I watched this again this Easter (2023) and was once more reminded what a great movie it is- and it thunders along at a great pace. For us brits it’s an all time classic, quotable film that has never faded. This was a good retrospective and also reminds us how fire Kirsty Wark was.
Thank god for George Harrison and Handmade Films. And their balls, in buying the rights and releasing TLGF in cinemas. The big studios and distributors always were dicks. But this is a real gem and a good upload, so thanks 👍It's always fascinating to see and hear about productions, and go behind the scenes.
I'm not surprised ITC nearly cocked it up, with the TV series they made all they were interested in was selling to America despite the fact they hadn't got a clue what the US TV audience was completely different from British audiences, so TV series like Gerry Anderson's UFO were dumped
Nice to see a Documentary about this fantastic film, but very surprised there was no mention of its awesome Sound track, the main theme is a big part of what makes this film so good, when you look at any of the best films made they all have great Sound tracks, the James Bond films, The Exorcist, Halloween, Colin Towns theme for Full Circle 1977, are a few examples of how important the right music track is, and the part it plays,to add to making a film stand out, a great theme was picked for this film, it was something I loved about The Long Good Friday, when it came out, together with great acting, great cast, great script, great cinematography, & Directing of scenes, but also a great Soundtrack, is what makes this in my view one of the best British films ever, and one of the most watched films in my collection of 5,000 VHS video Tapes.
@@lednails It's great. But Goodfellas is in its own category. TLGF is great, but it's not only not as good as Goodfellas or The Godfather, it's not even as good as Get Carter, which is a masterpiece.
@@JohnInTheShelter it is better than get carter and goodfellas, which are both brilliant films, godfather 1 and 2 could be considered better though TLGF is my favourite film for personal reasons
I saw it during its first US run in San Francisco after reading a review. I was taking a bit of a risk, but I have to rank it as one of the best "risks" I’ve ever taken. To this day it retains its place in my all time top ten, along with a top spot in my favorite genre, gangster films. I place Bob Hoskins as one of the all time best screen gangsters. He’s every bit as good as Edward G. Robinson's Johnny Rocco, DeNiro and Pesci in "Goodfellas" and "Casino", and Bogart in "The Roaring Twenties", or Richard Widmark in "The Street with no Name". This is not to say that the other actors, along with everyone else involved, don’t deserve credit as well, but BH is the central focus, or maybe more accurately the eye of the hurricane, without whom the film revolves. Helen Mirren deserves nearly as much credit herself for her portrayal as the sophisticated and intelligent partner in crime, and life overall that allows "H" to reach his full potential. I’m really glad I found this documentary. Now I’m going to have to watch "The Long Good Friday" again…
Bogart in The Roaring Twenties? Have you forgotten that was Cagney's picture, with Bogart only a peripheral character. Love Bogart ,but he was never convincing as a street level gangster, too upper class...
You can't watch it often enough. It's brilliant, the pace never let's up, the performances are flawless and during the last minutes when the camera is on Bob Hoskins' face you can see him thinking through everything that has happened, any possible way out, coming to terms with the fact that there is none - absolutely superb.
There was an edit and redub that found its way onto video. Maybe it was the tv version. The main change was in the final confrontation between Jeff and Harold on the boat. I distinctly remember lines from Jeff like “You’re washed up, finished...... me and Harris have got this whole thing sewn up”, at which point they pick up on the original dialogue with Harold shouting “It’s s my manor!”. It changed the plot from a mistake made by Jeff escalating into an uncontrollable situation and acceptance on his behalf about the inevitability of defeat at the hands of the IRA into a scheme plotted from the very beginning to take over Harold’s organisation using Harris and helped by the IRA. I wonder whether this change was insisted upon in the mid to late eighties when sensitivities grew because IRA action was very prominent on the news. I’m happy to say that this edit has not survived on the copy of the film that I have.
@@TheBermudaMan You mean if he was Blofeld the head of Spectre???.......shure big Sean Connery always beat them single handed! You'll have to rethink ur strategy!!!
@@torquemada3273 So the IRA are...what, Zeus and all of the Olympians? Both you and the movie make the same bizarre mistake of turning these assholes into invincible demigods.
