April Showers: Don't Flirt With Pierce Brosnan!
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 11:00PM waterworks each weeknight at 11
Have you ever seen the British gangster drama The Long Good Friday (1980)? I had never heard of it until a few years ago. It starred Helen Mirren and Bob Hoskins before I knew who they were and was released well before I started seeing R rated movies that only adults would like. I was wildly in love with the TV show Remington Steele (1982-1987) as a kid but back then I never considered whether actors had existed before I knew who they were (unless they were older actors and clearly MOVIE STARS like Liz Taylor & Jane Fonda and those types.) Pierce Brosnan existed before Remington Steele!!! Who knew?
26 year old's Pierce Brosnan's film debut "The Long Good Friday"
But there he is pre-Remington Steele, pre James Bond, pre Mamma Mia!. This is his big screen debut and he is billed as "1st Irishman" He has two scenes and no lines. He doesn't even utter a sound in the movie. (A mute Pierce Brosnan! Why didn't the makers of Mamma Mia! think of that?). But you don't need vocal chords when you look like this.
The Long Good Friday is a pretty tense crime movie all told and it uses that out-of-fashion tactic of keeping you in the dark about what's going on for at least one reel (today's movies love exposition too much to do this frequently anymore). The first 20 minutes are very disorienting as there's virtually no dialogue for half of that and we see a theft, a gay bar pickup, three murders, a funeral, an old woman spitting in the face of a young man and a yacht party thrown by Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren all of which have little context or connective tissue that we can make sense of.
But the man who lifted the money in the first scene, Colin (Paul Freeman) goes swimming whilst young Pierce keeps leering at him. To complete the cruising bait, Pierce heads for a literal April Shower, it being Good Friday and all. More after the jump.)
Of course he knows the man will follow him. Colin finds him in the shower and he turns, smirking, with pride ...at his catch?
You could say that. This is just too easy, though right? Something's not right. And, nipple grazing come-on aside, Pierce Brosnan is simply not left handed.
Crap.
Honestly if you fed every movie shower scene into a computer an unhealthy number of them would involve stabbings. Thankfully, in real life singing is a more common shower happening than stabbing. (P.S. Flub? Where was Pierce hiding that knife. You can't fit anything into Speedos and he turned around from his right side)
Fictional Colin 1943-1980.
As it turns out Colin is Harold's (Bob Hoskins) best mate, Harold is a gangster and this day is going to be a very rough one for him. He is not going to take this murder well. But it's only the beginning of his misfortunates on this long day.
Reader Comments (10)
Left-handed? I'd never heard that one before :p
Pierce was really hot but I doubt he had a license to kill back then.
Honestly, Pierce Brosnan has never done if for me... but as gay bait in a black speedo in those shots by the pool? Oh yeah, I should see this.
Wow, if it were possible to "turn straight", these photos would do it. (Nope, I'm still a lesbian; guess that disproves the theory. These are still really hot, though - as in "I want to look at this again" hot.) I'm amazed how you find this forgotten stuff, Nat.
This movie is intense and wonderful. Very very well known in England, still- if I'm not mistaken it was voted one as one of the best British films ever by the public a couple of years ago! Really glad you featured it, maybe people will be interested and watch it; it really is fantastic.
SPOILER- the last few minutes of the movie are masterful, and just watching Bob Hoskins is a master class in acting. The end always gets me.
I read that Michael Caine considers the top 3 British crime films to be The Long Good Friday (with Hoskins), Get Carter (with Caine), and Mona Lisa (with Hoskins and Caine).
Wowza. Nice pick, Nat. Onto my queue this goes!
(Ooh and it's available for to watch instant on Netflix!)
I should also note that Bob Hoskins also has a long bloody shower scene in this movie but the post was long enough as is.
and that isn't a spoiler really.
OMG I love love love Remington Steele (as should all fans of old movies!). I will have to check out this film. Sadly I think RS was the high point of Brosnan's career, but considering how much I love the show (in all its obviously-80s glory), that's nothing to sneeze at.
Leehee -- i love the ending too. Hoskins is really wonderful in the film. I wonder if he'll get a good part again at any point. He always seems to be saddled with these twinkly sidekicky parts alongside actresses now.