The Krays
THE KRAYS (18)
D: Peter Medak
Rank/Parkfield (Dominic Anciano & Ray
Burdis)
UK 1990
119 mins
Crime/Drama
W: Philip Ridley
DP: Alex Thomson
Ed: Martin Walsh
Mus: Michael Kamen
Gary Kemp (Ronnie Kray), Martin Kemp (Reggie
Kray), Billie Whitelaw(Violet Kray), Susan Fleetwood (Rose), Charlotte Cornwell (May), Jimmy Jewel (Cannonball Lee), Kate Hardie (Frances)
Made with the coorporation of the real-life Kray twins, this
feels more like an episode of a soap opera than a biopic of England's most infamous criminal duo.
The film focuses on the life of the twins, played by Spandau
Ballet's Gary & Martin Kemp, as they grow up in a mother-dominated household in London's East End. Though violent moments are directed in an unflinching manner, the film edges closer and
closer to glamorising the gangsters and their culture as the film progresses.
The screenplay could have presented a less bias portrayal, but
there's no complaints about the acting, especially from Billie Whitelaw as the twins' mother.
6/10