'Harold Shand is Thatcher's boy'..... Superb brit film. So revealing about the early 80s in London. All that malarky with Mr Grade! Classic Ealing comedy stuff.
I seen when it first came out in Dublin. One of the best gangster movies of all times up there with good fellas. Thought the story was different from the normal gangster film. Hello from Ireland
A proper gangster film that stands with the very best. These actors were exceptional and so was the script but Im glad to see the producers, writer and directors getting the credit they deserve at last. and well done George Harrison for having he courage to go with it. I found out that they wanted to voice over Bob Hoskin's role!, can you believe that, they wanted something like Devon accent , it would have been a disaster lol. More proof that many great movies were ruined by producers. Bob left us with some really great stuff bless him, Some more of the actors should have made it here I think
This was actually the reason I watched the film in the first place. Was a huge fan of Monkman's work in Sky (and earlier), and when I heard he'd done a film score, I rented the video. Knew nothing about it other than Monkman's involvement, and came away totally wowed by the whole film - brilliant.
@@Synthnerd11 Me too. In point of fact the soundtrack album is a Sky album in all but name. The entire band except John Williams were on the December 1979 recording sessions.
adrian Grant Thanks heavens that *never* happened. That just reeks of forced sequel straight off the worst superhero comics. Shand was a goner. All his top men had already been taken care of and Victoria was probably killed too. He had nobody left by the end of The Long Good Friday. Him facing certain death in the end is also symbolic in that he represents a dying breed of old-school gangsters. That's it. The end. A great story doesn't need to be told twice and certainly doesn't need some contrived sequel. In fact sequels are almost always vastly inferior to the original classic. Last of all. Harold Shand isn't some hero. He is the protagonist but in the end he faces the grim reaper the same way he ended the lives of his competitors in the past. It's poetic justice. Knowing he double-crossed both the IRA and Harris at the stock car race there's no sympathy for him left. I consider the ending brilliant. Shand underestimated his enemies and now has to pay the ultimate price. In the final seconds it's also clear by his facial expression that he has resigned to his fate and know his life is over. Like I said - no more story to be told there.
This WAS a great film with great acting and explaains the underlying tensions of the obvious 'accident waiting to happen that was Thatcher and IRA. A big bang in Brighton was the obvious outcome !
Barry Hanson said it was filmed before Thatcher got in, which is not true: Thatcher got in on 4th May '79 (not the Autumn as he says) and it was filmed (according to IMDb) between August-October '79. So the point that this saw the beginning of Thatcherism is somewhat more pertinent.
"Lead actor with their voice redubbed" Let's have a word with Mr. Dave Prowse about this :) Having just recently rewatched the film, it was fascinating to see this doco. LGF deserves to be better known.
It was without doubt the best ever British gangster films ever made, it was way ahead of it's time and you didn't know who was taking out Harold's men, Thatcher wanted it banned, the Americans wanted the cockney accent dubbed to American which would have ruined it, The character Bob Hoskins based Harold on was Fred Foreman, I felt sorry for Harold, he was old school ,didn't deal in drugs then he's about to put the biggest deals together the 1988 Olympics but the IRA angle ruined his dreams wiped put half his firm ,he should have worked with them ,he thought by taking out the IRA cell in London that would be it, as Jeff told him the British army have been taking pt shots at them for ten yrs and you're not impressed ,but Harold was too British and wouldn't allow his pride to be taken so he was a bit naive to think after killing the IRA unit they wouldn't be a comeback ,Pierce Brosnon future James Bond takes him in the end. Classic film
"he should have worked with them" I simply can't see Harold Shand ever working with the IRA at any level. First and foremost it's clear he's a "proud Briton" and as such it's a fair bet that the IRA - which hates the whole British state and history, and actively wants to see it dismantled or destroyed - would always be seen as enemies to him. I also don't see him paying them off to leave him and his organisation alone since he's already furious when he learns that Harris has been forced use some of the organisation's money to make sure the houses are built in Belfast - or the IRA step in and do their thing. Bribing them off simply means they leach off of him and can use that money to do more damage. He's never going to accept that. Since Shand has dealt with rival crime organisations in the past and wiped his competitors out ("for ten years we've had peace") and let the smaller local gangs become his "vassals", it's also clear he views the IRA as just another crime organisation he'll take care of the same way he took care of his by now dead competitors. This is why he wrongly believes that by killing the local leader of the IRA in London at the stock car race in a brutal manner the whole organisation will be beheaded and the others will be too scared to go up against him again. Harris warns him that he doesn't understand them at all and that they're not motivated by money but are fanatics who'll stop at nothing to get their way. In fact any acts of brutality against them only seems to make them even more fanatical. The dice was cast the moment Colin took £5000 for himself.
