifying the IRA, which is bollocks, it's not.
- 8:28But so then it was Ringo Starrs, the Beatle, Ringo Starrs handmade films that
- 8:34come in and they took it on and it got then a cinema release. I didn't know that.
- 8:41It's, you know, it's like I said before we started this gritty crime drama.
- 8:47Gritty doesn't necessarily mean violent. It's the, it's the mood and the setting
- 8:51and the atmosphere of the film that makes it gritty yeah, there's violence in it, but again,
- 8:56it's one of those it's, it's images that you can see being played out in modern,
- 9:02in the, in the real world.
- 9:04So that's what gives that gritty rawness doesn't necessarily,
- 9:07you're going to see a head man and man's head exploding because this movie is
- 9:12more for the grittiness,
- 9:14more of the way swearing and the characters and the unlikeability of all these
- 9:19characters and you know, it's rather than the violence.
- 9:23The violence is quite tame in this.
- 9:26I would say as well that, although when the violence does happen,
- 9:29it does pack quite a punch, but I would say as well that a big part of the grittiness of this film.
- 9:36Be it's obviously heavily inspired by real life east
- 9:39end gang gangsters from the 60s and stuff likes of
- 9:43the cray twins mad frankie fraser people like that in fact the the cray twins
- 9:47they're sort of basically crime a business was known as the firm here they're
- 9:53called what is it they're called the oh flip it's something that's some very
- 9:58like the firm it's that's not the business but it's it's,
- 10:02But the company or something like that,
- 10:05but it's obviously a take on their, you know, their, the firm.
- 10:09Yeah, I mean, like, everything comes from something when it comes to the gritty crime drama.
- 10:13We talked about that with the French Connection based on the real life of Popeye
- 10:17Doyle, the Warriors based on real-life gangs in New York during the 70s.
- 10:23That's kind of where the gritty crime drama really is.
- 10:26Okay, so we'll jump into this here. We've got Harold, Victoria,
- 10:30Colin, Phil, Bill, Jeff Razors Harris, Carol, and he's credited as the first
- 10:36Irishman who's played by a very young Pierce Brosnan.
- 10:40Yes. Bob Hoskins, a very young Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman, Belloc, Alan Ford.
- 10:47It's so funny. You see Alan Ford. Now, anyone stateside you or anyone outside
- 10:53the UK, you would know Alan Ford if you saw his face.
- 10:56Over here in the UK, he's kind of a household name. name it's funny
- 10:59because he has to go a one-off line here and he's in the
- 11:01background in some of the scenes but if you know alan
- 11:04ford over here he is like anytime you see
- 11:07his face you think head monster guy yeah it's
- 11:11he's the go-to east end cockney gangster for the last 20 or 30 years you know
- 11:16probably longer but yeah he's also in american war wolf in london yeah that
- 11:20very small role yeah yeah he's in that and then you had i don't from i started
- 11:25lock talk and two smoking Guy Ritchie uses him a lot.
- 11:29Yeah, he's in Snatch. Yeah. Yeah, so.
- 11:32Bricktop. So you have a lot of young cast in here.
- 11:35Of all up-and-comers, including Dexter Fletcher, which is a funny as hell cameo.
- 11:40I know. We'll get into that one.
- 11:44So we opened up, we had this music, and I think it's hilarious, the music.
- 11:48So it's like a, it's almost like the band Goblin.
- 11:53Yeah. Dio Gentil's Goblin. But
- 11:56for gangster films? It is. It sounds like Goblin mixed with disco music.
- 12:00Yeah. Yeah, very late 70s, early 80s. Yeah, that transition where they didn't
- 12:06know where music was going.
- 12:09It was so bad. It was catchy. I was into it.
- 12:14There was some editing issues in the beginning here. I don't know.
- 12:17I'm sure you might have caught this.
- 12:19You have this whole opening sequence, about nine minutes long, and you have a house.
- 12:25Yes. And then you have people in the house, and they're talking, shooting shit.
- 12:29Shit and then you have we see belloc
- 12:33um calling his
- 12:36name's calling but i'm gonna call him belloc you know what's just gonna happen
- 12:40and he's got a briefcase the briefcase gets delivered back to the house that
- 12:45we quickly get to then belloc goes to a gay bar to hit on men and then those men get
- 12:55killed and the bodies are dumped in front
- 12:57of the house which is where the money was dropped off
- 13:00because they're going to take that money from them
- 13:03it's quite a confusing opening yeah i was fucking
- 13:06lost when you watch it yeah it does sort of make sense later on whenever it's
- 13:11all explained what colin was up to along with spoiler jeff and councillor harris
- 13:17but it for when you're just like sort of watching this for the first time you're
- 13:21going what the hell's going on here okay well Well, let's dive into it.
- 13:24I mean, people who's been listening have seen it, so. Yeah. Yeah.
- 13:28This is the story here. So Jeff, no, Harris. Yes. The lawyer.
- 13:35No, it's a counselor. The counselor.
