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Harry Brown - Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles, Daniel Barber
Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
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 actions bring him into conflict with the police, led by investigating officer DCI Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and her partner (Charlie Creed-Miles).
Theatrical propaganda posters
Target demographic movie keyword propaganda
- Film crime drama thriller UK police murder mystery revenge justice England gang youth pensioner
Persons of interest
- Michael Caine .... Harry Brown
- Emily Mortimer .... DI Alice Frampton
- Charlie Creed-Miles .... DS Terry Hicock
- David Bradley .... Leonard Attwell
- Iain Glen .... SI Childs
- Sean Harris .... Stretch
- Ben Drew .... Noel Winters
- Jack O'Connell .... Marky
- Jamal Downey .... Carl
- Lee Oakes .... Dean
- Joseph Gilgun .... Kenny
- Liam Cunningham .... Sid Rourke
- Liz Daniels .... Kath
- Claire Hackett .... Jean Winters
- Raza Jaffrey .... Father Bracken
- Grace Vallorani .... Linda
- Forbes KB .... Troy Martindale
- Gary Young .... Screenwriter
- Daniel Barber .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Harry Brown official movie sites:
- Australia
- International
- Harry Brown film production notes
- Harry Brown movie trailers:
- Awards and film festivals:
- London Critics Circle Film Awards 2010: Nominated: Breakthrough British Filmmaker (Daniel Barber)
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Harry Brown is the modern descendant of the Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedy, in which bad things happen to people and they all end up dead (think about Hamlet and its corpse-ridden final scene). Perhaps we are living in similarly violent times as the Yanks have touched a similar theme with Gran Torino. Funnily enough, both protagonists are old-age pensioners. Talk about grumpy old men strike back.
Michael Caine is perfectly cast. The rest of the cast are perfectly cast, too, but he's the important one: everything hinges on his performance because the character could easily be turned into a demented old codger rather than being an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. What makes Michael Caine good is that he makes Harry seem like an old-age pensioner who would rather be dining on tea and toast than taking on a gang of criminals. You never quite know whether Harry's going to kill them all or fall down and break a hip. That kind of tension is delectable to a jaded film critic.
The downside of Harry Brown is that there's a Hollywood ending tacked on the end. It is so obviously not part of the original story that it's like a moustache on the Mona Lisa. There's artistic license and there's selling out. I know which one this is.
The crime, drama, thriller movie Harry Brown is directed by Daniel Barber and stars Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles.
Government security censorship classification
MA 15+ (Strong violence, drug use, sexual references and coarse language)
Surveillance time
103 minutes (1:43 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 20 May 2010
Disc: 6 October 2010
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