There was booze and gang fights when I was a kid...but drugs have made addicts into killers
By MARTIN PHILLIPS
Senior Feature Writer
Published: 21 Mar 2009
THE white-haired old gent straightened his cardigan, settled into his settee and turned down the volume on the television.
A bit of a tough day, he said with a friendly smile.
Moments earlier, gun in hand, he had been beating a teenage hoodie to a pulp.
On a film set, you understand. Although the violence which spawned Sir Michael Caines latest movie, Harry Brown, is genuine enough.
Against a backdrop of a Broken Britain plagued with teenage knife deaths and a growing gun culture, Michael plays an ex-Marine pensioner living alone in an inner-city estate after the death of his wife.
When his only friend is murdered by the drug-dealing young gangsters who terrorise the concrete jungle, Harry Brown turns vigilante to wipe them out... one by one.
Its a tough movie, he said, but its about a very tough environment.
Michael, 76, has been taking it easy of late. But he jumped at the chance to make a film which highlights one of the most damaging issues of our age the growth in youth violence.
Gritty
Just as real slum children from Mumbai were used in the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire, so the producers of Harry Brown used youngsters from London estates to play the minor hoodie gangster characters in the gritty, low-budget thriller.
Michael said: You dont have to go to Mumbai to find slums.
I am always looking for something to stretch me as an actor, and this film does it. It is also about something that interests me the kids on the sink estates. We are all sort of responsible for them being there.
Their family let them down, the education system let them down, the Government let them down.
In other words, we all let them down, and thats why they are like they are.
Filming on location in parts of east and south east London allowed Michael, the son of a fish market porter and a charlady, to return to the impoverished streets where he grew up, to see what has become of the area.
He said: I was at the Elephant and Castle, where I come from, and there are these terrible flats. They are being pulled down now but people have been living in them for years. They are like animal cages.
I suppose if you house people like animals they turn into animals.
The Elephant has changed greatly since Michael was a boy.
He said: I talked to the local kids a lot during filming.
For them, I was one of them, if you see what I mean. They talked to me on an equal basis. There is potential in all of them, but they never got the chance.
And, of course, what you have now which you didnt have when I was young is drugs. You had alcoholism, people getting p****d, but you never had the drugs and that is a massive problem.
We were shooting in Hackney and someone local came up to me and said, Welcome to Crackney!
It was a gentler time when I was young. There were vicious gangsters but they were professional gangsters. They chose who they hit and what they robbed.
But the drug addicts today have to kill anybody it doesnt matter who to get the money, so you get this incredible random violence.
Gangs fighting over postcode territory is not new, Michael said.
When I was young, you fought the guys in the next street. But it wasnt so vicious then. We fought with our fists. Now they fight with knives and guns.
I have now seen it at close hand, very close hand. I was quite aware of it and I come from there, but even I was shocked to find out how bad it is.
Described as an urban Western, Harry Brown will be seen by many as a chance for Michael to reprise his role as cold-blooded Jack Carter, from the 1971 film Get Carter.
Brutality
But Michael said: Carter was a gangster. This guy, Harry Brown, is an ex-Marine and a very honourable man.
He is absolutely sure he is behaving honourably, but in fact he is behaving like a vigilante. He has been turned into one of them by what is happening around him.
Michael insisted Harry Brown is not a violent film, despite the brutality of the scene he had just been shooting.
He said: This is a film about violence. Every one of the incidents that happens in the movie, Ill show you one like it in the newspapers. This isnt fiction. This is newsreel.
What is happening is the whole fabric of the country seems to be collapsing among the young people.
Michael himself survived the school of hard knocks to build a career which has seen him credited with more than 100 films and nominated for Oscars in five consecutive decades.
Harry Brown, due out later this year, is only his second movie in nearly two years, but he has no plans to end his career.
He said: I took a year off which turned into about 17 months and I had the best time. I got used to not working. But then I do like to work, every now and then.
I just do exactly what I want, when I want, where I want and with whom I want. I dont see any point in retiring. The movie business retires you.
Michaels first film, in 1956, was a bit-part in the flop A Hill In Korea a role he says he got only because he did his national service in Korea. He said: I dont want to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells but national service could do a lot to solve the problems of today. Im not saying join the Army and go and fight anybody but when we joined up we were there to defend our country.
Once you have done that, within six months, you feel you have the right to be here. You have done your bit and I think it makes an entirely different person out of a young man.
On set minutes earlier, Michael had faced a spitting, snarling, swearing hoodie thug, played by Skins actor Jack OConnell.
The action was brutal, but in between gruelling takes Michael is more interested in helping along todays new talent.
The murderous vigilante offered support and encouragement to his young co-star, while the foul-mouthed gangster apologised for spitting too enthusiastically at the knighted legend.
When young director Daniel Barber asked Michael if it was OK for Jack to spit again in the next take, the old pro said: Dont worry. Im used to it.
Anyway, hes a nice young man.
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