"The Long Good Friday" Is Released

The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren.

It was completed in 1979[1] but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film. It was voted at number 21 in the British Film Institute's list of the 100 favourite British movies of the 20th century.

John Mackenzie's masterfully directed British crime drama features a star-making performance by Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand, a successful London gangster whose world falls apart over the course of one weekend. Shand controls the London docks and is planning a big real estate deal, financed by money from the American mob and given the okay by the London organization. His world is sweet -- he lives in a fancy penthouse, he owns a yacht, and has a sensitive and intelligent mistress. But suddenly a bomb explodes inside his Rolls Royce, another bomb destroys a pub he owns, and a third is found inside his casino. Shand can't understand who would suddenly want him dead, particularly over the Easter weekend, when representatives from the American mafia are coming into town to discuss investing in Shands's real estate project. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide