What Do The Critics Say?

"Barber brings a stylistic flair from his background as an award-winning commercial director, extracting color from the picture except for the moldy green of decay. At the same time, his depiction of violence is disturbingly realistic, and the casting of local nonprofessionals lends an air of authenticity to the project, linking the lawlessness of the Wild West to the near-anarchy of the present-day inner city." Annlee Ellingson MOVING PICTURES MAGAZINE "It's a strong directing debut for Barber, who uses the poignant power of Harry's experience to take a universal cut at decaying communities and the poverty of soul as well as pocket." Betsy Sharkey LOS ANGELES TIMES "Michael Caine, no matter how old he gets, will always be able to kick your butt." Joshua Tyler CINEMABLEND "The vigilante movie demands villains without a shred of decency and a hero who won’t blink an eye when he blows them away. Everything else is just a bonus, which is why casting Michael Caine in "Harry Brown" instantly elevates the material beyond mere pulp. This sharp British import reminds us danger doesn’t care about the numbers on your birth certificate. Harry Brown proves you're never too old to take out the trash." Christian Toto WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH "Caine's finest acting hour in a while reminds us he can still get down and dirty with the best of them." Peter Hammond BACKSTAGE "A triumph of both technique and substance." Wade Major BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE "This gritty British exploration of modern violence is, for the most part, a refreshingly unstylised and earthy take on a well-worn subject. Unlike most films of its dubious genre, Harry Brown avoids gratuitous gunplay and sensationalism and has a down-to-earth and fallible central character. Ultimately stands as a powerful and cautionary tale, which makes a resonant plea for collective responsibility." Gavin Bond PERTH SUNDAY TIMES

"You’re going to feel a bit grimy after watching Harry Brown, an ode to vigilantism that may as well be called Death Wish VI: Bloodbath in Britain. The grit and vengeance are especially ire-provoking as the police do little but spout boilerplate and deny that an old man is capable of cleaning the streets. Michael Caine's balls? Totally intact." Tricia Olszewski WASHINGTON CITY PAPER "Don't go looking for comparisons to '70s vengeance cinema of films like Dirty Harry or Death Wish because director Daniel Barber's film is far grittier and more realistic." COLESMITHEY "Harry Brown thrashes, telegraphing its punches from a mile away and whiffing every other knockout attempt, but when it connects, it’s a whopper." Justin Strout ORLANDO WEEKLY "Gritty and almost unbearably intense, this British drama not only offers yet another terrific performance from Michael Caine, but it also marks the feature debut of a filmmaker to watch. this is Caine's tour-de-force, as he fully invests Harry with a tainted past and a powerfully emotional present. In his steely eyes, Harry becomes one of the most intriguing movie characters of the year." Rich Cline SHADOWS ON THE WALL "A suspenseful, grim and unflinchingly brutal revenge thriller anchored by Michael Caine's brave and captivating performance." Avi Offer NYC MOVIE GURU "Directed by Daniel Barber, it places story and character above manufactured "thrills" and works better." Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "Michael Caine show us his action-hero side one more time in a film that Charles Bronson would have been proud to call his own. But this reminds us how good he’s always been, what he was and how Michael Caine will be remembered. Harry Brown is Caine’s "The Shootist", a chance for a screen icon to saddle up and do what he does best one more time." Roger Moore ORLANDO SENTINEL

