Harry Brown Review

Megan Hume

Media Work: Harry Brown

At the beginning I felt an overwhelmed sad feeling, a very old man, struggling to breathe, stuck in a old-fashioned house (possibly still living in an earlier time period), scared of his surroundings. It appears that he has the same routine everyday, which is represented by using close-ups while he is doing certain daily tasks e.g. putting his socks on, shoes on, eating, and getting his coat on. The close-ups ensure the audience focuses on that rather than in a longer shot where the viewer maybe inclined to look elsewhere, whereas in a close-up shot the audience must focus on exactly what the director wants them to. This is what confused me at first, turned in to one of my favourite parts of the film. The detail put in to lead the audience away from the storyline, like the shooting at the beginning, you expect it to link back and so you are not expecting what really happens. The only small clues you get is the fact that he has been in the Marines. 

Something which I wondered about is why the representation of women is so little and weak. The woman inspector started off as a stronger character but as the film went on, I believe she grew to be insignificant. The only other women we view are ones that are involved in sexual activity. This shows that yet again it is a film targeted at men. I understand it holds many things that appeal to a male audience. There is one film I believe challenges that stereotype, Kidulthood. It is not as violent as Harry Brown, and the drug use isn’t as harsh, but I think that taking female characters and making at least one of them strong (Alisha from Kidulthood), I think a film can automatically be appealing to women if there is a female lead character, so I don’t really understand why Daniel Barber put a women in, as a main character, just to make her so weak.

After thinking about the film more I got a certain message from it. First of all films will often have a hidden moral to it. Whereas in Harry Brown the gang members may get punished for what they did, but then Harry who is actually killing these people gets away with it in the end. Which is taken from the theory of there being a hero, but to be realistic he should have been taken to prison. And the reason you actually feel glad inside when he does get away with it is actually because even though he is committing murder there are little things that in some way justify it. To begin with the guy who was going to mug him seems irrelevant, like he had it coming. Also the director had chosen to show you earlier how the boy he first kills had been involved in killing Len.

The second people Harry kills is unexpected but he says certain things like “ you should have taken her to the hospital” which makes you think, yeah he did give them a chance and she was going to die, like this justifies what he is doing, which is crazy that you somewhat agree at the time.

Another technique the director uses to justify what Harry is doing is how the three people that he actually quite brutal murders in the tunnel were the ones who killed Len. Combining the scenes where Harry sits and cries after he finds out Len is dead and the phone video of the kids killing him, part of you feels that they really deserved what they got, and that Harry had no other choice.

Over all my feelings towards this film is that I believe it is somewhat ironic. Whether it is intended this way or it’s just my take on it. The way Harry is perceived in the beginning scenes, as a frail, old man to him then defeating and murdering them just seems a little funny. How the gang members are made out to be this terrible thing but then really this old man with a breathing problem goes

Megan Hume

around killing them all. But from this theory I have developed another one, how the director is showing just how unimportant these ‘kids’ actually are. How an old man, even though he has been in the marines, hasn’t needed to use strength to beat them, but clearly his brain. I think it shows to the audience how easy it is to let something get out of hand and scare you, when really they are just a couple of kids shouting around. And the point is that they rule the area, and even though they can create some harm, it is really showing how today people are using mindless crime and a quote from the film which Harry says “back then it was necessary now they are just killing for the fun” (or something similar to that).