Review – Legend

WARNING – THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS THAT YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO SEE. FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE PEOPLE, THE SUMMARY IS THAT ITS A GREAT FILM AND YOU NEED TO SEE THIS.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO READ THIS, THERE IS LANGUAGE THAT MAY CAUSE OFFENCE TO PEOPLE. I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR THAT

Now as I start writing this, I am reminded that a lot of people in the United Kingdom probably know about the back story of The Krays and why their lives have been made into films several times over, and how they cane to run parts of London in the 1960s. If you do not know about the history of them, I would like to direct you to a history book, or even better Reg’s autobiography because there is a lot of rumour and speculation, and quite a lot of it is untrue.
Now to the film itself. From the start, there are historical discrepancies. One that frustrated me from the start was the implication that Ron was Gay. Ron wasn’t gay, he was openly bisexual. There seems to be this thing that goes on with Hollywood that they struggle to allow a male character to ever be bisexual. There is almost an inability to have a grey area of sexuality in male lead roles, and they have to be either one or the other. Regardless of this. Tom Hardy was fucking amazing as Ron. The portrayal of Ron was quite amazing, even through his moments of insanity, he managed to play him so well *claps internally*. My favourite part was where he hasn’t taken his medication and decided to go up stage and performs a “magic trick”

How many Cs are there in cunt (waits for pause) Just you

I nearly pissed myself laughing at that. There was a guy sitting near my mum and I (yes I took my mum to see it) choked on his food at the time. It was hilarious. The only downside was that his role was played a little too humorously at times, and the seriousness of his paranoid schizophrenia was seen as a joke at points.

Want to hear a joke. A paranoid schizophrenic walks into a bar

Now as for Tom Hardy’s portrayal of Reg. I loved it too. However he was played out as a happy go lucky type of gangster, more of a cheeky chappie then what he was actually like. I’m not saying it was a bad thing, I loved the film, but the film was almost on the borders of being a comedy. Which for someone like me, who knows the story, is perfectly fine. But for others, it might not be a great point to start learning.
Secondly the way that Reg treats his wife totally in accurate. He had a love for her that was equal to his brother, and rather than being abusive (there is implied rape and assault in the film) and he had tried hard to help her. However Toms acting is amazing, regardless of the accuracy of the story.
The rest of the cast were also pretty spot on and were all casted well. The only concern was that there wasn’t enough mention of their mum Violet, who had been such a huge influence in their lives.

To summarise what I saw. Honestly it was fucking amazing. I had been waiting two years for the film and I have no regrets, apart from the cinemas Nacho’s , which I say I won’t get again, but I probably will. I want to stress a warning though before it. As expected there is violence (though not as much as you would think), there is ALOT of swearing, implied assault and rape and a moment where Ron explains his type of lovers, and that he has no preference, he uses the word “Negro” (apologies for writing it). Whilst I really do like the film, I will expect because of this, that it will not be suitable for a lot of people, and that is perfectly fine, I believe in self care when watching things that might be triggering to some, and I know the topics might not be OK.

I would however recommend this film to anyone who can handle the subject matter.

Tom you did us all proud ❤

Posted from WordPress for Android