- 13:38Lawyer. Yes. No, no. Counselor means he's a politician, basically. Oh, okay.
- 13:44Okay, the politician hires Jeff to take the money to the IRA and then take it back?
- 13:53No, no, what it is. I'm confused. used councillor harris
- 13:57controls a lot of you know basically stuff around
- 14:00east end of london and stuff along with harold you
- 14:03know bob hoskins character but on the building along
- 14:06with building sites and companies and stuff but the irish
- 14:09builders which there's a big irish community you know
- 14:11over in london and there was at the time the irish builders are talking
- 14:14about going on strike so councillor harris i
- 14:17think this is right wants to get the
- 14:20ira to basically come over and put
- 14:23the shits up the irish builders so that they don't strike
- 14:26there's money involved and colin skims
- 14:30the money so he does and it pisses the ira off so the ira but the ira also gf
- 14:40is involved gf went to work with colin and the ira are of the opinion that basically
- 14:45this isn't just gf and colin which which it was,
- 14:48this is also Bob Hoskins and his firm, you know, his company,
- 14:51for want of a better term, his criminal company.
- 14:54So they're basically out for revenge. All right, so let me get this straight.
- 14:59So Harris tells them, give them the money so we can get them to come over here
- 15:04and work, you know, the Irish workers, whatever, right? Yes,
- 15:07stop them from going on strike.
- 15:09Colin and Jeff drop off the money, and this is the opening scene here.
- 15:13So Colin and Jeff drop off the money IRA. ira colin
- 15:17goes deliberately to try to pick up two gay men
- 15:20get them out of the bar has them kidnapped and then
- 15:23killed and dropped them from the farmhouse why
- 15:27as far as i'm aware the the gay
- 15:30man the young gay man and you know the other ones in the bar
- 15:33the ira mistook them for basically
- 15:36cronies of bob hoskins and colin and stuff as far
- 15:40as i know they were they're basically killed in the crossfire they they
- 15:43were basically falsely falsely believed to
- 15:46be part of bob hoskins sort
- 15:49of criminal empire but why kill them at the warp i
- 15:52don't understand this because they're brutal because they're fucking no i don't
- 15:55know no no who okay so jeff and colin had those men killed no the ira killed
- 16:03them believing that they were
- 16:05associates criminal associates of jeff and Colin and Bob Hoskins Harold.
- 16:13Okay, so this, okay, so. Do you know what I mean? But you understand what I'm
- 16:17saying. This whole editing is very choppy. Oh, no, no, and it's confusion.
- 16:19So when they, the money gets dropped off at the IRA's house,
- 16:23and then we see the guns pop up through the windows.
- 16:26Yes. So that, is that Jeff and Colin robbing the money back?
- 16:34And then. They're stealing the money, yeah. Yeah, then, okay,
- 16:37they give the money, then they take it back. It's kind of really confusing here.
- 16:40Yes. And then they go to the gay bar to set up two men because when they walk
- 16:45out in front of – They're not setting them up.
- 16:49They're not setting them up. Colin's just looking basically a fun time.
- 16:52Oh, so he is looking to hook up. He's not trying to set these men up.
- 16:55Yes, yes. No, no. Colin was just looking to rip the IRA off.
- 16:58Whenever he's in the bar and he's looking to pick up that guy and he does pick
- 17:02him up, he's just basically looking to shag.
- 17:05So the two gay guys are from the fire.
- 17:09Yes, exactly. Exactly. Because they were associated with Colin that night.
- 17:13Yes. And the IRA ones thought that they were part of the criminal underworld
- 17:18of the East End, controlled by Harold. Okay.
- 17:21All right. Well, guys, just go ahead and watch it. Trust me,
- 17:25the questions I'm asking do make sense.
- 17:27As far as my understanding, that is correct.
- 17:30Okay. All right. It does have.
- 17:33That kind of feel where, what the fuck? Like when we see Carol at the funeral,
- 17:39she's driving a funeral possession, she gets out and spits on Jeff.
- 17:42You have no idea what the fuck that means until near the end.
- 17:46Because her husband was killed by the IRA in retaliation for them ripping off
- 17:53the money. Yes, and he was just a poor, innocent driver.
- 17:55He did nothing wrong. Yes, exactly. He was the getaway driver.
- 17:59Okay. We'll kind of finalize that all
- 18:02we just talked about guys in the last minute of the podcast fucking
- 18:06hell all right so harold is harold so
- 18:09i take it harold's a guy trying to become clean
- 18:12he's trying to go straight no no harold's story is basically he's a bad bastard
- 18:18but for the last 10 years through ruthless means he has also he has brought
- 18:25peace throughout london and the underworld you know but but i But he rules with an iron fist,
- 18:31you know, but he runs a show, basically.
- 18:34But he has also meant that there's no shit.
- 18:37Nobody gives him shit. But also, that's why the cops are also more than happy
- 18:41to go along with him, because he is basically making their lives a lot easier.
- 18:45You know, he runs London, basically. Yeah, there's a lot of inconsistency with Harold.
