Harry Brown

If you followed the career path of Michael Caine you might well wonder what happened, from being crowned the King of Cool in movies such as Get Carter, Alfie, and The Italian Job; Caine almost dropped out of the popular movie genre. During the 80’s and 90’s with the odd exception (Educating Rita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The forth Protocol) his movies were generally bottom end stuff, most of his output in this time is available on super low budget DVD. For Caine however age made him turn a corner, and as the star tentatively spoke about a cameo in popular soap Eastenders, his movie career took of in ways he possibly never realised. With two Batman movies, Children Of Men, and the highly acclaimed Is Anybody There? Behind him Caine now returns in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry’s life is torn apart, firstly his wife dies, then in a suspicious incident Len is killed by the gangs that essentially run the estate. An ex marine, Harry’s killer instinct is revived in a late night attack by the banks of a canal, having easily despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970’s, Barbers London is a far darker place, more deadly than Afghanistan. What Barber does is shows how these essential ghettos work, some people seeing the trouble some of the time, while others see it all the time. Barber shows Harry Browns eyes widening as he sees the horror of what’s going on in the place he calls home. While Brown always knew it was there, he has always avoided the spots that the bad things happen, giving him a more sheltered view.

I suspect Barber has studied CCTV footage of gang related violence, because in the movies first portion he shows how one incident can quickly go out of control, in an instant you see a man protecting his property, to having his head smashed open more or less on his very front door; this is powerful stuff.

When faced with real menace, you go out of yourself you become a far stronger person, this is the stance of Harry Brown; whom with everything gone suddenly finds that the anger of loss is to much to bear, with one man already dead thanks to his quick reflexes you see Brown move from dwindling seventy year old to a man of unknown age fighting for what is right. Compassion gone Brown moves to man of action, and Caine portrays this fantastically. Its great to see the transformation from man who takes five minutes to make a cuppa, to the man that terminates wrong doers in a heartbeat. There is no reasoning with Brown, no time for regrets, Brown moves sleekly and does what he believes is right in order to create the best outcome for everyone.

Criticism has been given to the movie for being a little too trigger happy, and that’s probably right towards the back end of the feature. At the same time however, you do have to ask what you might do if placed in these circumstances. And if there is any criticism to make really its only towards the end when things develop into total riot, and Brown finds himself in the right place at the right time.

At the time I never considered the issue of race, but thinking on it seems that the casting team are not going to take the easy option of race behind this estates anarchy. These are proper white British gangs, ran indirectly by proper east end gangsters and associates, any minority race involved are there literally by minority. Its very easy in movies to lean heavily on the race aspect, but there are no cheap punches here.

I touched on the final portion of the movie, and it does get a little predictable, and essentially ultra violent, as one woman police crusader Inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) closes in on Brown who she has always suspected to be a little too involved in the spurge of criminal deaths. As the estate falls into anarchy, Frampton adds fuel to a fire by Scooby Doo style revealing a secret to Brown about relationships on the estate. While a little bit out of synch with the rest of the film, in fairness its difficult to decide where things would lead from the road the film has taken.

If I have one issue with the film it’s the blasé way that the deaths of the gang members (at the hands of Brown) are almost unmentioned by the police, almost thrown in as an afterthought. But beyond that, I have no issue with Harry Brown, and while it makes itself undoubtedly the best British movie of 2009, it also makes itself the best vigilante movie of all time.

Harry Brown opens in UK cinemas on November 11^th.

Scala

Not a movie I know, But the story of Scala is an important piece of forgotten cinema history.

There is nothing I hate more than a majestic piece of history just forgotten, worse still nothing I hate more than history forgotten soon after it’s time. Sat on Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London is the well known Scala Nightclub, a location popular with upcoming bands and singers. Since 1999 Scala Nightclub has carved itself a certain reputation in London nightlife. But what is ultimately the saddest tale of all is that beneath what you see now, is an infinitely more appealing Scala that for 10 years became a hub of activity and controversy.

 During the 1920’s Scala operated as The King’s Cross Cinema, and had for a period of time reasonable trade. Between 1921 and 1929 the cinema changed hands more times than some had varied dinners in the same timeline. From 1929 to the Second World War trade was constant and the cinema was owned by Gaumont British Pictures.  But at some point, exact date unknown the building became bombed by enemy warplanes flying overhead. The result was that the cinema closed and fell into a dire state of disrepair until 1952, when it re-opened as The Gaumont. In 1962 the Cinemawas bought out and re-opened as the Odeon which lasted until 1970. In 1971 the cinema went in a dramatically different direction re-opening as Cineclub; the choice of movies was strictly of an adult nature. With raids, embarrassment and all sorts of other controversy after four months of trading Cineclub came to a sudden, but highly expected close. Later in the same year the cinema re-opened as The King’s Cross Cinema again with a themed cinema and venue for music. Having then tried to change into a sports complex, the cinema finally closed in its known form in 1975 and began to fall into disrepair.  It was the form the cinema took in 1980 that was the most bizarre, as a sort of Eco-Project the legendary seating was pulled out, untold historical damage done to the building, in order to lay grass and show strange “nature” style films, called the Primatarium the key interest to the then owner/tenant was monkeys.

