The Long Good Friday: The British Gangster Film That Saw Thatcher Coming

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000

There is a moment near the start of The Long Good Friday when Harold Shand, London gangster, stands on the deck of his yacht on the Thames and gestures at the derelict docklands around him. He talks about a great city reborn, foreign money pouring in, the wasteland transformed into gleaming towers. He is pitching American mobsters on a property deal. Watching it now, made in 1979 and released in 1980, the scene is uncanny. Harold is describing, almost to the letter, the Docklands redevelopment that Margaret Thatcher’s governments would push through across the following decade. A gangster film accidentally became a prophecy.

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The Long Good Friday: The British Gangster Film That Saw Thatcher Coming