- 18:53Oh, as a character? Yes. What I mean is, he seems very professional, blah, blah, blah.
- 18:59And then he'll turn on a dime, but he won't turn on.
- 19:03He seems to kind of like a pussy when it comes to people outside of his circle,
- 19:09but he'll, he'll slap Jeff around. He slaps the cop around.
- 19:13He'll, he'll easily pick on them. But when it comes to any type,
- 19:17anybody, he doesn't really know. He kind of cowards down a bit.
- 19:21So I didn't understand if he's really a bad guy or I'm confused here.
- 19:26I think he, well, he's an old school East End gangster. Because,
- 19:30I mean, there's certain, it's a bit on the nose, actually.
- 19:32You know, whenever he sees the kids and all in the street and,
- 19:35you know, this is like a who's, by the way, this is like a who's who of British
- 19:39character actors in the 70s and 80s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 19:41Yeah, there's so many of them. But anyway, but there's a lot of things where
- 19:45he says, you know, this used to be a nice neighborhood and stuff.
- 19:48So he's old school like the craze apparently you know
- 19:51where it's the you know it's old school you know like you know look after
- 19:54your own and respect your neighborhood and respect
- 19:57your elders and stuff it's all this here and you know it's basically nostalgia
- 20:02for a time that didn't exist you know people people looked after each other
- 20:05it's a working class thing yeah so it is okay you know so colin gets colin once
- 20:11pierce bronson shows up and his little technical speedos and then we have Fat Burt Reynolds.
- 20:17This guy looks just like a Fat Burt Reynolds. I call him Chubby Burt Reynolds.
- 20:20He is, Pierce Bronson and Chubby Burt Reynolds are the two Irish hitmen.
- 20:26That's it, IRA, man. Yes. Yeah. And then you got Pierce, he's like,
- 20:30they're at the pool. He's like, hmm, yeah, huh?
- 20:33Yeah, I don't know who Pierce is yet. And I was like, I'm not watching James Bond and Belloc.
- 20:37I can't. No disrespect to whatever lifestyle you want to live.
- 20:41I'm not watching Belloc and James Bond hit it in the shower.
- 20:46Luckily, it's a setup. They kill Belloc.
- 20:50Yeah. Well, he gets cut. So, yeah. And the swimming pool showers. Pretty quick.
- 20:57Pretty much a cameo. He probably had to leave because he was doing Raiders.
- 21:02That's it. He was too busy. Yeah. He was too busy being a Frenchman who was
- 21:06trying to double-cross Indiana Jones instead of the IRA. Yeah.
- 21:11He fucked over the IRA and he fucked over Indiana Jones.
- 21:16Well, he tried to fuck over James Bond, but James Bond was He's so young.
- 21:22All right, Dom. Pierce Branson. Yeah. Yeah. But guys, watch it when Pierce is
- 21:27kind of trying to put on the moves to Belloc, he's Belloc swimming.
- 21:32And I say, his name's Colin, not to confuse people, but who gives a fuck.
- 21:38But you'll see Chubby Burt Reynolds just leaning down, watching all this go
- 21:44down. And I started laughing.
- 21:45It's so funny. You got to check it out. Chubby Burt Reynolds.
- 21:51Yes. But these two guys. The bomb goes off as well.
- 21:54What was that? The bomb goes off as well on a separate incident.
- 21:58Yes. Well, we're not there yet, but since you brought it up.
- 22:02Wow, Trevor. I'm just keeping you right. 8 o'clock in the morning.
- 22:06So, fuck off. I retract the retraction.
- 22:13So, yeah. Yeah, some innocent bastard, Eric, gets blown up during Good Friday
- 22:20Mass, hence the title, because this is when these assassinations start happening on Good Friday.
- 22:25And it was meant for Harold's mom.
- 22:29Yes. No, I think it was meant for Harold.
- 22:32No, it was meant for Harold's mom. I think it was meant for Harold himself. Was it?
- 22:35Again, it's not fully explained, but I was of the belief that it was for Harold
- 22:40himself. but he just like he arranges for the driver to take us as our mom back
- 22:45to the church you know for mass.
- 22:48I think there's the dialogue by Bob Hoskins I think it was meant for Bob Hoskins
- 22:53as was the later bomb in the bar in the bar yeah okay okay,
- 23:00I like Parkey he's a
- 23:03pretty good character he's the cop he kind of gives them little
- 23:06tidbits yeah yes but it's very
- 23:10much by the way Bob Hoskins is fantastic in this he's really
- 23:13believable as that type of sort of you know
- 23:16basically thug yeah but with
- 23:19delusions of being a business man you know
- 23:22i think the problem i have with the character is what
- 23:24i said it's too inconsistent sloppy with it
- 23:28seems like a pretty good guy and then he's sloppy
- 23:31and then he's got emotions all over the place and
- 23:35so i didn't know where to go with him i
- 23:38didn't know if i wanted to like him or not i think no well
- 23:40that's that's the genius of it because he he's
- 23:44like a fully rounded sort of human character where you
- 23:47are conflicted because at one at one point he
- 23:50is sort of like good to his friends and all you know all this
- 23:52here and he is charismatic like so many of these big gangsters are and uh but
- 23:57then other times he's like he you see his his human frailties you know it's
- 24:03it's very it's very well written and performed by huskins you know he feels
- 24:07like a real fucking proper east end gangster okay but But also a human character.
