Legend DVD Review

The Dark Kray Rises 

Released : September 9th 2015

Certificate : 18

Director : Brian Helgeland

Cast : Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton, Christopher Eccleston, Sam Spruell, David Thewlis, Paul Anderson

Plot : True life story of the rise of the Kray twins (Hardy), Reggie and Ronnie, during the 1960’s. Two of the biggest gangsters that London and England has ever know. The film see’s them battle police, rivals, love and each other.

Legend is the remake of the little known British gangster film The Krays (1990) which tells the truth life story of the Kray twins, some of London’s most famous gangsters. To man the remake we have Oscar winning screenwriter of L.A Confidential (as well as nominated for Mystic River), Brian Helgeland, directing and writing the film. It is also packed with rough type cast actors to man the gritty London foot soldiers of the Kray’s, such as Paul Anderson (Peaky Blinders) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Services) both most famous for their likeable English accents and rude nature. And topping the film is Tom Hardy, truly flexing his acting muscles in as many unique roles as possible. First a film where he is the only thing on screen for the whole 87 minutes, now he embodies both main characters of Legend.

Straight out of the gate if audience were expecting a wall to wall gritty London based mob film, filled with cultural richness and brutal violence then they might find it unpleasant to have a large act of the film taken up with romance. Hence there is a surprising edge of Goodfellas female involvement in the film which plays a big part. This could be a positive attribute, as it sticks to the films true story, adds to the dynamic of the twins relationship and adds depth to the film, in premise. However the execution of this aspect of the film doesn’t fly as high as other aspects of the film, which it needed to in order to occupy so much screen time. The poor quality of this romance between Reggie and Frances (Browning),  a local office girl who dreams of more and falls for Reggie charming nature and glamorous lifestyle, is hard to pin point as it is certainly not the acting. Due to the writing mostly the romance was rushed into placed from the start with little exploration of why Frances is so immediately mesmerised by Reggie. The doomed loved story then continues to spiralling down due to the pressure of gang life, Ronnie’s character and Reggie late working nature, a gangster love dynamic that has been explored before. The writing however didn’t hook entertainment or tug at heart strings, due to this aspect of the script being more square than the rest of the film. Obviously the films tone needs to alter slightly between relationship and crime genre, but it was obvious to see that Helgeland found more imagination and pleasure for writing the crime aspects.

Continuing on to Helgeland’s work as both screenwriter and director of the film, there are aspects of his work that kept the film more than afloat, but thoroughly enjoyable. For script purposes of the film Helgeland was brilliant and turning out pitch perfect cockney humour between the characters full of zest and wit. The only issue is that of the film being unable to trade in its entertainment value of humour and action at the start into drama and tension towards the end, ultimately the film suffered from pacing. As the initial ecstasy enjoyment of being immersed into the world of the Kray’s and their rocky relationship doesn’t quiet transfer into gangster drama of an equally high calibre for much of the second half. As the film falls into a bleak and fairly dry drama between the nature of Ronnie and the suppressed frustration of Reggie. However Helgeland’s work is top class in aspects of humours and invigorating  screen writing as well as directorial work with a set that is top class at building a beautiful and believable world of 1960’s London to stage the legacy to audience, but not quiet make it as human for the ‘colder’ side of tale.

The secondary heavy weight talent on the film is of course Tom Hardy, being much more prevalent in recent cinema history than Helgeland, and who’s work in this film is the framework for the entire film. Hardy demonstrates true talent as a chameleon actor, being able to deliver brilliant chemistry between himself as he plays both role. We aren’t totally sure how the shooting process went, but it doesn’t matter as the tip toeing between the two brothers ticked the only box that it needed to. This being the fact that the brothers felt like completely different people, characters and actor, of course the audience all know the truth but for Hardy to walk in each day and create the two persona’s so effortlessly is brilliant. Some could say that the task seems fairly easy, but Hardy had to create chemistry that would translate into believable conflict and relationship, hence act out one scene and then remember his mannerisms of the scene to construct the reaction of another character. Where some actors struggle to maintain their half of one scene, Hardy had to construct an entire dual character arc.

Legend hits as many hits as many good notes as it does bad, but when playing in the gangster genre there needs to be exception panache to allow for people to stand and recognise, but at the end of the day it’s still great fun to be taken along for the ride. Helgeland was able to beautiful and stylishly recreate another crime ridden world for the story to be set, and worked wonders in stage a snappy and crisp dialogue to initially get you on board with this world. Tom Hardy turn out a solid performance as does Egerton and Browning, but these characters find more to work with initially than when their relationships hit the rocks, resulting in quiet noticeable issues with pacing. And maybe the running commentary could have been a little more imaginative as memorable, rather than a slightly plain description of the story. But its undeniable the fun available here, filled to the brim with gritty violence that almost comical when you’re not cringing, cockney accents with plenty of four letter words, and an entertaining enough chess game of gangs and police. Of course Hardy fans will have a blast here as well.

Verdict : Hardy gives a brilliant dual character performance, but he had a little less to work with on the ending character drama then the initial blast of brother hood. This issue exists for the films romance, story and overall entertainment. Better action crime comedy than stirring character drama.

Verdict : 3/5

Quote : “What is that? I come here for a PROPER shootout! What you gonna do with that rollin pin? You gonna bake me a cake? What I want is a shootout, a SHOOTOUT IS A SHOOTOUT… like a Western!”