Movie: Harry Brown

I've been reading a lot about this one laterly. Michael Caine is supposed to just do an amazing job with it all. In truth this is becoming quite the recurring plot line for films, and this one has all the necessary elements.

Caine's character is a heavy drinking, former Korea vet who's wife has recently died and who has little time left himself. The neighborhood he has lived all of his life has gone to hell, and it's time to blow away all those punk kids. We saw it recently in Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood and Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson, but can forget in this Charles Bronson's Death Wish series.

This however is supposed to a somewhat frailer, more human hero. Caine is not the hard-ass you have with Eastwood or Gibson or Bronson. He's not a pansy about it. He can be stern and the violence is not unnatural to him in the protrayal. He's just ... English. There is a gentlemen quality in his aggression and hostility.

But it's not just this. He's age and health really have an effect. Often in these stories the hero will find moments of strength for the sake of the fight and only be effected during the inbetweens and final climax. Here Caine is struck with a shortness of breath in the chase sequence. He is a real and human as you can get.