History Film / TheLongGoodFriday

* CoolGuns: When Harold gathers his men before sending them on their mission to find out who's behind the recent gang hits, they all grab weapons from a large table full of vintage pistols and hunting shotguns.

''The Long Good Friday'' is a 1980 British gangster film starring Creator/BobHoskins as Harold Shand, an old-school LondonGangster planning to make the leap from organised crime to legitimate business with the financial aid of some [[TheMafia American]] {{Legitimate Businessmen|sSocialClub}} and some potentially lucrative property deals. Success is within his grasp when a mysterious group of hitmen start targeting Harold and his organisation, executing two of his closest accomplices and bombing several of his businesses.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: It's pretty clear that the American businessmen Harold is working with are really TheMafia.

* TheOner: The final shot holds on Harold Shand as he's driven away, replaying the events of the last few days in his head. We see him run the gamut of emotions as everything becomes clear to him.

** A less wholesome variation of, the "dog" being a gang of delinquent street kids who have "minded" Harold's Jaguar (instead of vandalising it). Knowingly, he indulges the pre-adolescent boys with some cash to go and warns not to get drunk, then comments to his henchman that this was how he started.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: In the end both the Americans and Harold exchange the one. First the man from beyond the ocean berates the United Kingdom. Then follows Harold's closing speech ("The mafia? I've shit 'em!") after [[spoiler: they tell him the deal's off due to all the bombs going off and whatnot]] which he extends to Americans in general. ("No wonder you've got an energy crisis your side of the water!")
* RuthlessForeignGangsters: Shand tries to make a property deal with the American mafia, but suddenly all his men start getting bombed. [[spoiler:Shand eventually realizes that he's somehow incurred the wrath of the IRA. Everyone tells him that the IRA is too psychotic to fight, but he tries to out-muscle them. It doesn't go well for him]]. Interestingly, the Mafiosi are portrayed as simple businessmen who don't want any bloodshed getting in the way of a deal.

* TranquilFury: Harold's silent rage when [[spoiler: the IRA assassins get the better of him and take him away]]. Without saying a word, his final scene shows a full spectrum of emotions from initial fear, seething rage, and finally resignation.

* DuellingScar: Razors sports one across his right eye.

** Harold ponders to Jeff is Colin might be the cause of all this trouble. He couldn't have been more right.

* GrievousBottleyHarm: [[spoiler:Harold makes particularly graphic use of a bottle against Jeff when his bad day finally explodes into a brief, furious frenzy; first he smashes the bottle over his victim's head, then he brutally stabs him in the neck with the jagged end. The sight of blood spraying out of his friend's throat soon calms him down.]]

* InterrogatedForNothing: Harold has Errol the Ponce tortured for information. He later has his rivals captured and brought to an abbatoir where they're suspended upside down so he can interrogate them. Both cases are for naught since the problem is far beyond everyone.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Razors never says anything unless he's asked a direct question by Harold, but he's by far the most violent and dangerous of Harold's thugs.

* BrickJoke: First London is compared to a bad night in Belfast in the end it is already likened to a bad night in Vietnam.
* TheBrute: Razors, Harold's gangland enforcer.

* CoveredInScars: Razors takes off his shirt to reveal three nasty looking scars across his torso which required sixty inches of stichting.

* DepravedBisexual: Jeff appears to be the one. It is invoked in his dialogue with Harold that he is gay however he also hits at Victoria in the lift.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Harry devolves in a completely vicious bastard and just when he thinks he's won, he's abducted by the IRA and driven off to be executed, emotions flashing over his face as he contemplates everything that brought him to that point. The final shot of the film is Harry's resignation and acceptance.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: It's clear that Harold does love Victoria and is beside himself when he pushes her. He's also quite upset when Colin is killed.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Harold has managed to keep the peace in London for ten years and managed to remove all his rivals.

* AmbiguousEnding: Harold is kidnapped and driven away apparently to his doom. [[spoiler: However, the writer later revealed that he actually survived. In the sequel that was planned but ultimately never made (see StillbornFranchise in the Trivia tab), he would have been rescued by anti-terrorist police.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Harold seems to be going through an extended slow-burning one from about a third of the way in. [[spoiler:It culminates in him slitting his right-hand man's throat and having his gangland rivals hooked upside down on meathooks.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: Harold is kidnapped and driven away apparently to his doom. However the writer later revealed that [[spoiler: he actually survived, in the plot for the sequel he is rescued by anti-terrorist police]]

* AlasPoorVillain: Harold is portrayed as a multidimensional character with enough likeable traits that [[spoiler: his final demise at the hands of the IRA is rather sad]].