From a British perspective, part of the fun of watching this is seeing people who later became famous for other roles. Derek Thompson had had a minor role in Yanks, and this suggested he had a bright career in films, but he ended up playing nurse Charlie Fairhead in Casualty, and has now played that part for 23 years! Gillian Taylforth became better known in EastEnders, and Paul Barber was in Only Fools and Horses, but returned to the big screen in the Full Monty.
Some of the violence in The Long Good Friday is very graphic; the scene in which Harold (Bob Hoskins) ends up glassing his sidekick Jeff (Derek Thompson) after the latter had betrayed him is VERY nasty.
Helen Mirren is now an international star. Here she is supposedly playing a gangster's moll, but where she doesn't simmer with sexuality ("I want to lick every inch of you", says Derek Thompson in an unguarded moment in a lift), she shows that she has as much control over Harold (Bob Hoskins) as he has over everybody else, never more so than in the immediate aftermath of the glassing scene. It is a tour de force in a supposedly supporting role.
But this film undoubtedly belongs to Bob Hoskins. Despite the violence, it is the film's climax which is the most memorable and chilling scene. Hoskins is held at gunpoint by a silent and menacing IRA gunman played by a young Pierce Brosnan. This takes place in a car driven by another IRA hit-man. The camera focuses in close up on the face of Bob Hoskins for over a minute, while the very catchy theme music plays, and while Hoskins, without a word of dialogue, goes through a whole raft of emotions, showing a man struggling to accept that he is finished, but is finally resigned to his fate. This is a magnificent performance.
Some of the violence in The Long Good Friday is very graphic; the scene in which Harold (Bob Hoskins) ends up glassing his sidekick Jeff (Derek Thompson) after the latter had betrayed him is VERY nasty.
Helen Mirren is now an international star. Here she is supposedly playing a gangster's moll, but where she doesn't simmer with sexuality ("I want to lick every inch of you", says Derek Thompson in an unguarded moment in a lift), she shows that she has as much control over Harold (Bob Hoskins) as he has over everybody else, never more so than in the immediate aftermath of the glassing scene. It is a tour de force in a supposedly supporting role.
But this film undoubtedly belongs to Bob Hoskins. Despite the violence, it is the film's climax which is the most memorable and chilling scene. Hoskins is held at gunpoint by a silent and menacing IRA gunman played by a young Pierce Brosnan. This takes place in a car driven by another IRA hit-man. The camera focuses in close up on the face of Bob Hoskins for over a minute, while the very catchy theme music plays, and while Hoskins, without a word of dialogue, goes through a whole raft of emotions, showing a man struggling to accept that he is finished, but is finally resigned to his fate. This is a magnificent performance.