Harry Brown

Elite Squad is widely thought to be a fascist film, but no one will say anything like that about the idea of Harry Brown, because it stars a nice pensioner with the face of the beloved Michael Caine. Otherwise, the films are similar in many ways – in the reenactment of criminal scum as a primitive tribe, in offering an easy solution, and in a certain clarity of vision of the world (a fair marine vs. the scum). I didn't mind it when it comes to Padilha, and I don't mind it when it comes to Barber - I'm under no illusions that the situation is any better in selected English housing estates. Otherwise, Harry Brown didn't do much for me. The social tone is rather untrustworthy (I thought it was too arranged), Barber didn't get an impressive performance from Cain, and the script is very clichéd, although he tries to disguise it as the realism of the environment... Overall, I didn't understand what it was supposed to be – a social drama or an unconventional thriller? Eastwood did it a notch more convincingly, although some of the scenes in Barber's film got under my skin. But not too deep. (03/24/2011)

Even before watching this I was determined to rise above the tendentious crypto-fascism of Harry Brown. In the end, it's easy to cheer for, plus if you mistake Nordhampton or wherever it was for Libeň or Holešovice, it arouses quite a bit of enthusiasm. Comparing Harry Brown to Gran Torino is just skating on the surface, Harry Brown is more in the same vein as Elite Squad. The latter, however, is more uncompromising in its admissions. It also rises above longstanding solutions and sources of "evil" and addresses it in ways that would make a liberal puke. For in its primitiveness, the film divides London into mothers with children, British traditionalists, Chinese victims of their own humility, black filth, and white trash. It so revels in its depiction of this world that a visit to a grow house turns into a descent into a pit of evil of ancient proportions with absolutely comic-book absolute evil (a brilliant scene by the way). Unfortunately, the fall comes in the last third of the film, when the screenwriter hits a wall with his face with the street riots and forgets to justify that moronic storyline with the policewoman and her purse, not to mention the final Bond-esque villain and the laughable digital blood. If I wanted to be a jerk, I'd write that Harry Brown is practically the same thing as if Nudity for Sale had been made by someone who knows how to make movies. I like fascist movies, so I'm not complaining. (05/14/2012)

The street brawls are a bit too wild and out of touch with reality, but those British gangs and rowdy youths are evil, and Daniel Barber manages to capture it quite atmospherically and believably in the smaller passages. Michael Caine doesn't fail either, appearing on the surface more affable than the morose Clint Eastwood, but either one or the other suits the viewer. They aren’t bad, but the explicit and uncompromising violence is more entertaining, and its highlight is the terrific scene in the drug den, which is downright chilling, well shot and acted. Too bad about the overacting characterful policewoman and the sentimentality, but it's bearable, and it does say said what it wanted to say. (09/29/2015)

A superb film that will be enjoyed (especially) by fans of Michael Caine, the typically dense atmosphere of British films and the emotions of people who find themselves in hopeless situations against their will. All delivered in a fantastic visual package with perfect music. The best scene: the junkies’ den. Five stars. (12/31/2009)

If you want to fight against evil, you have to become evil. An atmospheric genre movie that the awesome Michael Caine steals for himself. The screenplay isn’t at all original, but Daniel Barber squeezes the maximum out of it anyhow and does it almost blindfold. Many will compare Harry Brown to Clint’s Gran Torino and they won’t be far off. And even though Harry is more predictable than Clint’s latest film adventure, it’s much rawer, harder and more brutal. And that’s what won my heart. Listen to me. If you don’t tell me, I’ll shoot you in the kneecaps. First one, then the other, until you tell me. So, what do you say? (03/06/2010)