Set in modern day Britain,
Harry Brown follow's one man's journey through a chaotic world where drugs are the currency of the day and guns run the streets. A modest law-abiding citizen, Harry Brown is a retired Marine and a widower who lives alone on a depressed housing estate. His only company is his best friend Leonard (David Bradley). When Leonard is murdered by a gang of thugs, Harry feels compelled to act and is forced to dispense his own brand of justice. As he bids to clean up the run-down estate where he lives, his actions bring him into conflict with the police, led by investigating officer DCI Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and Charlie Creed-Miles. With its themes of rampant urban decay and crime, mistreatment of the elderly, and vigilantism,
Harry Brown will inevitably be compared to earlier movies from
Death Wish to
Gran Torino. The compariso! ns are apt, but with the able assistance of Michael Caine in the title role, director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Gary Young's tale stands on its own, grimly but compellingly. Caine's Harry Brown, a retiree and former marine, lives alone in a flat in a decrepit London council estate, spending his time visiting his comatose wife in the hospital, playing chess at the local pub with his only friend (David Bradley), and gazing out at the quotidian violence and drug dealing carried out with virtual impunity by the insolent young thugs and lowlifes on the estate grounds. It's a lonely existence that only gets sadder when his wife dies and his pal is murdered; and when the police inform him that nailing those responsible will be next to impossible, Harry turns dirty. His first killing is in self-defense, but once he gets hold of a gun (obtained from a dealer-junkie in a nightmarishly vivid scene), it is
on, as our "vigilante pensioner" takes no prisoners in his pursuit o! f street justice. The cops, who are mostly depicted as clueles! s and th oroughly inept, assume the local gangs are responsible; only Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer), about the only one with a brain and a heart, suspects Harry, and she plays an important role as the film careens towards its operatically brutal climax. The scenes of violence are intense but very well staged, and the film's overall look and downbeat color palette effectively convey the sense of squalid hopelessness permeating this stratum of British existence.
Harry Brown isn't a lot of fun, but it will stick with you.
--Sam GrahamSet in modern day Britain,
Harry Brown follow's one man's journey through a chaotic world where drugs are the currency of the day and guns run the streets. A modest law-abiding citizen, Harry Brown is a retired Marine and a widower who lives alone on a depressed housing estate. His only company is his best friend Leonard (David Bradley). When Leonard is murdered by a gang of thugs, Harry feels compelled to act and ! is forced to dispense his own brand of justice. As he bids to clean up the run-down estate where he lives, his actions bring him into conflict with the police, led by investigating officer DCI Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and Charlie Creed-Miles. With its themes of rampant urban decay and crime, mistreatment of the elderly, and vigilantism,
Harry Brown will inevitably be compared to earlier movies from
Death Wish to
Gran Torino. The comparisons are apt, but with the able assistance of Michael Caine in the title role, director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Gary Young's tale stands on its own, grimly but compellingly. Caine's Harry Brown, a retiree and former marine, lives alone in a flat in a decrepit London council estate, spending his time visiting his comatose wife in the hospital, playing chess at the local pub with his only friend (David Bradley), and gazing out at the quotidian violence and drug dealing carried out with virtual impunity by the insole! nt young thugs and lowlifes on the estate grounds. It's a lone! ly exist ence that only gets sadder when his wife dies and his pal is murdered; and when the police inform him that nailing those responsible will be next to impossible, Harry turns dirty. His first killing is in self-defense, but once he gets hold of a gun (obtained from a dealer-junkie in a nightmarishly vivid scene), it is
on, as our "vigilante pensioner" takes no prisoners in his pursuit of street justice. The cops, who are mostly depicted as clueless and thoroughly inept, assume the local gangs are responsible; only Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer), about the only one with a brain and a heart, suspects Harry, and she plays an important role as the film careens towards its operatically brutal climax. The scenes of violence are intense but very well staged, and the film's overall look and downbeat color palette effectively convey the sense of squalid hopelessness permeating this stratum of British existence.
Harry Brown isn't a lot of fun, but it w! ill stick with you.
--Sam GrahamUnited Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Interactive Menu, Music Video, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Set in modern-day Britain, Harry Brown follows one man's (Sir Michael Caine) journey through a chaotic world where drugs are the currency of the day and guns run the streets. A modest law-abiding citizen, Harry Brown is a retired Marine and a widower who lives alone on a depressed housing estate. His only company is his best friend Leonard (David Bradley). When Leonard is murdered by a gang of thugs, Harry feels compelled to act and is forced to dispense his own brand of justice. As he bids to clean up the run-down estate where he lives, his a! ctions bring him into conflict with the police, led by investi! gating o fficer DCI Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and Sergeant Hickock (Charlie Creed-Miles). ...Harry BrownShe's brown sugar and spice...and if you don't watch it, she'll put you on ice! Delivering a performance worthy of "the Queen of the genre" (Los Angeles Times), Grier portrays one of the screens first action heroines with humor, sensitivity and steely determination. This electrifying revenge thriller explodes with all the sex appeal and cooler-than-cool attitude of its irresistible leading lady. Foxy Brown (Grier) has found her soulmate in an undercover narcotics investigator, but when he is brutally murdered, she swears vengeance against the crime ring responsible. Posing asa call girl to gain access to the ring's inner circle, Foxy discovers just how high the corruption extends, igniting a blistering war that takes her from the city streets to a remote drug laboratory to a breathtaking midair battle behind the controls of an airplane! But the most startling confrontations are ye! t to come as she schemes to bring down her boyfriend's killers in ways they never could have imagined.Pam Grier, the voluptuous queen of blaxploitation movies (and the foxy title character of Quentin Tarantino's
Jackie Brown) reigns supreme in this kick-ass action flick. Bodacious nurse Foxy takes the law into her own hands after her main squeeze is murdered in cold blood. The standard revenge plot of
Foxy Brown moves along on fast-forward, and the violence ratio (some of it quite gruesome) is high. Director Jack Hill, a master of the low-budget drive-in movie (
Switchblade Sisters), made
Coffy with Pam Grier the year before. This one's not quite as much fun, but it is decidedly kinkier, and the parade of 1970s fashion crimes is mind expanding. At one crucial moment Foxy saves herself by pulling a concealed revolver out of her mighty Afro--absolutely one of the high points of blaxploitation cinema.
--Robert Horton Pam Grier, the voluptuous ! queen of blaxploitation movies (and the foxy title character o! f Quenti n Tarantino's
Jackie Brown) reigns supreme in this kick-ass action flick. Bodacious nurse Foxy takes the law into her own hands after her main squeeze is murdered in cold blood. The standard revenge plot of
Foxy Brown moves along on fast-forward, and the violence ratio (some of it quite gruesome) is high. Director Jack Hill, a master of the low-budget drive-in movie (
Switchblade Sisters), made
Coffy with Pam Grier the year before. This one's not quite as much fun, but it is decidedly kinkier, and the parade of 1970s fashion crimes is mind expanding. At one crucial moment Foxy saves herself by pulling a concealed revolver out of her mighty Afro--absolutely one of the high points of blaxploitation cinema.
--Robert Horton
