The opening scene of Michael Caine’s new thriller Harry Brown is uncomfortable viewing. Seen through the shaky lens of a mobile phone camera, the grainy footage depicts a young mother being shot dead in broad daylight by a teenager on the back of a motorbike. The murderer is the cameraman, quite happy to record his work like he’s compiling a video that will become the latest hit on YouTube.
It’s the sort of video that strangely doesn’t seem so surprising these days. More of a pertinent reminder of the kind of gun crimes that have dominated British news broadcasts in recent years. If anything, the content is a little too close for comfort
It’s a clear pre-cursor to the film’s central themes. Harry Brown (Michael Caine) and the residents of a London council estate are living an oppressed existence thanks to a malevolent gang culture that infects the surrounding streets. The gangs haunt the underpasses by night and prey upon unsuspecting couples by daylight.
In truth, the high rise flats of this London suburb are anonymous enough to be applicable to almost any run down suburb of any British city. In fact, there’s little suggestion of the film’s location other than the giveaway cockney dialect.
Harry Brown – The Reluctant Hero
Harry’s a passive individual, hardened and scarred into silence by his time in the armed forces and the recent sudden death of his beloved wife. Although disapproving, he’s happy to turn a blind eye to the insolent gangs that are ruining the estate. Anything for an easy life.
However, Harry’s best friend Leonard (David Bradley) has reached breaking point following a series of intimidation techniques that have made his life a misery. He’s “living in fear”, as he tells Harry in the pub one afternoon while brandishing the knife he intends to use to get one over his tormentors.
Interesting Character Perspectives in Harry Brown
What is intriguing about Harry Brown is its alternative view of gang crime – that of an outsider’s point of view. Rather than placing us at the centre of the gang, with its sociopaths the primary characters, or focusing on the origins or inner fragilities of the perpetrators of anti-social behaviour (like recent films such as Kidulthood or 1 Day), Harry Brown is from the victims standpoint.
Over analysis of urban youth disillusionment is not high on the agenda. The thugs in director Daniel Barber’s first feature film are raw, conscience-free criminals, the perfect evil antagonists in a thriller with a backdrop that is a telling reminder that – even if a little fancifully represented through Harry Brown’s unravelling – these things are happening on the streets of Britain.
Turning Point
Just a few days after Leonard’s admission, detective inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and streetwise officer Childs (Iain Glen) arrive on Harry’s doorstep to inform him that Leonard’s murdered body has been discovered in the underpass, bludgeoned with his very own knife.
The revelation is the catalyst for Harry to take the law into his own hands and he makes the decision to hunt down his best friend’s killers.
With a police force powerless to hold any solid charges against the suspects, Harry’s rage spirals into a vigilante mission. A cleansing of the streets soon manifests the characteristics of a full blown murderous rampage.
Sign of the Times
Anyone who’s lived in similar areas and been on the wrong end of Britain’s gang culture epidemic will find it hard not to feel slight sadistic pangs of humour during Harry Brown’s murder spree. This is certainly one film that, should a copycat-killing pensioner arise from, you’d happily turn an appreciative blind eye to. As far as tapping into the social conscience goes, Harry Brown certainly utilises current public attitudes to Britain’s urban gang culture for dramatic effect.
It would be interesting to see how this film is remembered in 30 years time, should Britain’s knife and gun crime have subsided by then of course. In some respects Harry Brown is just as much a documentation of the time we live in as many 1950’s Hollywood movies were a clear sign of America’s paranoia, utilising anti-communism to create a sense of fear (Invasion of the Bodysnatchers being the prime example) or how Middle Eastern terrorists became the antagonists of action films post 9/11. Will ‘hoodie’ films such as this be studied in the same way by academics of the future?
Creating the World of Harry Brown
The cinematography, set design and soundtrack certainly play a huge part in creating the film’s atmosphere. The low-key lighting, overcast daylight and heavy emphasis on night time shoots serve to exaggerate the high-rise misery. Concrete greys and solemn looking pubs dominate Harry’s world and the general emptiness of the whole place establishes his inherent loneliness.
The tension in this movie is also undeniable. One scene in particular where Harry first crosses the line into criminality by visiting a drug and arms dealer is brilliantly constructed. Slow and suspenseful, the scene is accompanied by a baseline score that certainly owes a lot to infrasound, a technique in which low frequency sound waves are emitted to create a sense of unease within the viewer. This disturbing feeling is palpable throughout the duration of this movie.
But this is very much Michael Caine’s film. As ever he is the epitome of cool in the lead role.
Brown cleans up the streets of London with the kind of deadly aplomb akin to an old-age Travis Bickle (without the psychosis). However, Harry Brown also has echoes of another Caine classic. Like a reworking of Get Carter for the ‘happy slapping’ generation, we afford Harry’s transgression the same kind of sympathy as the vengeful Jack Carter tracking down his brother’s murderers. The thought of a murdering pensioner might normally seem a little far fetched, although Caine, at the ripe age of 76 not only makes you believe in his character but re-winds the clock to the halcyon gangster character days of the 60’s and 70’s.
Verdict: 4.5/5
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