The Inside Story On The Making Of Harry Brown The concept for Harry Brown was brought to Kris Thykier by writer Gary Young ("Shooters" & "The Tournament") and producer Keith Bell ("Dog Soldiers" & "The Descent"). Thykier recalls he "read the first draft of the script and it struck me as an interesting project. So I took it on board and we started on re-drafts of the script. By coincidence, I was meeting with Daniel Barber about another project, but when Daniel read the script he immediately wanted to work on Harry Brown. The beginnings of production were very smooth: within a few weeks we had a script and a director." Barber remembers his initial reaction: "I just really liked the script. I thought the story was interesting; it touches on so many problems that this country faces today. I was very keen to tell a story that was of the moment. As well as being a great story, Harry Brown is perhaps slightly political: it definitely touches on a multitude of social issues, and that was something I found very appealing." In the early weeks of the project coming together, Thykier ("Kick-Ass") recalls that it was soon evident that there was only one person who could play the title role. "The role of Harry Brown requires someone with resonance and power, yet at the same time must appear venerable, almost weak. We needed a screen icon. I think everyone involved in the project at that stage was aware that Michael Caine was our only choice to play Harry Brown." Having only one option in mind for the lead role can lead to a project being derailed before it has got started. However once Caine saw the script he was very quick to respond positively. Again, it was the strong script and the subject matter that tempted him. According to two time Oscar® winner Caine (Best Supporting Actor 1987 & 2000), some of the lines in the script felt uncanny. "I must say that when I read the script I thought the writer had been listening to a couple of my conversations! It’s that old thing: what’s gone wrong with the young? And the problem is now, the older guys like me, say, 'Oh, the youngsters today what’s gone wrong?' And they all turned out to be all right. But this next generation isn’t going to. They have armed themselves and there are too many drugs. We all used to go out and get pissed on alcohol but if you get pissed on alcohol you don’t go out and stab someone, you just fall over flat on your face. That said, Harry Brown is an ex-soldier. I’m an ex-soldier. He grew up in the same area as I grew up. I understood the character absolutely and completely." Thykier also recalls that Caine was already familiar with Barber’s previous work. "He had enjoyed "The Tonto Woman". I think he respected Barber as a young, exciting film-maker." The filmmakers were aware that the film would draw parallels with some of Michael Caine’s earlier roles. "The character Harry Brown probably does hark back to some of the great roles that the played, certainly Jack Carter, and Harry Palmer as well. But also we saw a lot of parallels with the typical western stories, where you put a man in a difficult position. Films like "High Noon" and "Shane" and even "The Searchers", they raise difficult parallels to modern day life," Thykier offered. Caine too thinks that Harry Brown plays like an Urban Western. "This reads like a Western and if you look at Daniel’s first film, "The Tonto Woman", that was a Westerns. This is telling you exactly how it is. We are here because this is all so real. We are not bringing the violence out in order to encourage it. We are here to reflect it and tell you not only that it’s there but also that however much you may hate it, you did it. You are the guilty party. You built these schools. You built these flats. You left your children. You are guilty." Caine revealed the character of Harry Brown and the world in which he lives struck a personal chord. Like Harry, Caine is an ex-serviceman (he fought in Korea) and he too grew up in the East End, living just around the corner from the Heygate Estate in The Elephant and Castle, where several key scenes were shot. "With this role, my life experience is almost set up for it. I come from the slums, I come from a hard background, I come from a poor family and I was a soldier. These days, I push myself into more difficult roles and this seemed very difficult. It is about a sad situation, which is dear to my heart, namely the way things have gone with young people now. We shot at The Elephant and Castle, where I grew up. I have just spent three weeks back where I was born, talking to the young people who this is about, and it’s obviously a failure of us, education, family, everything." 1999 British Television Advertising Gold Award winner Barber, believes that this is a story that needed to be told. "Yes, there is violence but it’s not glamorized in any way, or stylized. It’s not a vigilante movie like "Death Wish". The violence in the film is born of the situation and it is treated in a very matter of fact way with the cast that we’ve got. That it has one of the greatest actors ever in the history of cinema in it bears some testimony to the fact. Michael thinks it is important to be in it and we have attracted such a strong cast to play alongside him. I am not a violent person at all but it’s a great story and I am pleased that our hero is a seventy six year old man who you assume would not harm a fly, and for me this film is set against the backdrop of serious fucking issues. Let’s all pretend that the biggest problems we have now are banks. That is just bullshit. One of the biggest problems we have, and I am not just saying it