- 24:12It plays a lot like Scorsese's early work, like Mean Streets.
- 24:18Yeah. It does have a, you're right, more of a British version of Goodfellas.
- 24:24Yeah. Where you have these, you get to know this small little cluster of gangsters
- 24:29and you kind of, you kind of like them.
- 24:32I liked his men, him, I'm still, you know, I mean, during this whole chaos,
- 24:38he's trying to merge with these two businessmen from the States. Hero mafia.
- 24:43Who are a lot wiser than he thinks, because it does show up. And.
- 24:49You had Victoria, who's pretty much probably smarter, honestly, than Harold is.
- 24:55I was just about to say that. She's probably the smartest character out of them
- 24:59all, out of his whole sort of criminal underworld gang, because she's the one
- 25:04that susses out Jeff as well.
- 25:06Yeah, yeah. That Jeff character was weird, but he was good in it. Oh, yeah, yeah.
- 25:12There's a scene where I was confused because I thought there was an affair going
- 25:18on between Victoria and Jeff.
- 25:19Because as you know, when Jeff walks into the penthouse, he makes the comment,
- 25:24I want to lick your body all over.
- 25:26I want to lick your other... Well, yeah, that's foreshadowing that Jeff's loyalty or lack of to Harold.
- 25:32I would say as well, Derek Thompson, who plays Jeff, that was his first film
- 25:36role, he went to primary school with my own mother.
- 25:40He's now obviously very well known for the British soap set on a hospital casualty.
- 25:46But yeah he's from just down the road from me originally so
- 25:50there you go a bit of a bit of useless information for you
- 25:53there you go if anyone gets anything from this uh-huh that's
- 25:57what you take so good actor he's got in this first first role now when he tells
- 26:05parky i need to know what's going on here i got confused here parky gives him
- 26:11a name which is his informant and the informant knows everything.
- 26:17But he wants, Parkey wants, he goes, I trust my guy, I'll ask him.
- 26:21He goes, no, you'll tell me who's your informant and I'll give you a percentage of the sale, whatever.
- 26:26Yeah. And we find out that's Errol and who's horse from Fomanti.
- 26:33I'd also, he played Denzel for many years in the classic British sitcom, Only Fools and Horses.
- 26:39Okay, yeah, I just reckon, I know that voice and then you see him in Fomanti,
- 26:43he's the old dude older guy the scouser voice yeah he's obviously much younger than us but you know.
- 26:49So he cuts him quite a, so let me ask you this. Yes. You've got Razor who's
- 26:55got a cut down his face, right?
- 26:57Wait, Razor's? Razor's got. He has to replace him? Well, let me finish.
- 27:00So you got Razor's who's cut, who he shows, he shows in all of his cuts and
- 27:06he's got a razor face, you know, he's got that blade in his face.
- 27:09You know, he's got, he's got the scar. Yes. I can't say the fucking word scar.
- 27:13He's basically a Bond villain. Yeah. He's good. I actually like Razor's.
- 27:16Well the actor who plays him is harry the hatchet and luck's talking to smoking
- 27:20barrels yeah these guys all seem to work together don't they yes yes very small pool of actors.
- 27:27My point is when he shows him all the wounds and then on his face well you can't
- 27:32miss the one on his face right there before he cuts enro errol yes is did bob
- 27:38hoskins do that to razors.
- 27:40No no that's just it's not explained but it's just more i think that's from a previous
- 27:45on scene sort of skirmish perhaps
- 27:4910 years before whenever they were before they had peace in
- 27:52the east end gangland you know okay okay so
- 27:55that's just a previous scar because he's a bad bastard all right so he's
- 27:58been razored before he's been that's why it's called razors yeah
- 28:02he's got he's been cut up so he does that to
- 28:04other people now yes well it's i think he would do it anyway because he's like
- 28:09bad bastard henchman he's an evil bastard but you know you wouldn't fuck with
- 28:13them but basically no i think they were from previous skirmishes you know i
- 28:18think he's very loyal and it's proved in this that he's very loyal to harold
- 28:21when he talked about after they
- 28:24try to get information from errol who doesn't know anything yes
- 28:28he's so young dexter flexer like he's one
- 28:30of the kids and he gives him some money for watching the car and he
- 28:34ended up directing you know rocket man and directing ghost directed
- 28:37bohemian rhapsody and he's also an actor obviously so
- 28:41he's so young but he still looks the same i know
- 28:44he's still he was he was quite a well sort of well-known child actor i mean
- 28:48not just for this but for other things but then he was in it he was in it like
- 28:52a kid's show a british kid's show called press gang and stuff and then he sort
- 28:56of made the transformation to being an adult actor where you know he starred
- 29:01in lock stock and two smoking barrels and the like.