Love the idea of an Englishman, lording over his empire, and its subjects, however, there is a fly in the ointment, the empire's oldest thorn, Ireland, which would eventually bring him down, as in a way it brought Thatcher down. So many parallels, wrapped up in this metaphor of gangsterism.
Only a woman would go in a tell eveyone what they should change and get away with it... Maybe Pierce Brosnan should have insisted on some lines as well..
Did i miss one of the fundamental components of this film being gone over here... the incredible and timeless Francis Monkman score.
One of the best films of all time. Brilliant script, brilliant acting, brilliant direction and even alot of dark humour thrown in.
and a top synth soundtrack by Monkman
Bob's performance in that ending car ride was chillingly amazing. Not a word spoken, his face portrays everything.
Same here. You can hear his mind churning. He goes through a whole gamet of emotions...and to me, I read that he had a plan.
@@simonclord7697 Yeah...a funeral plan!
He knew he was going to die, and there was no point in screaming or begging, just some frustration and then calm collectedness.
Pro tip : watch series on Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using them for watching loads of movies recently.
@Sonny Henry yea, I have been watching on flixzone} for since december myself :)
R.I.P the late, great & sadly underrated by some in the business, Sir Bob Hoskins.
How interesting. Just seen the film again. No other British film affected me like this one. A truly iconic piece of work.
its cheezi- & corniness make for some cringey laughs...! 🍸
So now, another twenty years on, it's still considered one of the best movies ever made ... anywhere
the great ones don't ever fall off the list...the list just gets longer
In Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, it simply says "...this has to go down as one of the greatest gangster films of all time". And who could disagree?
I watched this again this Easter (2023) and was once more reminded what a great movie it is- and it thunders along at a great pace. For us brits it’s an all time classic, quotable film that has never faded. This was a good retrospective and also reminds us how fire Kirsty Wark was.
I watched this as we approach Easter 2024. Happy Easter, mate. Great film.
It is such a legendary film
One of the best films of all time, so many iconic moments, that abattoir scene gets me every time
Best British film ever made stands up to this day as something special.
Thank god for George Harrison and Handmade Films. And their balls, in buying the rights and releasing TLGF in cinemas. The big studios and distributors always were dicks. But this is a real gem and a good upload, so thanks 👍It's always fascinating to see and hear about productions, and go behind the scenes.
I'm not surprised ITC nearly cocked it up, with the TV series they made all they were interested in was selling to America despite the fact they hadn't got a clue what the US TV audience was completely different from British audiences, so TV series like Gerry Anderson's UFO were dumped
The best British gangster film 🎥 ever made 👌 100 💯 per cent .
Toss up,for me
Long Good Friday and Get Carter.The two best gangster films out of the U.K!!
TLGF - all day long.
Get carter classic, you're a big man but, you're in bad shape for me it's a full time job
Lee Wilson good Friday coz of a sexy mirren
plus Villain and Robbery
@ian Campbell indeed!
Nice to see a Documentary about this fantastic film, but very surprised there was no mention of its awesome Sound track, the main theme is a big part of what makes this film so good, when you look at any of the best films made they all have great Sound tracks, the James Bond films, The Exorcist, Halloween, Colin Towns theme for Full Circle 1977, are a few examples of how important the right music track is, and the part it plays,to add to making a film stand out, a great theme was picked for this film, it was something I loved about The Long Good Friday, when it came out, together with great acting, great cast, great script, great cinematography, & Directing of scenes, but also a great Soundtrack, is what makes this in my view one of the best British films ever, and one of the most watched films in my collection of 5,000 VHS video Tapes.