because I am making this film, is the rise of violence and drug-related crime in this country. It’s a huge problem," he says. With Caine onboard, D.I. Frampton was the next role to be cast. "We needed a strong actress to play opposite him in the role of Frampton. The relationship between Frampton and Harry Brown, and how it develops during the course of the film is key, and so we needed someone who could take the role from a simple, procedural one and really breathe life into the character. Emily Mortimer was ideal for the role," Thykier stated. Beside Caine’s involvement, Barber’s direction was another reason for Mortimer to take the role. "Police dramas on television, especially in England, are very common. You can switch on the television any evening and there will be one on. When I saw "The Tonto Woman" it was clear to me that Daniel would elevate the story to a different level." Charlie Creed-Miles was cast as D.S. Hickock. He’s got more experience of the area than his boss, Frampton. "When we first meet Hickock, he’s investigating a shooting in a park which they decide is a random shooting and it turns out that it’s a gang initiation which has gone wrong. Then he meets Frampton and they slowly get drawn into the case of the gang related violence. I think Hickock’s worked himself up through the ranks and she (Frampton) has been fast tracked to her position, so there’s a little bit of angst at the start the relationship, but that slowly dissipates." Mortimor says Frampton comes from a different world. She’s a career copper used to the world of formal investigating. "She has decided to put herself on the front line. There is somehow a purity to her that makes her stick out like a sore thumb in the universe of Harry Brown; the estate she’s assigned to her first day of work. Her first day of work sees her turn up at a murder scene where a young mother has been mindlessly shot." So how close to the truth is "Harry Brown"? Throughout the project, the filmmakers worked closely with the Metropolitan Police, who drummed home some unpleasant truths. "The violence in our society is getting worse and will get worse and continue to do so," says Barber. "I was speaking to Emily Mortimer’s police advisor, and she had been working on a case where a boy bought some cannabis for £15. The people he’d sold the drugs to wanted their money back, so they decided to torch his house. They killed his mother and sister for £15. And let me tell you this: that’s not unusual." "Obviously, there’s a huge problem now in this country with gang-related violence and I don’t quite know where it’s come from," says Creed-Miles, who has appeared in TV series such as "A Touch Of Frost", "The Bill" "Waking the Dead", "Five Days" & "Criminal Justice". "It’s changed an awful lot since I was a kid. I was brought up in Nottingham and when I was initiated into my gang as a kid, we had to run up the road naked, eat a doughnut without licking your lips, or eat a worm or something. No one had knives." Caine, however, blames the breakdown of the family unit, and believes that education is the key. "The family was the first failure. The father going. If you question any of these delinquents then you see that for nine out of ten of them, the father has gone. They have no father figure, none at all, no male responsible figure and it’s that that was the start. Also it’s the education. The education now in this country stinks, as opposed to education say in America or France. You don’t get these kind of feral people coming out of school over there." Barber recalls: "The police were telling me about one of the serious problems they have at the moment is there is a massive increase in violence coming from Eastern Europeans, who have grown up in a much tougher environment. They’ll do anything." Mortimore revealed the police inspector she worked with told her: "this violence becomes a badge of honour and that killing someone, or doing them damage, doesn’t seem to be as big as deal as it used to be in that world. So the film does seem to be quite pertinent." "Some people may be concerned by events in the film, but for many, "Harry Brown" simply shows issues many people around the country will face on any normal day: the walk home past the drug dealers, the kids harassed by gangs in the playground, living in flats and buildings not fit for purpose. These events are not exaggerated; the police advisors on the film had far more shocking stories to tell. I hope that when people see "Harry Brown" they are forced to ask some difficult questions, it’s important to me that this is a thought-provoking film. On a personal level, I think many people will be looking at Harry Brown and asking some searching questions: 'What would I do in that situation?'; 'How would I react?'; 'What would it take to push me to the limit?' Collectively we need to ask ourselves how we got to this point: the point where it’s easier for kids to make a living from crime and drugs than a nine to five. What can be done to stop this downward spiral? No-one is left untouched by the ripple effects of such behaviour. There is a collective responsibility that calls us to act before a whole generation is lost," Barber explained. Caine hopes it's a "wake-up call for everyone. This is real. It’s not fiction for everyone." To ensure authenticity, the filmmakers looked for non-professional, local actors to play the youths in the film. The casting directors looked at boxing clubs, local youth groups and they put the word out in the communities." Thykier thinks all the kids they cast, "were head and shoulders above everyone else." What's It All About?

