Stephen Marche at Esquire.com offers a piece on the late Bob Hoskin's finest film scene from The Long Good Friday.
Bob Hoskins was the definitive London tough guy. He starred in the definitive London tough-guy film, The Long Good Friday, which you should feel obligated today to rewatch instead of working. The whole of his performance in that movie is pure bravura acting — I mean, the man outshines Helen Mirren — but the final scene stands out as one of the greatest scenes in any film noir ever. Captured by the IRA in London, whose leader he has just killed, Hoskins's Harold Shand stares down a very silent and very menacing and very grinning Pierce Brosnan. He knows that he has lost. He knows that he is about to be tortured and killed and that his body is going to be displayed in some horrific way. In total silence, an amazing series of emotions plays over his face — hatred, animal horror at what is about to happen to the wife he loves, amazement, crippling fear, a last gasp at calculation, the realization that all his cunning isn't going to help him now, wistfulness for what he might have accomplished, amusement at the irony of his own downfall, existential sickness, atavistic loathing, and then cosmic resignation. That all happens, in silence, in a minute and a half. Have a look:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/bob-hoskins-the-long-good-Friday?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_oth_non_043014_bob-hoskins
You can also read an earlier post on the late actor via the below link:
http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/04/rip-british-actor-bob-hoskins-dead-at-71.html
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