Without doubt one of the very best British movies
RIP Bob Hoskins
Sadly missed
Guy Ritchie and Coppola watching TLGF: "Goddammit..."
One of the best films ever made gritty British realism at its best They dont make films like the long good friday anymore thats for sure
My favorite gangster movie of all time, better than The Godfather and anything Scorsese ever done. More relevant now than then!
Talorc MacAllan double poofter
@@jquest43 Prick ... Double
Talorc MacAllan triple poofter
@@lednails It's great. But Goodfellas is in its own category. TLGF is great, but it's not only not as good as Goodfellas or The Godfather, it's not even as good as Get Carter, which is a masterpiece.
@@JohnInTheShelter it is better than get carter and goodfellas, which are both brilliant films, godfather 1 and 2 could be considered better though TLGF is my favourite film for personal reasons
I saw it during its first US run in San Francisco after reading a review. I was taking a bit of a risk, but I have to rank it as one of the best "risks" I’ve ever taken. To this day it retains its place in my all time top ten, along with a top spot in my favorite genre, gangster films. I place Bob Hoskins as one of the all time best screen gangsters. He’s every bit as good as Edward G. Robinson's Johnny Rocco, DeNiro and Pesci in "Goodfellas" and "Casino", and Bogart in "The Roaring Twenties", or Richard Widmark in "The Street with no Name".
This is not to say that the other actors, along with everyone else involved, don’t deserve credit as well, but BH is the central focus, or maybe more accurately the eye of the hurricane, without whom the film revolves. Helen Mirren deserves nearly as much credit herself for her portrayal as the sophisticated and intelligent partner in crime, and life overall that allows "H" to reach his full potential.
I’m really glad I found this documentary. Now I’m going to have to watch "The Long Good Friday" again…
Bogart in The Roaring Twenties? Have you forgotten that was Cagney's picture, with Bogart only a peripheral character. Love Bogart ,but he was never convincing as a street level gangster, too upper class...
@Tee See You saand a bit like Bob 'Oskins there me old sun!
You can't watch it often enough. It's brilliant, the pace never let's up, the performances are flawless and during the last minutes when the camera is on Bob Hoskins' face you can see him thinking through everything that has happened, any possible way out, coming to terms with the fact that there is none - absolutely superb.
Yep, Hoskins knocked this one out of the park. Also, Paul Bettany in Gangster Number 1 is nothing to sneeze at!
@Tee See It was a risk in how I bought a ticket for a movie, and could have gotten burned had the movie been a flop…
The Best Number One Gangster British Empire Movie Ever Made.
Anyone else imagining George Harrison telling Harold Shand he's a pacifist and Harrold Shand nutting him lol.
my favourite brit film...
David Daker (Boon, Only Fools & Horses, Porridge, Minder) was the actor they used to dub Harold Shand in the film for American screenings.
Thanks so much for posting
There was an edit and redub that found its way onto video. Maybe it was the tv version. The main change was in the final confrontation between Jeff and Harold on the boat. I distinctly remember lines from Jeff like “You’re washed up, finished...... me and Harris have got this whole thing sewn up”, at which point they pick up on the original dialogue with Harold shouting “It’s s my manor!”.
It changed the plot from a mistake made by Jeff escalating into an uncontrollable situation and acceptance on his behalf about the inevitability of defeat at the hands of the IRA into a scheme plotted from the very beginning to take over Harold’s organisation using Harris and helped by the IRA. I wonder whether this change was insisted upon in the mid to late eighties when sensitivities grew because IRA action was very prominent on the news.
I’m happy to say that this edit has not survived on the copy of the film that I have.
I think Shand COULD have defeated the IRA with enough brains and cunning...but unfortunately he was more mad bulldog than master strategist.
@@TheBermudaMan You mean if he was Blofeld the head of Spectre???.......shure big Sean Connery always beat them single handed! You'll have to rethink ur strategy!!!
@@TheBermudaMan the british empire couldnt beat them, the biggest gangsters that the world have ever seen
@@torquemada3273 So the IRA are...what, Zeus and all of the Olympians? Both you and the movie make the same bizarre mistake of turning these assholes into invincible demigods.