- 29:04Yeah, I mean, I recognize him as an actor for a drag. You know,
- 29:07he didn't do directing until later in his life, obviously.
- 29:10I didn't know he was a director until I was looking into this. Oh yeah, I know.
- 29:14He was nominated for Rocketman and he pretty much did all, once Brian Singer
- 29:18stepped away from the industry because of his troubles, his naughty time,
- 29:21he took over and directed Bohemian Rhapsody.
- 29:25I didn't know that. Yeah. So, yeah, so I do think it's, I don't know if it's
- 29:30meant to be funny, but with all this chaos going on, Victoria is trying to keep
- 29:36the peace so these two Americans don't see what's going on.
- 29:39And they go, oh man, we're going to bring you to this great fucking blah, blah, blah.
- 29:43You're going to love the food. And then it blows up as they get there.
- 29:47I will have to admit, really bad timing for the IRA here. They keep missing.
- 29:51Yeah. They really miss it. I know. They're boating these kills here.
- 29:55Yeah. So when it blows up, they, oh, sorry, mate. It was a fucking, it was a gas leak.
- 30:03And the two Americans are like, oh, okay. Well, I knew.
- 30:07And so when Victoria takes him aside, he goes, listen, I'll bring you to another restaurant.
- 30:12And the minute they get her alone, the two Americans going, we're not fucking
- 30:16stupid. What the fuck's going on here? Yeah, exactly.
- 30:19Exactly. And Councillor Harris is there. He's on the drink and he's behaving.
- 30:23But then you sort of start to find clues that there's something going on between
- 30:28him and Jeff, which obviously there is. But let me ask you this then.
- 30:33The whole time you think Harris is the douche, but he's not because he was there
- 30:39to help do what he was supposed to do.
- 30:42It was Jeff and Colin that did the stealing, not Harris.
- 30:47Yes. Yes. Harris was a bit of a douche because he sort of did it,
- 30:50arranged it all behind Harold's back.
- 30:53But the real douches the real bastards as councillor
- 30:56harris says himself were jeff and colin yes
- 31:00okay yeah yes yeah okay yeah but the only
- 31:03bad thing is harris went behind but harris meant well yes yes he wasn't like
- 31:08uh the reason for all of this happening is because of jeff and colin and their
- 31:14greed and their sort of the betrayal of harold okay and then parky is the one who,
- 31:21then after all the stuff goes down,
- 31:25they, the Americans have made this, this ends in 24 hours or we leave. Yes.
- 31:31Yes. Parkey finally comes to Harold and tells him, these aren't the guy,
- 31:35he was going to torture some guys and they said, nah, this isn't them.
- 31:40There's, there's a couple of special guys, special brands for the IRA that did
- 31:44this. Yes. That's, that's the guy he said to get in the abattoir.
- 31:48And hang upside down? Yeah, but those guys weren't the ones who did it.
- 31:51No, they weren't. No, no. No, they were going to try to get something out of
- 31:54them, but Parkey shows up and says, no, we found a bomb that didn't go off,
- 31:58and this bomb was made by a special branch of the IRA.
- 32:02And that's how they kind of know it was these guys. And also with Jeff here
- 32:06as well, with the abattoir scene,
- 32:08Jeff, and he's obviously acting, he pretends to go psycho to get information
- 32:13out of the guys hanging upside down, and they're trying to come.
- 32:17He goes, what's the matter with you, Jeff? Jeff, calm it down.
- 32:18I don't fucking leave it out. Leave it out, you fucking slag.
- 32:22But that's when Jeff's only trying to cover for himself. So he has for something,
- 32:28which we don't quite find out until later on.
- 32:30There's a nice scene with Helen Mirra and Victoria there, because she's cool
- 32:35cat through this whole fucking thing.
- 32:37Oh, yeah. And then she finally breaks down.
- 32:43Yes. It's actually a really good scene for her character, her because she's
- 32:46been so calm and chilled and when they're up
- 32:49on the in their pet house she finally says this is
- 32:52you know she's scared yes you know we'll see
- 32:55that scared her reaction at the
- 32:58very very end it's kind of creepy actually if you pause it but she's
- 33:02quite posh compared to the rest of them she would be upper middle
- 33:05class type yeah i would even say that she's friends with princess
- 33:08anne and stuff you know when she played hockey well or the
- 33:11cross weather or something like that at the beginning who was
- 33:14the guy that was crucified the guy
- 33:17that he was some irish informant guy i think and i
- 33:20believe that was gf and stuff did
- 33:23that to him to shut him up before he spilled the
- 33:26beans on them but it is it's not properly it's not
- 33:28fully explained they see you had me see there's
- 33:31some sloppy here the beginning bad some
- 33:35rough editing but you kind of get it once you get the pieces
- 33:37together but with this scene
- 33:41when the guy's nailed to the to the floor still alive
- 33:44yeah but we should have
- 33:47been introduced to this guy the thing i think the thing is all of it this is
- 33:52pretty tight the script but you have to pay super duper attention to every single
- 33:57piece of dialogue and if you're not from the east end of london you have to
- 34:02really listen carefully you know because
- 34:05those accents and all of the Cockney slang and stuff.
