Cast: Bernard Hill, Kieran O’Brien, and Frances
Tomelty
Director: Richard Loncraine
122 minutes (15) 1987
Powerhouse (Indicator)
Blu-ray region B
Rating: 9/10
Review by J.C. Hartley
I
first saw Bernard Hill playing the part of John Lennon in a televised showing
of Willy Russell’s John, Paul, George,
Ringo... And Bert (1974), but to be honest, the first time he made an
impact for me, along with everyone else I suspect, was as the doyen of the
head-butt Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdale’s Boys
From The Blackstuff (1982). He is also responsible for two of my favourite
moments in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The
Rings (2001-3) trilogy, in his role as King Théoden. The speech to the
Riders of Rohan before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, ‘To Death!’ is
suitably inspiring, and the look of weary acceptance at the end of that battle,
when he realises he must face the Witch King is equally moving. Jackson, who
often lays things on with a shovel (how much longer can the world wait for his ‘Tom
Bombadil Goes To The Shops’ trilogy), rather diluted the power of Théoden’s
speech by giving Aragorn a similar moment in front of the Gates of Mordor, but
no matter. Bellman And True came
between film supporting roles for Hill, as club bouncer Bernard in Bleasdale’s
sectarian conflict comedy No Surrender
(1985), as coroner Madgett in Peter Greenaway’s Drowning By Numbers (1988), and as the egg-and-chips hurling
husband to Pauline Collins’ Shirley
Valentine (1989).
Originally
intended as a three-part TV serial for Thames, Bellman And True was filmed for this format, and as a stand-alone
movie, in a link-up between Thames’ film-making division Euston Films, and
George Harrison’s HandMade Films. The Blu-ray disc offers the film in two
versions, the pre-release cut that went to the 1987 London Film Festival, and
the slightly shorter theatrical version. The longer cut has the missing minutes
compiled from ‘standard definition materials’, so the restored scenes aren’t
Blu-ray quality, and to be honest don’t add much to the story. Director Richard
Loncraine, speaking in an interview, suggests that he now wished he had
produced two separate scripts, one for TV and one for the cinema, as editing
and cutting proved quite problematic. To be fair to Loncraine, it sounds like
the production process didn’t leave him a lot of room to manoeuvre.
Hiller
(Hill), arrives in London with the Boy (Kieran O’Brien) and books into a cheap
hotel. The pair are observed at the
railway station and followed. Leaving the hotel the next day, Hiller sees Gort
(Ken Bones) and attempts to flee with the boy, but he is apprehended in the
Tube, Gort later mutilates him with a Stanley knife. Hiller is taken to a
derelict casino to meet Salto (Richard Hope). Hiller is a computer expert as
well as being adept at electronics and engineering, previously he stole
computer tape for Salto for a payment of a thousand pounds, but rather than
decode it for him and earn another payment, he decamped with the boy. The money
having run out, Hiller has now returned. Quite why Hiller has returned, and how
Salto was prepared for him, is one of a few plot-holes that in no way detract
from enjoyment of the story. By using Gort to threaten the boy, Salto is able
to coerce Hiller into decoding the tape, which provides information on the
holdings at a bank near to Heathrow. Once they have the information, Gort uses
his criminal contacts to engage the Guv’nor (Derek Newark) who assembles a team
to break into the bank. The Guv’nor’s team comprises a Bellman (Peter Howell)
who is an alarm expert, as well as a safe-cracking Peterman, some muscle, and a
getaway driver.
The
bank has a sophisticated alarm system which detects movement. Hiller suggests
that by repeatedly triggering the alarm they can convince security guards that
the system has malfunctioned, and use the window of opportunity to break into
the lower levels housing the vault, having switched to an earlier recording of
a video feed to mask their movements. The Bellman (a striking cameo by Howell)
suggests that having solved the problem Hiller may as well take his place on
the raid as there is no need for his presence. In a visit to the bank, Hiller
somehow creates a ‘track’ by which he can remotely direct an ashtray on a
plinth in order to trigger the motion-sensor alarms, and no, I didn’t
understand this bit and at first thought he’d made a mobile device disguised as
the ashtray, but then how did they smuggle it in? The alarm is triggered
multiple times and the gang break into the lower levels.
While
the security firm responding to the call-outs are forced to occupy the
building, the gang are already in situ robbing the vault. The following
morning, using tear-gas, the gang escape. Unfortunately a policeman dies from
gas-inhalation, and the gang’s plans to abscond are thrown into disarray.
Relocating to a cabin at Dungeness, the gang wait for a plane to get them out
of the country, but the Guv’nor decides Hiller must be killed even though Salto
is opposed to the plan, and Hiller must use all his ingenuity to extricate
himself and the boy.
This
is a grittily effective thriller, nicely understated, and with excellent
performances. Bernard Hill is totally
convincing, and his scenes with Kieran O’Brien highlight the close relationship
the latter reveals they enjoyed on set. Hiller is a functional alcoholic, and
O’Brien’s character isn’t his biological son, but the son of Hiller’s wife who
has abandoned them. Hiller makes up outlandish, verbally inventive, stories for
the boy, reshaping their shared history with his ex-wife ‘The Princess’.
Towards the end of the film, having discovered that his mother never cared for
him, the boy realises that Hiller is responsible for all the affection and
parenting he ever received, ‘It was always you’.
Women fare poorly in the film,
Anna (Frances Tomelty), brought in to look after the boy, tells her girlfriend
that Hiller is the sort of man who will always be kicked around by women. After
sleeping with Hiller, the night before the raid, to calm his nerves, Anna is
offered half of Hiller’s share if she will take care of the boy, and all of it
if he doesn’t come back. Anna tells her girlfriend she will take the money and
abandon the boy. When the boy overhears, Anna tries to persuade him not to tell
by encouraging him to touch her breast, to forge a bond of secrecy between
them.
As
part of the extras package on the disc there are four interviews. Loncraine
talks about how the production came about, and notes the differences in filming
practice in the 1980s compared to the present day. It’s quite amusing how he
appends anecdotes about the non-observance of Health and Safety, and other
standards now in current force, with: ‘And of course you couldn’t do that now,
and quite rightly so’. Loncraine’s interview is subtitled ‘Running In Traffic’
which gives you some of the drift. He was a sculptor in a previous life, and
apparently is responsible for the first chrome version of that fixture on
executive desks the Newton’s Cradle (thanks Wikipedia). Desmond Lowden who
wrote the original novel and cooperated on the script talks about his own
career in film, in editing, in ‘Cracking The System’.
Kieran O’Brien in ‘Just An
Adventure’ remembers his eleven-year-old self making the film, and his happy
relations with everyone on set, particularly Hill. When his father had to take
him out of school for the four-month production, his headmaster said he would
learn more on a film-set than he would in education. O’Brien is a little bit
amazed at the scene where he touches Tomelty’s breast given that it literally
involves the sexualisation of a minor, but feels that he was protected by
Tomelty and all involved. O’Brien is still an actor, and experienced a certain
notoriety when he starred in Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs (2005). Composer Colin Towns in ‘Trust’, has good memories
of working with Loncraine and producer Michael Wearing, and enjoyed writing
music to convey both drama and pathos in the relationship between Hiller and the
Boy. Other extras include the theatrical trailer and an image gallery.