@@oranbhoy67 Sorry, I missed the memo that said the IRA had access to their own set of Game Genie cheat codes.
'Harold Shand is Thatcher's boy'..... Superb brit film. So revealing about the early 80s in London. All that malarky with Mr Grade! Classic Ealing comedy stuff.
And ironically Bob Hoskins detested Thatcher.
@@simonclord7697 he also detested Tony Blair
I seen when it first came out in Dublin. One of the best gangster movies of all times up there with good fellas. Thought the story was different from the normal gangster film. Hello from Ireland
Imagine writing a screenplay which incorporates East London gangsters, the American Mafia and the IRA! And to make it credible! Genius!
A classic film for the underworld
a classic film 4 my time growing up in londons east end after the kray twins bob hoskins ia amazing rip
Incredible film
Masterpiece
A proper gangster film that stands with the very best. These actors were exceptional and so was the script but Im glad to see the producers, writer and directors getting the credit they deserve at last. and well done George Harrison for having he courage to go with it. I found out that they wanted to voice over Bob Hoskin's role!, can you believe that, they wanted something like Devon accent , it would have been a disaster lol. More proof that many great movies were ruined by producers. Bob left us with some really great stuff bless him, Some more of the actors should have made it here I think
Err Devon accent ? don't you listen it was with a Wolverhampton accent ! ! !
Forty minutes and not one mention of Francis Monkman's brilliant soundtrack. Shame.
...Still want to hear the Wolverhampton Harold Shand, though.
Agreed the soundtrack is awesome ... my favourite movie theme of all time
This was actually the reason I watched the film in the first place. Was a huge fan of Monkman's work in Sky (and earlier), and when I heard he'd done a film score, I rented the video. Knew nothing about it other than Monkman's involvement, and came away totally wowed by the whole film - brilliant.
@@Synthnerd11 Me too. In point of fact the soundtrack album is a Sky album in all but name. The entire band except John Williams were on the December 1979 recording sessions.
So so so good
A script was written for The Long Good Friday 2.
In it, Shand escapes when the Jag is stopped by police.
Sadly, it was never taken up,
Is that right? P
It was actually a book FYI called Easter black Monday,they was thinking about, doing a sequel to TLGF
adrian Grant
Thanks heavens that *never* happened. That just reeks of forced sequel straight off the worst superhero comics. Shand was a goner. All his top men had already been taken care of and Victoria was probably killed too. He had nobody left by the end of The Long Good Friday. Him facing certain death in the end is also symbolic in that he represents a dying breed of old-school gangsters. That's it. The end.
A great story doesn't need to be told twice and certainly doesn't need some contrived sequel. In fact sequels are almost always vastly inferior to the original classic.
Last of all. Harold Shand isn't some hero. He is the protagonist but in the end he faces the grim reaper the same way he ended the lives of his competitors in the past. It's poetic justice. Knowing he double-crossed both the IRA and Harris at the stock car race there's no sympathy for him left.
I consider the ending brilliant. Shand underestimated his enemies and now has to pay the ultimate price. In the final seconds it's also clear by his facial expression that he has resigned to his fate and know his life is over.
Like I said - no more story to be told there.
I disagree but I think a sequal could have been made
Written in three days!
This WAS a great film with great acting and explaains the underlying tensions of the obvious 'accident waiting to happen that was Thatcher and IRA. A big bang in Brighton was the obvious outcome !
Honestly I'm happy that Harold Shand survived in the unmade sequel. He's just too likable.
Barry Hanson said it was filmed before Thatcher got in, which is not true: Thatcher got in on 4th May '79 (not the Autumn as he says) and it was filmed (according to IMDb) between August-October '79. So the point that this saw the beginning of Thatcherism is somewhat more pertinent.
Pierce Bosnian first role in long good Friday
No, he's Irish.
whats the music played in behind in the 2nd minute of this video?
He does not make the speech on the boat 5:57 not the speech she was referring to.
Never saw the bottle scene before.
The mafia? I shat em!
Thanks to Magus26 for uploading this great documentary!