- 34:08So yeah, but as far as I can gather, again, this sort of confused me as well,
- 34:12but as far as I can gather, he was basically, he was an Irish guy that the reference earlier,
- 34:19and they basically, I believe it was Jeff that got that done to him to basically
- 34:26shut him up so that he didn't spill the beans to, about Jeff to Harold.
- 34:31Okay. I never saw that. I was confused as hell on that whole thing.
- 34:35But let me see, this is where things come full circle.
- 34:40We finally meet the woman who spat on Jeff. We kind of didn't know what was going on there.
- 34:45Yes. While she's at the gravestone of her husband who was killed,
- 34:48who was just the innocent driver who Jeff hired to bring Colin to the money
- 34:54drop or whatever it was in Belfast.
- 34:56Yes. And again, inconsistency, but you might be right.
- 35:01It might be one of this old boys take care of their own because he says, I'll take care of you.
- 35:06I'll give you the money. Oh, no, that's 100%. I'll give you a hundred pound
- 35:09a week. What else do you need?
- 35:11Let's get you a better headstone. He actually feels sorry. He does feel sorry for this person.
- 35:17It's that old school gangster. That's why I'm still, I don't know, what?
- 35:23Yeah, no, no, it's that old school. school because apparently the
- 35:26craze when they were alive the cray twins were quite popular
- 35:29in their own community because they looked after their own community and stuff
- 35:32so this is a play on that where he's yeah you look after your own
- 35:35the work class people of the east end and sort of you
- 35:37keep your own sort of people right and stuff and you know
- 35:40there's constant references to this throughout the film but this is one of them where
- 35:43he says i'll keep you right i love so there's that it's this whole
- 35:46sort of loyalty amongst thieves you know type thing
- 35:49there's a certain loyalty amongst the underworld I mean they're bad bastards
- 35:53at the same time but there's that certain sort of unwritten rules where you
- 35:57know you look after your dear old mom and you know stuff like that so yes that
- 36:02ties in with that where he's speaking to her and saying I'll keep you right
- 36:05you know I'll pay you a hundred pound a week or whatever.
- 36:07Yeah, yeah. I don't know. He's trying to almost play the Pauly character.
- 36:13Paul Savino played in Goodfellas where he's kind of the head dude.
- 36:17Very likable. Yeah, he's professional, but don't fuck with him.
- 36:22Yes, exactly. 100%. So maybe that's what he was trying to do.
- 36:25I just, I don't. Yes, that's what it was. I just think Paul Savino would do it better.
- 36:30Yeah. Well, Paul Paulskins came first. I know.
- 36:33But okay, Paul Savino did it better. um you
- 36:37kind of i don't know i wasn't intimidated by
- 36:40this guy and you know the problem is and you should
- 36:43be you know the problem is bob hoskins height
- 36:46or lack of lack of it no because you
- 36:49can have that napoleon look at joe pesci you know
- 36:52why yes i know but i think you know who would be much more
- 36:55intimidating and and would terrify me more
- 36:58razors the henchman yeah razors yeah
- 37:02pretty good good he's the real bad bastard like yeah
- 37:05or an older version of alan ford who's in this yeah yeah
- 37:09well alan ford i can't take it well alan ford see alan ford
- 37:12has appeared and like knowing me knowing you it was an alan partridge sort
- 37:15of spoof chat show playing this like a comedy sketch where he's so he's sort
- 37:19of camped up almost the whole sort of cockney geezer you know because you know
- 37:24it's snatch he's brick top which is like a funny character so but yeah god damn
- 37:29it's not turkish I'll fucking sweeten up and snatch. So yeah.
- 37:35I do like when Harold finally loses it because he loves Jeff.
- 37:40Jeff's obviously, you could tell the whole film is his go-to,
- 37:42but he realizes Jeff's one who's fucked him.
- 37:45He calls this, not even Harris at this point, he, he, he obviously stabs him
- 37:50in the throat by, by accident.
- 37:52He's just. Well, he loses it. He just. Completely by accident. Yeah. Yeah.
- 37:58And actually he's the most gruesome death. It's brilliantly played by both actors,
- 38:03but especially Hoskins.
- 38:04Yeah, because he finally loses it and Victoria and Razors have got to take care of him to get him.
- 38:11Then the funky 80s, late 70s music when he's in the shower realizing what he's
- 38:15done and they're burning his clothes. The goblins are back.
- 38:19Yeah, goblins back with the gospel theme.
- 38:22Yeah. I love, I do, my favorite scene is coming up and it's the derby scene,
- 38:30when they're going to meet the IRA who they stole from.
- 38:36It was funny. There is a funny line where he goes, what the fuck is going on here?
- 38:40Yeah, how much was it? 5,000.