 

In 1977 on Tottenham Street a group formed in a cinema known as The Other Cinema, this group was called the Scarla Club. Scarla was a speciality club showing classic movies to a select group of individuals. In 1978 Stephen Woolley later the part owner of Palace Pictures, took over Scala and began to change the format moving on from classic to cult movies. In 1981 Scala had grown in popularity and saw a window of opportunity by acquiring tenancy of the Primatarium. Opening under their own rights as The Scala, the cinema screened the original King Kong and progressed to show more unusual, and progressively daring pictures.

 

Scala was different to any other cinema in the UK, it was very much a place to turn up, chill out, and really let your hair down. Never the best part of Pentonville Road to be in, Scala was a place strangely out of time, it’s clientele varied from business professionals, stuffy upper class types, punks, lesbians, gays, cannabis lovers, alcoholics, and plain good old movie lovers that wanted a different experience. Scala was a place where anything quite literally would go, if you wanted to have sex then it was off to the back row, if you wanted to smoke whatever took your fancy it was the center seats, and if you literally wanted to watch and love movies it was straight up to the front. Scala flaunted every public law it possibly could inviting its clients to do whatever they saw fit, smoke at the centre part of the cinema was so extreme that often the beam of the projector found it difficult to penetrate the smoke, smoking incidentally had been banned in cinemas many years before.  Whatever your vice, Scala was a nightime venue for those that wanted more stimulation than pop music, those that wanted culture, and an ambience that they could not get anywhere else.

 

Over the next few years things at Scala changed dramatically offering its visitors a sort of experience they could not get anywhere at that time. Straight after the British board of film classification had their arms twisted to be more vigilant and video tapes of movies in the home became fashionable, censorship in Britain reached a pinnacle, with more or less any movie with an 18 certificate falling foul of the censors. At this time Scala again flaunted these rules and showed movies both in their uncut form, but also often showing movies that were banned in the UK. The Exorcist, Salo, I Spit On Your Grave, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were all movies boycotted by the BBFC and the government, yet Scala stood up and showed them. In the mid 1980’s the focus moved towards bigger targets in the world of adult, gay, and horror cinema. And as these progressions occurred so did further change at Scala, the cinema showed different movies every night, with calendars of schedules released often months in advance. The cinema became the ultimate haunt, all night horror movie marathons proved incredibly successful driving people from the nightclubs into the cinemas, where they could enjoy both alcohol and the culture of movies they could not see anywhere else.

 

What is most strange about Scala was that at its height of popularity things were being ran at their worst, staff did as they felt, the projectionists were often so out of their heads on the drug of the moment that film reels were often placed in the wrong order, or not even played at all. The whole Scale experience became so hit and miss that people often thought they were just watching movies so weird that the stories to them just must have been that way. Outside the projection booth, staff performed, drank and fornicated with the patrons of Scala; but it just became all the more popular.

 

It’s of no surprise I guess that this story but come to an end, and the past tense manner I have spoken about Scala in this whole piece is a clear indication. Censorship began to lift in the UK, and more and more movies made it onto video, the exact sort of movies Scala chose to show. It was indeed time to up the ante, and then manager Jane Giles knew exactly how to do that. Giles committed the ultimate sin, on April 1^st 1992 Scala showed the full and uncut version of Staley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; a movie outlawed in the UK after director Kubrick received death threats. Without permission to screen the movie Warner Brothers, FACT (Federation of copyright theft) and Kubricks own legal counsel all took a civil action against Scala, at a time audiences were at an all time low and the landlord wanted a hefty rent increase.

 

In April 1993 Giles was prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and in June after a screening of King Kong, Scala closed its doors. After months of campaigning, and incredibly hard partying nothing could save Scala, and a unique piece of history, the only ever Grindhouse cinema the UK had ceased to exist.

 

Scala’s effect on UK cinema is far more than anyone will ever truly appreciate, making mockery of the government by screening banned movies, and films were forced out of censorship as copycat cinemas tried their hand at mimicking Scala’s charm.