When I saw the trailer for Harry Brown my first impression was that somebody had remade Death Wish 3 with Michael Caine without telling him what they were up to. That assessment is not too far off. Most vigilante movies are running similar courses anyway but the plot as presented in the preview was particularly Death Wish 3-ish. A man on the higher numerical spectrum of believable action heroes becomes a vigilante after his good friend is killed by the street toughs. In Death Wish 3 it's wonderfully cartoony and it is one of the most entertaining experiences you will have with your friends at Golan-Globus. In Harry Brown everything is darker and grimmer. It was like they took the plot of Death Wish 3 and ran it through the grittier atmosphere of the first Death Wish.
Harry Brown opens with a pretty hard hitting scene. Shot in the point of view of a thug's cell phone camera, we get a visceral introduction to the neighborhood. It is a world where senseless violence prevails. The heart of this world is a pedestrian walkway where the gang can be seen by day and heard from its innards at night. Harry Brown has to go out of his way everyday when he visits his wife in the hospital.
His wife passes away and shortly after his only friend, another old timer, gets killed by the gang. This is where the movie steps away from most vigilante cliches. Harry Brown doesn't dwell on these facts and slowly become violent against his nature. Harry embraces what he has been in the past and falls back very easily into violence. He used to be a soldier but once he met his wife he quit his violent tendencies cold turkey. Now without her there, he comfortably relapses. After his first incident with one of the gang members, Harry is not the embodiment of panicked nerves and crying remorse that we have seen in countless vigilante tales. He covers his tracks carefully and relies on the anonymity of the elderly.
Violence as a drug is a theme that runs throughout the movie. So much so that we see a whithered junkie fire a gun and then smoke his stash right through the barrel. The movie is about Harry's relapse and society's addiction. And these addictions escalate throughout the movie.
And as for that whithered junkie I mentioned, he is one of the creepiest looking guys you'll find in a movie like this. His skeletal frame was covered with nasty veins, bruises, and track marks. He looked a lot like Billy Drago if he was dying of AIDS.
Michael Caine does a very good job and is believable in his role, which was a concern I had going in. He lends credibility and depth to what could be a very standard vigilante movie. He only gets about two or three scenes to give us a picture of his decades-long marriage and he nails it. He not only delivers the emotional hook but the action as well. They don't overdo it. They keep it realistic. Harry is an old man with emphysema. He's not doing back flips off roofs or anything. Although I would have loved to see that movie too.
If you like vigilante movies, then there is no reason you shouldn't check this out. And I hope Christopher Nolan is paying attention, because I think it's time Batman learns what his butler is capable of. I give Harry Brown today's arbitrary rating of 9 arthritic trigger fingers out of 11.
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