- 38:42This is all happening for 5,000 fucking pounds? Yeah, I know he said.
- 38:46But I think there was a bit more and there was a bit more betrayal going on there.
- 38:50Again, it's quite there's a lot going on in the script.
- 38:54You know but it was more
- 38:58about so it was more about controlling controlling the region
- 39:01they were basically looking to step in on harold's ground the ira once they
- 39:06were looking to control london not him you know take it from him well here's
- 39:10the problem i had i didn't really get that and the problem i had even though
- 39:15the derby scene is fucking brutal and awesome i do i do love it i I do love it because,
- 39:20hey, where's the IRA guy?
- 39:23He's like, he's in this car. He just got to the grunt winning a derby race.
- 39:28He's a stock car. We call it over stock car racing. We would call it here. Oh, okay.
- 39:33Yeah, so he's a stock car racer as well. It's just like, and then there's a
- 39:37random IRA sniper in the background watching him with a gun.
- 39:39This is where I'm confused here. So they're going to pay him 60 grand instead of the five grand.
- 39:46No, I know what was the setup. I saw the film.
- 39:50Yes, I know. Jesus, come on, man. So they're setting, no, they're setting the IRA up.
- 39:57Yes, yes. And the IRA are setting them up. Well, I don't think they're setting
- 40:00them up. I think the sniper's just there to protect his boss. Yes, yes, exactly.
- 40:05But then we see the doors kick open and they blow the shit out of the two IRA
- 40:08men. Like razors and stuff, yeah. Yeah, and they fall and get run over by cars. It's pretty awesome.
- 40:13But here's why. This was stupid. but this movie is kind of playing it smart pretty well, you know?
- 40:18It's a who's who. It's a murder mystery almost, you know? Yes, it is.
- 40:22It's got good fellas. It's got Scorsese qualities, Coppola qualities,
- 40:27little egg of the Christie thrown in there. It's working for me.
- 40:31But this is where it kind of loses its footing a bit.
- 40:34How the fuck was he going to get out of this? You just killed a main man of the IRA and his boy.
- 40:41How did he think they were not going to get killed? I think they were there
- 40:45to basically Put the fear up the air right to kill their main man Which they
- 40:48do by the way did you notice Councillor Harris also gets shot in the crossfire By razors and stuff,
- 40:54Oh, yeah, but that's nothing. It was a little too fast.
- 40:58Yeah, it does a lot. Well, the violence does happen here. It happens very quick.
- 41:01Yeah. It's extreme, but it happens very quickly. Yeah.
- 41:04But, yes, basically, they were going to war, but with the IRA,
- 41:09well, arguably, the IRA had went to war with them first, although you could
- 41:12say it was because of Colin.
- 41:14And what do you call it, on Jeff, you know, their lack of loyalty and basically... Greed.
- 41:20Greed. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah, but essentially this is Bob Hoskins as Harold's efforts
- 41:26of going in and putting the fear up the IRA by saying, do not fuck with me.
- 41:31Because he'd be, don't forget, he'd be doing this his whole life up to then
- 41:34with anyone, including those boys on the other side, the ones he hangs upside down in the abattoir.
- 41:38So this is how he deals with how
- 41:41he had up to this point, dealing with any rivals. I think it was stupid.
- 41:46I think if they played with the 60K, they would have got away with it.
- 41:50Well but then the ira would have controlled their patch
- 41:53in fact the entire patch yeah well
- 41:57they don't get away with it because guess i
- 42:00do like the little they get in the cab and there
- 42:03it is james bond and chubby burt reynolds they're back from this that's right
- 42:08off they've told themselves off there's there's a there's a nice shot which
- 42:12i brought up earlier with helen mirren when her car is passing his car and she's
- 42:18just got into a cab with the IRA in there. She didn't know who was the IRA.
- 42:22And you can see her screaming for help. And also apparently.
- 42:29You'd literally blink and you'll miss it. And I missed it, but I was just reading up on it.
- 42:33Apparently also in that shot, if you zoom in really closely,
- 42:36Wazers has been shot in the head dead as well.
- 42:39You know, whenever she's in the car screaming and going, help me! You know?
- 42:43Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Cause he's kind of a protector. So I, that makes sense.
- 42:48But yeah, then you see Bob Hoskins, and it's like a minute, two minutes long
- 42:52of him in the back seat just with Pierce Bronson. Goblin back.
- 42:55With Goblin back. Bob, Bob, Bob.
- 42:57And then Pierce Bronson just looking at him, smiling with the silencer.
- 43:03And you see Bob Hoskins like, fuck me.
- 43:07He knows he's screwed. And it's brilliantly played by him. Yeah, but he was screwed.
- 43:12Oh, yeah. Of course he was. His arrogance got the best of him.
- 43:17Yeah. You weren't going to fuck with these guys.
- 43:21It's an old story, rise and fall of a gangster, but, you know,
- 43:25it's at times confusionally written, but still brilliantly written, if you know.
- 43:31But I think, especially by Hoskins, brilliantly performed.
