Case study - Harry Brown

Harry Brown

• Won at the Empire awards UK for best British film. (2010)
• Nominated at the Empire awards for best actor (Michael Caine) and best thriller. (2010)
• Nominated at the ALFS awards for breakthrough British film maker. (2010)
• Budget - $7,300,000
• Gross prophet opening weekend - £1,271,814

Plot

An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.

E-media 

• The film has it's on Facebook page, which allows people to like it. The Harry Brown page has 97,848 likes. The Facebook page allows you to comment with your views on the film, which gets the audience involved. It also has a photos section, which shows you the film prints. Finally it has a video section, in this section it shows 3 different videos to do with the film, firstly the official trailer. This is the video that'll attract the audience the most. Therefore it has to be as effective as possible. Secondly it shows a little clip from the film, this will also be used to attract the audience, giving them a little teaser to what the film is like. And finally the music video, which was created by plan B. 
• The film also has it's own website, this website has a range of different features. For example as soon as you open the website it automatically plays the trailer, this is so it's the first thing that the audience will notice. Secondly it has a range of different pages an 'About page' which contains the obvious, all about the film. Next a 'Videos' page, this contains videos from the film and the trailer. Next a 'Photos' page, this contains photos from the film. Then a 'cast & crews' page, this allows the audience to find out more about the characters, it gives them a personal relationship with them. Next a 'Press' page, this page shows a big range of reviews, and downloads (Posters & Stills). Finally a 'Buy now' page, this is gain pretty obvious, it allows you to buy the DVD straight from their website.  

Broadcast 

• The film has several trailers, but the official trailer was released on the 30th April 2009 on YouTube it has 311,786 views. It hasn't got that many views, but somehow the film became quite popular. 
• The film was featured in a song by Plan B and Chase & Status called End Credits, this song was available to download on the 1st November 2009. This song was a massive hit, it has a total number of 12,838,081 views on the official YouTube video, and those views are still going up today. The song manged to get in the UK top 40 in November 2009. It finally manged to reach a position of number 9 in the UK top 40. During the official video to this song, it plays different clips from the film trailer promoting it. I believe this song was one of the reasons why Harry Brown was so popular, the song promoted the film well. 

Print

• The film had two different prints, which i'll show below. Both posters are simple but yet effective, they both show the main character (Harry Brown). The first one shows the audience that the film is a violent film without a lot of crime. This is done by the background, being people setting fire to cars. Also the main character with a gun. The second one shows Harry Brown with gun from a low down angle, this makes the audience feel like the character is intimidating.  

Reviews

• This film review is done by Peter Bradshaw on the Guardian, the Guardian is read by middle to upper class people. Which shows that the film is targeted by all classes. The Guardian rated this 3 stars out of 5. - 'Michael Caine gets his tastiest, nastiest role since Get Carter in this vigilante-revenge thriller set in the badlands of south-east London. His Harry Brown is a widower in his 70s, living in a council flat on a rough estate, on medication for his emphysema.Daniel Barber's film occupies an interesting position on a certain type of Britfilm continuum with Ken Loach at one end and Nick Love at the other; it starts quite near the former and ends very near the latter. Long, ­interestingly protracted scenes show Harry getting effort fully out of bed, ­eating a sad lonely breakfast, and dozing off in the sofa of an evening. But when he discovers the need for violence, things speed up.When his only friend, Len (David Bradley), is killed by drug dealers, Harry rediscovers a forgotten part of himself; he was once in the Royal Marines, and now embarks on a revenge campaign against the gang. Caine's face visibly changes from an open, gentle expression – into one of hooded-eyed, heavy-set menace: the face he once had confronting big men who didn't realise they were in bad shape.For my money, Harry Brown is at its best at its midway point, the Loach/Love cusp – when Harry realises that he can and will do something about the yobs. What a tremendous role for Caine. I can't imagine anyone else carrying it off.'
• This film review was written by Empire magazine, Empire is a famous magazine which contains information and reviews from all the top films. It's target audience is a wide range of people who are into films. The film was rated 4 stars out of 5. - 'At a recent screening of Harry Brown, no less than Michael Caine’s 110th film, Empire witnessed one of his friends come up to him at the end and say, “Wow, Michael. That doesn't pull any punches, does it?” Caine smiled back. “You bet it doesn't  But I’ll be in trouble now,” he said, gesturing towards his wife, Shakira. “I told the missus it was a bit like Mary Poppins…”And, let’s be clear, one thing Harry Brown is not, is anything like Mary Poppins. Most obviously, it’s the UK’s answer to Gran Torino, with its disgruntled OAP putting the smackdown on the smackheads polluting the turf he’s called home for years. It also borders, alarmingly at points, on a fascist’s fantasy, Caine’s Harry shooting, barb-wiring and torturing his hoodie prey without much in the way of remorse and with much in the way of graphic close-up. In lesser hands, frankly, it could have played like a tooled-up episode of Jeremy Kyle. But Daniel Barber’s economic direction — in, astonishingly, his first feature — gives his revenge flick a distinct identity of its own. From a truly scary, immediate and immersive pre-credits sequence, through a series of unbearably tense scenes (the standout being Caine’s visit to a drug dealer’s den) and to a wonderfully Western climax, Barber takes his time, giving Harry room to breathe. We’re there when his wife dies. We’re there when his friend is brutalized by the gangs on his estate. And, as a result, we’re there with him when he exacts his savage payback. It’s unsettling, it’s not for the faint of heart and — to repeat — it’s no Mary Poppins. But it is a powerful and accessible movie that’s brave enough to ask uneasy questions amid its explosive set-pieces and witty one-liners. Not to mention one that reconfirms Caine as the unparalleled king of cool. His transformation from chess-playing old codger to gun-toting Dirty Harry is a masterclass in slow-build. The same, sadly, can’t be said for a series of underwritten, sometimes nonsensical subplots (Emily Mortimer’s daft cop and Iain Glen’s moronic boss especially underdeveloped). Nevertheless, Caine’s mesmerizing  tough-as-old-boots performance makes Harry Brown, if no Get Carter 2, somewhere not a million miles removed. Get some.'