The long good Friday (1980) (Criterion Collection)

Read more

A combustible performance from Bob Hoskins is the fuse that lights this underworld saga, a landmark of British crime cinema. Hoskins plays Harold Shand, an ambitious London mobster who, just as he attempts to close a major real-estate deal with the American Mafia, finds his crime empire rocked by a string of attacks, sending him on a ruthless quest to find out who’s responsible. Abetted by an ice-cool performance from Helen Mirren as Shand’s in-command moll, The Long Good Friday is not only a gripping gangster thriller but also a vivid portrait of late-1970s Britain—a powder keg of cultural and political tensions on the verge of explosion.

bob hoskins, in his breakthrough film role, stars as a london racketeer fast losing control of his gangland empire; helen mirren shines as his classy moll. john mackenzie's stylish thriller is a marriage of gangster flicks from both sides of the atlantic. criterion presents 'the long good friday' in an exclusive widescreen transfer.