- 43:36All right. You know? Is this one of your favorites then?
- 43:41I don't know. I don't know if it would be one of my favorites,
- 43:43but out of the whole sort of subgenre of British gangster films,
- 43:46I would consider it as one of the best. Okay.
- 43:49You know, definitely. And it's awfully inspired. I like the guy,
- 43:52Richie, with Lockstock and, you know, Snatch and other ones like that.
- 43:55But it would certainly be one of the best, if not the best, British sort of
- 44:00crime gangster thriller.
- 44:03Yeah. What do you think as an American? I enjoyed it.
- 44:06I mean, I like all the little sub-genres blended in there.
- 44:12Gangster, mystery, and all that stuff. Yeah. Every actor in it is funny.
- 44:16Because you recognize them as they're so young and it's kind of fun,
- 44:19you know, seeing a young Helen Mirren and not, and seeing Bob Hoskins outside
- 44:24talking to a rabbit and, uh, but you know.
- 44:28Bellock, not, not harassing Indiana Jones. Bellock trying to, you know.
- 44:32Trying it on with James Bond. Yeah, trying to get it on with 007. Oh, double O.
- 44:39Um, but yeah, it was, I was entertained. I really, I did, I enjoyed it.
- 44:43I don't think it's, I like better crime dramas was
- 44:46gangster number one i think is better so i think it's ronnie mcdowell's
- 44:49in that one and i like all the
- 44:52guy richie stuff uh the gentleman is such a great guy richies are more stylized
- 44:59as opposed to well i don't think i don't think they're stylized when it comes
- 45:03to his older his new stuff i'd give you yes on that but i think snatch and lock
- 45:08stock and two smoking barrels are a pretty.
- 45:10Well they're sort of almost Tarantino sort of as well.
- 45:15Yeah yeah more of a reservoir dogs feel to them. Oh yeah.
- 45:21Yeah, no, it was good. I recommend it. I'd watch it again. Yeah.
- 45:25It's something I would revisit easily.
- 45:29So it was a fun watch. Everything, you know, everything works.
- 45:35But yeah, so there you go, guys. So there you go. What we got?
- 45:39We got The Long Good Friday, which was Gets a Pass, and we watched Ability.
- 45:45We got Dead Man's Shoes, which you recommended as well.
- 45:50Yep. Gets a pass, but there's no re-watchability, A, just because I don't know
- 45:55how people can sit back and watch that over and over again.
- 45:58I mean, that's just some sick shit.
- 46:01And then you've got the Wicker Man, which is utter shit.
- 46:06So you've got two passes. Three classics I picked.
- 46:12You've got two passes and one pile of shit in the corner.
- 46:16Three classics I picked of British cinema. Yeah. The Wicker Man,
- 46:21Dead Man's Shoes, and The Long Good Friday.
- 46:26We've decided we're going to go something more deeper and thought-provoking now.
- 46:31We're going to Art House, aren't we? We're going to go Art House.
- 46:33Yes, right. Citizen Frame's going to Art House Cinema as we talk the Roadhouse trilogy.
- 46:40We're going to be talking Roadhouse, and yes, there's a sequel called Roadhouse, The Last Call.
- 46:47There you go. And then the, the new Roadhouse, which is actually getting decent
- 46:55reviews, but it's either you like it or you fucking hate it.
- 47:00Apparently, I haven't seen it yet, but I do know that Conor McGregor's performance
- 47:05in it has been getting rave reviews for all the wrong reasons.
- 47:08Yeah. Yeah. I've seen it, but there'll be fun.
- 47:12So we're going to be doing the Roadhouse trilogy. Yeah. And then we'll throw
- 47:16another one in there. because these three are going to be very easy to do.
- 47:20Yeah. Yeah, cool. Yeah. No, thanks, Trevor, for picking some of those.
- 47:24It's nice being introduced to a new film, Long Good Friday. I'd known about
- 47:28it. I've seen it. Yeah. It just got released on 4K. It was a big release.
- 47:32So I might own it. I might put it in my collection. Okay.
- 47:35So it's definitely, Dead Man's Shoes is always, you know, solid little filmmaking.
- 47:41Oh, yeah. All right, guys. Guys, give a shout on CitizenFrame underscore podcast
- 47:47on Instagram and, of course, Facebook.
- 47:50The new issue of Phantasmagoria Hellraiser Edition is out now,
- 47:54available on Amazon worldwide, locally in Belfast here in Forbidden Planet,
- 48:00and a series of different stores in the United States.
- 48:07Yep. Our Hellraiser special.
- 48:11Yeppers. We got some cool things coming up when it comes to people involved
- 48:16with Hellraiser and stuff.
- 48:18Oh, yes. Guys, hold on. We got some treats. We got some treats.
- 48:22Watch this space. So we'll just give you some Sweet Feet Roadhouse.
- 48:27Just to whet your appetite. Just until we figure out what we're going to do next.
- 48:32Alright guys, take care of yourselves. Thanks for listening. Have a good one.
- 48:35Music.