漫長美好的星期五

漫長美好的星期五是一部英國黑幫電影，講述了倫敦的黑幫頭目Harold在與美國人談生意時受到接二連三的打擊：車子被炸，飯店被炸，得力手下遇刺，賭場也差點(diǎn)被炸。美國人得知Harold諸事不順后決定撤資。經(jīng)過艱難的調(diào)查，種種線索指向了IRA愛爾蘭人的組織，而這些接二連三的報復(fù)只是因?yàn)樗窒路赶碌摹靶″e”。Harold氣急敗壞，殺死了愛爾蘭組織的一個頭目，卻緊接著遭到了他們更強(qiáng)烈的報復(fù)。

這部影片的主線是懸疑和解密。不光是主角Harold在從始至終尋找是誰在找他麻煩，觀眾們也在不斷拼湊他們獲得的信息。影片的開頭讓人摸不到頭緒。接二連三出場的角色們沒有向觀眾直接表明他們的身份，甚至有些角色乍現(xiàn)之后很長時間都沒有再出現(xiàn)。在很長一段時間內(nèi)我們也并不知道這個故事的主角究竟是誰。直到游艇上的聚會，觀眾才大概理清了人物的身份，他們之間的關(guān)系。

這部影片讓我印象最深的是紅色的使用。在很多場景中人物的臉上都有著讓人不安的紅色，血的紅色，女主角也穿過扎眼的紅色衣服。這些顏色令人物顯得沖動而危險，令觀眾感到不安

音樂的使用在本片中也很有意思，本片大量使用了合成的電子音樂。在很多場景中，聲音響亮的背景音樂占據(jù)了觀眾很大的注意力，讓人緊張。在賭場炸彈那場戲中，最后一個鏡頭給了未爆炸的炸彈，然后音樂驟然響起。當(dāng)我們都以為炸彈要爆炸的時候，鏡頭卻切到了下一個場景。

演員的表演大都無可挑剔，這當(dāng)然跟導(dǎo)演深厚的功力有關(guān)。印象最深的表演段落當(dāng)屬男主角的兩次獨(dú)白，一次在船上，一次在美國人要走的時候。仰拍鏡頭緊緊地推到Harold的臉上，顯得他那么自信，強(qiáng)壯，不可一世。

與大多數(shù)電影中描繪的自信，沉穩(wěn)，玩弄敵人于股掌之間的黑幫不同，Harold雖然在倫敦有話語權(quán)，在這個故事中他卻從來沒有贏過：IRA接二連三的打擊，美國商業(yè)伙伴的若即若離，找不到線索的焦急，甚至自己最得力的手下一直在瞞著他搞小動作。Harold的命運(yùn)如同大多數(shù)電影中的黑社會一樣，最終隕落。可與悍匪終于被繩之以法的故事不同，漫長美好的星期五講述的故事更像是小人物失敗的抗?fàn)帯?/p>

講了愛爾蘭共和軍和碼頭區(qū)的故事，展示了 20 世紀(jì) 70 年代后期、80 年代初期的倫敦，就是在二戰(zhàn)被炸毀了的碼頭區(qū)取景的，你會看到那些被炸毀了的倉庫，以及一個黑幫成員希望重建這個地方。這部電影會像你展示倫敦那個時候有多糟糕，以及和現(xiàn)在的強(qiáng)烈對比。倫敦現(xiàn)在的一切都是在那個被炸的稀巴爛的基礎(chǔ)上建起來的。

This is de facto a very long Good Friday for London mobster boss Harold Shand (Hoskins) (and he might not be alive and kicking on Easter Monday),he must impress and convince the newly landed American mafia kingpin Charlie (Constantine) to a significant partnership of redeveloping his home turf, but is ambushed by a concatenation of foul plays from an unknown party, a car bomb aiming at his mother but kills the chauffeur, a luckily defused bomb found in his casino, his pub is blown up right in front of his face, but worst of the all, Collin (Freeman), one of his right-hand men and a chum who once saved his life, is cold-bloodedly murdered in a natatorium (whose bent predisposition subjects himself to a delectable but pestilant male bait, Brosnan in his screen debut).

When the shit hits the fan, Harold is bent on getting the bottom of it, even it requires to put his clueless cronies through the mangle (or more literally, hung topsy-turvy inside his abattoir) to extract any possible lead, meanwhile, he endeavors to keep a lid on the state of affairs from Charlie and relies on his girlfriend Victoria (Mirren) to mollify Charlie's suspicion of his own absence, which turns out to be futile, he is left 24 hours to sort things out, if not there will be no deal with the Yankees.

For sure, someone close to him must have an inkling of what is going on (the go-to design of a mole within), and audience is granted with a preface in Belfast where Collin clandestinely appropriates some cash from his consignment, and taking its milieu into account, it is quite a cinch that IRA is implicated in some point, and screenwriterBarrie Keeffe’s puzzle-solving script takes routinely dramatic turns to work up Harold’s retaliation, lends him great opportunities of vaunting and venting to establish him as the real deal, a forward-looking, ruthless yet compassionate padrone imbued with Corleone-esque complexity, and a dumpy Bob Hoskins magnificently holds sway in rendering Harold a flesh-and-blood persona that defies simple compartmentalization, he is a live-wire simmering with aspirant ambition and sharp-witted wiles, a patriotic boaster but inanely reckons that the best way to solve all his problems is by elimination, that is his feet of clay, too cocksure in his tried-and-tested methodology which leads him to step into the taxi without even noticing who is inside.

Helen Mirren also makes for a spectacular moll, not the usual ditzy bombshell sort, but Harold’s equal with acumen and a wonderful admixture of dignity and vulnerability. A square-jawedEddie Constantine exudes a flinty but suave sheen, which is always pleasing to watch, but it is up to the newcomer Derek Thompson, who plays Harold’s ill-fated consigliere Jeff, to supply emotional ammunition in the story by facing off Harold’s anger outburst, his childlike ambiguity between nonchalance and sophistication (and a touch of raffishness in the elevator scene with Mirren) leaves a delicate impression and outstrips many a more ostentatious player around him.

DirectorJohn Mackenzie proves himself an able journeyman behind the camera and his invention of Hoskins’ final shock-to-resignation long-take is a decisive coup-de-ma?tre, sublimates a corny ending to something with a semblance of extraordinariness. But the movie’s blaring synth Muzak has taken its time to become a major pet peeve at that point, a sign-of-the-times short-changes this otherwise arresting, food-for-thought gangster iteration.

referential films: Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (1972, 8.4/10), THE GODFATHER: PART II (1974, 9.1/10).