Harry Brown - spoilers

[finn]

This is a 'dark' movie that embodies all the despair of living out the late autumn years of life alone, dealing with loss and the bleakest of futures. Set in London under grey English skies, the shooting and lighting match the weather bringing out the squalor and dampness of inner city living in the UK.

Harry Brown is a retiree living on a meagre pension in South London whose wife is dying and whose sole highlight is studying and playing chess with his best friend. Life is set against a backdrop of housing estate (US read "Projects") gangs of feral youths dealing drugs and violence and intimidating the residents and anyone else crossing their path. When Harry's friend is killed after being tormented and hounded and the Police cannot do anything to prosecute those they know to have been guilty of the crime, Harry's despair turns to cornered rage and he strikes out.

The movie brings together a mix of Death Wish and Gran Torino with Michael Caine being an ex-marine but a pensioner with emphasema unable to move very quickly and prone to collapse. However the spirit is still intact and the training tho' rusty is not gone altogether.

As in Gran Torino there are echoes of Dirty Harry, so too there are echoes of Get Carter in this movie. Michael Caine plays this really well with a gritty humanity in trying to do the right thing fighting a losing battle with last resorts.

It is a dour movie, harking back to some of the UKs 60's realism movies, but an aged Caine puts himself up there with the ageing Eastwood and even the ageing Stallone.

[Menolly]

I adore Michael Cain...

And while this does not sound like my typical movie going fare, your write-up intrigues me, finn. I may just search this one out when it comes to DVD.

Thanks for posting about it.