FILM CHALLENGE: 86) Harry Brown

86) Harry Brown

Director: Daniel Barber

Year: 2009

Plot Summary: Retired widower Harry Brown spends his lonely life playing chess with his only friend Leonard Attwell. However, one night, Len is beaten to death in an underground passage by a young gang. Inspector Alice Frampton and her partner Sergeant Terry Hicock are sent to investigate but don't find any evidence in order to arrest the hoodlums. Upon hearing this, Harry Brown sees that justice will not be granted and decides to take matters into his own hands.

Having been unenthusiastic about seeing this British thriller, I was surprisingly impressed with Harry Brown.

It's far more than just the silly old-man-teaching-the-young'uns-a-lesson action romp that I thought it would be; kicking off with a heart-stoppingly shocking scene of violence filmed from a mobile phone, it becomes clear that the movie is, in fact, a disturbing portrait of suburban fear.

This fear comes from the senselessly violent kids on Harry Brown's estate who nest in the underground walkway near his home. This walkway symbolises the anxiety that Brown feels and that many of the more vulnerable citizens who live near him also feel. After all, they refuse to walk through the tunnel in fear that they'll be mugged, stabbed or maybe even killed.

Harry Brown is also a fairly involving character study too. He's a man who fought in the war for our country, but is now living alone after his wife passed on and his only friend died trying to defend himself against the kids. The change that he makes over the course of the film as he leaves behind the fearful onlooker who is afraid to step in and becomes the vigilante driven to clean the streets when he realises the police can't makes for entertaining viewing. Moreover, the contrast between Brown's motivated violence and the way that the kids on the estate indulge in it simply for laughs makes for an interesting contrast.

It all sounds very similar to the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino. Sure, in concept it is, but in execution it's entirely different because of the gritty, realistic style. While the former is very mainstream and safe, Harry Brown doesn't pull its punches with many of the violent scenes being bloody, brutal and shocking.

However, there are things that Harry Brown falls short and that Gran Torino certainly excelled in. The first, and the most obvious, is the way that teenagers are presented. Eastwood's picture showed a fair portrait of the youth of today presenting a number of them in the neighbourhood as violent and ruthless, but also presenting the family next door who were loyal, respectful, kind and honest. Here, though, it seems like Harry Brown plays on the stereotypes that the media has enforced on British society: That all teenagers are drug using, knife waving, alcohol swigging yobs. Personally, I find this particularly offensive and I think these kinds of representations of teenagers are the last thing our country needs. Moreover, the same can be said of the representation of homosexuality which is synonymous, according to Harry Brown, with violence and evil.

There also seemed to be a lack of morality about it. The police officer, performed by Emily Mortimer, is the moral standpoint in Harry Brown, someone who is on the right side of the law and fights against the broken system to achieve the justice that's deserved. But, in the end, it's Brown who is the hero for taking the law into his own hands and the officer, instead, covers up his acts to keep him out of trouble. Not that anyone would watch Brown and decide to become a vigilante, but it seems to send out a bad message unlike Gran Torino that, in it's finale, showed that non-violent means are more effective than any gun-firing.

The ending, in fact, is something I had particular issues with as, after all the build up, it ended on a rather over-the-top and obvious note. There's riots, a stand off between the young gang and the police and how many times, may I ask, will evil be brought to justice by the fact that it was secretly recorded all along? Along with the line 'Okay, now enhance it' when looking at CCTV footage or a photograph including the criminal in the background, and the ironic loss of mobile reception in horror movies, it's one of those cliches that I just can't stand.

Maybe I'm looking too deep into it though, because Harry Brown is still an entertaining, gritty, bold and impressive British thriller despite it's flaws. Michael Caine is still on top of his game.

3/5

By Daniel Sarath with 2 comments