The Long Good Friday

Can a two-hour film accomplish what it takes several seasons of a TV show to do? We're talking to you, Sopranos. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday (1980), a film that they call the "spiritual cousin" of The Sopranos and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. They talk about how the film avoids the intuitive trap of offering a day in the life of its protagonist and instead gives us a day of absolute crisis and the ways in which Harold is like many people having a bad day at the office. Deadwood, The Shield, and even James Joyce's Ulysses all come into play. So get out of that abattoir and give it a listen! Dan compares the film to the classic crime novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which you can find here. You might also enjoy Paul Elliott's Studying the British Crime Film, available here.