At date of writing this film has yet to earn 350 votes in the IMDb, meaning it falls short of the top 250 despite it's 7+ score. If you're somehow reading this without having seen the film, then do yourself a large favour: rent it, or buy it.<br /><br />It's ironic that the production company of the "quiet", peaceful Beatle, George Harrison, should construct such a violent and gritty picture. Bob Hoskins is so perfect as an East-End ganglord that you wonder how he ever got cast out of character as a cod American acting opposite a cartoon rabbit. Is this really the same man who urged the virtues of conversation on behalf of a phone company? Hoskins acts more in the final two minutes of this movie than in the rest of his career put together.<br /><br />What makes The Long Good Friday so special, (apart from stylish, but not ostentatious, direction and a superb theme score) is its variation on the typical crime theme. Instead of guns and bluster stretched out over an hour and forty minutes we get what is essentially a detective story. Who is planting bombs on Harold's patch? Who is trying to undermine his organisation? And will Harold put the pieces together before the noose around his neck gets too tight? Admittedly, Sherlock Holmes never got his clues by stringing up Moriarty from his ankles in a meat factory, but the narrative principle is the same.<br /><br />Is it really already the 20th anniversary of this film? What a timely reminder of how powerful the British Film Industry used to be. A must-see movie and quite excellent.