I just watched the movie “Harry Brown” on DVD. It was a pretty good “death Wish” style lone vigilante flick, with Michael Caine as an elderly badass out to take care of some murderous yobs (or is it Chavs? Hard to keep my Englandlanderish lingo straight). It is largely a formulaic flick, but still pretty good.
I had been looking forward to seeing this when it came out back in April. But… it never came out. Certainly nowhere near where I live. According to Box Office Mojo, it did a dismal $1.8 million in the US… largely because it apparently didn’t open much of *anywhere.* According to IMDB, it opened on a grand total of 19 screens in the US. A dismal marketting effort for what was a pretty good movie.
But what’s bad about it is the culture shown on the “estate” (which appears to be the equivalent of what Americans would call “The Projects,” and then we’d shudder… some of us would also cross themselves, spit and mutter prayers). I’ve heard that there is a noticable population of feral younguns over yonder; this movie focusses on them. My question, for those who live in the Uk and have seen the movie… within the bounds of the usual distortions produced for the needs of drama in movies, is this areasonably accurate portrayal? Fortunately for me, the DVD came complete with subtitles, which I needed when the feral dumbasses were on screen mushing their way through what passed for speech. I can certainly believe that such a ruined and terrible form of life exists… I saw the Washington, D.C. equivalent of them a few years ago. In both cases I had trouble understanding what they were saying… partly accent, but mostly because in both cases the English language had been reduced to odd idioms liberally sprinkled with expletives (in both cases, pretty much always the *same* expletive). It kinda makes your brain hurt a little to try to think down to that level.
When “A Clockwork Orange” came out, I understand that people saw it as somewhat fantastical. The feral monsters in “A Clockwork Orange” would have their asses handed to them by those in “Harry Brown.”
Caine does an excellent job in this movie. You’ve seen the basic plot before… guy suffers tragedies and losses at the hands of street crime, cops are useless, so he goes and kicks some ass himself. But this time there’s a difference: Caine’s Harry Brown is an old man. Not in good shape at all. So he has to use cleverness and some entertaining brutality to get the job done. And you have *never* heard a better use of the phrase “you have failed to maintain your weapon, son.”
It’s wortha watch. And it’s going for surprising cheap on DVD. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t bother to market a movie: nobody hears about it, and thus there’s no great rush to see it.
9 Responses to “Not So interested In Visiting England Now…”
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I still like the scene in “Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels” when they show up for the big fight with an illegal gun…in that case, a Bren Machine Gun.
You think a BAR looks impressive, bring one of _those_ along someday.
Another movie that was always fun in that regard was “The Crays”, when the opposing crime force pulls out their knives…and runs straight into cutlasses.
Michael Caine never did a bad acting job in his whole life; no matter what the script he had to work with, he would do a inspired portrayal of his character’s part and elevate the whole movie by his acting.
Even in something as fluffy as “Blame It On Rio” he was a ball to watch in action, bringing his character completely alive, and making it completely three-dimensional.
“Zulu”?
Perfection.
Just saw “The Prestige” around a week back, and again he makes the whole movie….which has a really cool Tesla sub-story if you haven’t seen it yet.
Sometimes, Star Trek style transporters have serious drawbacks if they don’t work exactly the way you would think they would.
The Estates are the legacy of Thatcherism. She destroyed UK industry. No jobs, no education, no where to go. She wrote off a generation in the 1980s and this is the outcome. You throw people into endless poverty and this is the sort of thing that results. Capitalism at work. Profits over people.
Although I am a good Fabien socialist, the concept that a society can survive without making a monetary profit of some sort only will work in a world where all other societies abide by the same rules. Otherwise, you are in a baseball game where your side says that: “Three strikes and you are out”.
And the other side says “I’ve got news for you… you try to throw one of our players out, and we’re going to cave your fucking heads in with our baseball bats.”
Fair?
No.
Reality in our present day?
Yup.
> You throw people into endless poverty and this is the sort of thing that results.
Indeed so. And exactly why a permanent Welfare State is an evil concept. Government power thrives on such socialistic horrors.
> the concept that a society can survive without making a monetary profit of some sort only will work in a world where all other societies abide by the same rules.
The concept that a society can survive without making a monetary profit of some sort is a fantasy. Capitalism is *everywhere.* In the Nazi empire, in the midst of the Soviet Union, skulking around Mugabe’s Zimbabwe… in every socialist paradise there are *always* people looking to make a buck. The black market will always exist so long as there are things that people want but that the overmastering State will not provide. And so long as there are things that people want, there will be someone there to provide them.
So even if the socialists like “Dragon” do manage to bring down successful capitalist systems with sabotage, as has been happening with the “global financial crisis,” capitalism will survive. Just as even if the Creationists somehow manage to take over education, evolution won’t stop.
Profit, at root, is the sign that you have produced more than you consumed. If you have no profit, that means you are only producing as much as you consume, and probably less. If you are consuming more than you produce, eventually you will run out of stuff to eat. If EVERYBODY is consuming more than they produce, society will starve until production equates consumption again. The idea that the world could survive or thrive by NOBODY producing a profit is ludicrous.
Getting back to the movie, hopefully there’s something similar to the subway scene in “Death Wish”, where the suitably semi-ethnic perp cuts Chuck’s newspaper open, only to find him holding a revolver behind it.
Caine’s always been one of my favorites. He was awesome in Sleuth.
I happened to watch this tonight while visiting family. Excellent and definitely worth the watch.
Then your next move is obvious: using the Amazon link above, you need to buy a copy for everyone in your family. Maybe two copies.