Filmed in 1979 not 1981. Already a mistake.
My fav. film of all time but done as soon as she said that.
Yes was sitting on the shelf a few years.
Filmed in 1979 and released in 1980.
Harold Shand =Freddie Foreman ?
Oh shut up.
"Lead actor with their voice redubbed"
Let's have a word with Mr. Dave Prowse about this :)
Having just recently rewatched the film, it was fascinating to see this doco. LGF deserves to be better known.
Lol
Irony is Shand actually survives in the end, in the script for the sequel he is rescued by anti-terrorist police.
I member of cast and the rest is crew
Should have been a sequal
It was without doubt the best ever British gangster films ever made, it was way ahead of it's time and you didn't know who was taking out Harold's men, Thatcher wanted it banned, the Americans wanted the cockney accent dubbed to American which would have ruined it, The character Bob Hoskins based Harold on was Fred Foreman, I felt sorry for Harold, he was old school ,didn't deal in drugs then he's about to put the biggest deals together the 1988 Olympics but the IRA angle ruined his dreams wiped put half his firm ,he should have worked with them ,he thought by taking out the IRA cell in London that would be it, as Jeff told him the British army have been taking pt shots at them for ten yrs and you're not impressed ,but Harold was too British and wouldn't allow his pride to be taken so he was a bit naive to think after killing the IRA unit they wouldn't be a comeback ,Pierce Brosnon future James Bond takes him in the end. Classic film
"he should have worked with them"
I simply can't see Harold Shand ever working with the IRA at any level. First and foremost it's clear he's a "proud Briton" and as such it's a fair bet that the IRA - which hates the whole British state and history, and actively wants to see it dismantled or destroyed - would always be seen as enemies to him. I also don't see him paying them off to leave him and his organisation alone since he's already furious when he learns that Harris has been forced use some of the organisation's money to make sure the houses are built in Belfast - or the IRA step in and do their thing. Bribing them off simply means they leach off of him and can use that money to do more damage. He's never going to accept that.
Since Shand has dealt with rival crime organisations in the past and wiped his competitors out ("for ten years we've had peace") and let the smaller local gangs become his "vassals", it's also clear he views the IRA as just another crime organisation he'll take care of the same way he took care of his by now dead competitors. This is why he wrongly believes that by killing the local leader of the IRA in London at the stock car race in a brutal manner the whole organisation will be beheaded and the others will be too scared to go up against him again. Harris warns him that he doesn't understand them at all and that they're not motivated by money but are fanatics who'll stop at nothing to get their way. In fact any acts of brutality against them only seems to make them even more fanatical.
The dice was cast the moment Colin took £5000 for himself.
The pay-off line, tells you everything you need to know, about the ponce who made it.
you gotta be kidding, right? I mean, what must've truly happened to good ol' G.B., shifting which side of the pond it wishes to be lain...?
Michael cane would of been bad ass in this
20:00 it represent betrayal - obviously
Shame the format of this video is wrong. Picture is squashed.
Brill
1:14 loose definition of household name
He is one of those actors many many people would recognise but no where near as many could name him
Derek Thompson is a household name in the UK. He has played one of the main characters on Casualty for 37 years.
Love the idea of an Englishman, lording over his empire, and its subjects, however, there is a fly in the ointment, the empire's oldest thorn, Ireland, which would eventually bring him down, as in a way it brought Thatcher down. So many parallels, wrapped up in this metaphor of gangsterism.
How did Ireland bring Thatcher down?
@@cityzens634 I wouldn’t say they directly brought her down, but the IRA did attempt to assassinate her.
@@DDavy2014 And failed
Wrong Interviewer. I'm sure she didn't really care about the film.
Agreed.
Only a woman would go in a tell eveyone what they should change and get away with it... Maybe Pierce Brosnan should have insisted on some lines as well..
The bollocks
Middle class luvies. Whining about thatcher
Well, she did sell out most of the British industry and know-how to foreigners didn't she?
Hate the presenter. Great film though.
Overrated film.
THE Greatest London Gangster Film Ever with the brilliant Bob Hoskins, so sadly missed
Did know Bob ?