Harry Brown – 2009
With a quiet demeanor about him Michael Caine turns from lovable old codger into vicious revenge hungry vigilante. Harry Brown is another in a long line of brilliantly crafted British films, its powerful, it has shock value and will leave you gripped all the way through.
There is a sense of ironic hypocrisy with vigilante films, in the beginning we deplore the violence and are appalled by the way the protagonists go about their business of taunting and preying on their victims until they explode.
Then as quickly as they have been vindicated the vigilante stands up and retaliates back, in most cases with more painful and calculated violence.
Michael Caine simply rubber stamps his acting authority on this film, to a point where I wanted to give him a standing ovation at the end. After the loss of his wife, and the death of his friend at the hand of a gang of juvenile delinquents Harry Brown takes matters into his own hands.
Fed up with being afraid all the time, he fights back against those who he believes are “doing it for the entertainment”. Harry is a former marine, a proud man and that much is plain to see from the beginning.
Newbie director Daniel Barber builds the Harry Brown character from sensitive old man to killer in a short space of time. Set against the back drop of a darker side of London, although to be fair he’s not too far away from reality.
A world that is very true to life, and I’m sure that many of us will get a degree of satisfaction from the outcome of this film. The supporting cast are good, more so from the young teenage actors which includes Ben Drew as gang leader Noel.
There are some fantastic scenes, watch out for a sublime performance by Sean Harris as a drug dealer Stretch which is explosive in itself.
This film is must see its as simple as that!
View the trailer
Rating:
(4.5/5)
Visit the IMDb page for Harry Brown
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