A modest law-abiding citizen, Harry Brown is a retired Marine. He's recently lost his beloved wife. Now a widower, he lives alone on a depressed housing estate, where thugs, gangs and drug dealers can make life hell: unless you constantly avoid any contact with them. His only company is his best friend Leonard. In the local Pub Leonard reveals he has a bayonet and plans to confront the thugs. Harry warns him not to but Leonards has had enough. When he's murdered, Harry feels compelled to act and decides to dispense his own brand of justice. As he bids to clean up the run-down estate where he lives, his actions bring him into conflict with the police, led by astute investigating officer D.C.I. Frampton and, D.S. Terry Hicock. Set in modern-day Britain, "Harry Brown" follows one man’s journey through a chaotic, intimidating world, where drugs are the currency of the day and guns run the streets.

The Verdict "The son of a fish-market porter and a charlady, he was born Maurice Micklewhite in Rotherhithe, London on March 14th 1933 and would go on to become one of the UK’s most respected actors. He says the inspiration to become an actor came from his hero, Humphrey Bogart. His work would be rewarded with numerous awards including: two Best Supporting Actor Oscars ("Hannah and Her Sisters" & "The Cider House Rules"); a BAFTA; the Golden Kinnaree Award; three Golden Globes; three London Critics Circle Film Award; a Screen Actors Guild Award and in 1993 CBE (Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire) for his service to drama. Films such as "Zulu" (1964), "Alfie" (1966), "The Italian Job" (1969), "Get Carter" (1971), "Dressed to Kill" (1980), "Educating Rita" (1983), "The Cider House Rules" (1999), "Miss Congeniality" (2000), Batman Begins (2005) and "The Prestige" (2006) have made him a household name around the world. At seventy two years of age, the actor who recently said: "I don’t have a bleeding degree from Cambridge. I didn’t even go to acting school," stars in what many cinemagoers will agree is, another most memorable film. The film is: "Harry Brown". The man is: Michael Caine. Helmed by debut feature film director Daniel Barber, "Harry Brown" is already being compared with another icon film of recent times: Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino". And while the similar thread of gang violence is woven into both films storylines and both feature a war veteran as the lead character, "Harry Brown" and "Gran Torino", are worlds apart. Caine's latest film (after which he'll next be seen with Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Christopher Nolan's "Inception") is far darker, immensely grittier and decidedly more violent. On the level of violence, let me say that there is nothing gratuitous about it. Sadly, what is seen on the screen, reflects what happens daily on many of the housing estates in Britian. It's a mirror image of a decaying British society we have seen time and time again in shows such as "The Bill" and, in numerous TV news services. Caine as a lone pensioner, taking matters into his own hand, is what elevates the impact. "Harry Brown" is not a vigilante film. It is a tale of one mans efforts to reclaim his and other citizens right to a crime-free, fear-free, peaceful existence. Caine gives an emotive, masterful performance. The cinematography is exceptional. 4 1/2 STARS." The Production Team

Director Screenplay Producers Original Music Cinematography Film Editing Casting Production Design Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Daniel Barber Gary Young Keith Bell/Matthew Brown Kris Thykier/Matthew Vaughn Ruth Barrett & Martin Phipps Martin Ruhe Joe Walker Daniel Hubbard Kave Quinn Chris Lowe Gemma Ryan Jane Petrie

Who Is Playing Who?

Michael Caine Emily Mortimer Charlie Creed-Miles David Bradley Iain Glen Sean Harris Ben Drew Jack O'Connell Jamie Downey Lee Oakes Joseph Gilgun Liam Cunningham Forbes KB Liz Daniels

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Harry Brown D.I. Alice Frampton D.S. Terry Hicock Leonard Attwell S.I. Childs Stretch Noel Winters Marky Carl Dean Kenny Sid Rourke Troy Martindale Kath

Run Time 103 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Icon Distribution - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.