✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy ★★★★★

01 Oct 15 – 01 Jan 16, 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Tom Hardy stars in new Legend film about the Kray Brothers by Brian Helgeland: a new gangster movie with plenty of style. 

By CW Contributor on 4/9/2015

1 CW reader is interested
Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy [STAR:4]
Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy [STAR:4]
Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy 4 Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy Thomas Buys
Tom Hardy: New film about the Krays
Starring BAFTA winner Tom Hardy as both of the infamous Kray Twins, this new Krays film is an impressively drawn biopic about the tortured relationship between two of Britain's most notorious criminals. 
As the most famous gangsters in British history, The Krays consorted with celebrities and politicians as well as murderers and extortionists, and Legend reveals both the brutality and the glamour of their lives. Based on John Pearson’s The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, this British crime thriller chronicles the reign of terror which saw Ronnie and Reggie Kray come to dominate London’s East End.
Fresh from a string of critically acclaimed performances including in Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy is a strong piece of casting. The Krays are exactly the sort of menacing and physically dominating characters in which an actor of his gravitas should excel, and the film's real strength is the core psychodrama between the Kray twins, with Reggie’s story portrayed as a losing battle against his brother Ronnie’s psychosis.
Legend film plot
The psychological crime drama follows the Kray Brothers' gang, known as The Firm, as they move to dominate London’s criminal underworld in the 1960s. We see them overcome their main rivals, the Richardsons, and later trade favours with the American Mafia, and the British political elite.
Legend: Film review
Tom Hardy’s solo double-act of playing both brothers is much more than a gimmick – the film’s most compelling and unusual scenes closely explore the fraught bond between the brothers. Writer/director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) has created a meditation on the danger of blood loyalty worthy of the Ancient Greek tragedians.
A gangster film of tragic proportions? 
A comparison between Reggie Kray and the ill-fated Agamemnon in a key scene provides a subtle hint that the film's tragic resonance is deliberate. The gangster genre mainstays of looming threat and severe violence are arranged around this dark central plot, and the film’s tragic drive is strong enough to bring home the terrible reality of the Krays’ world, despite moments of inconsistency arising from Helgeland’s parallel interest in gangster-movie pastiche, known for his ability to handle deftly the kind of extreme violence which typified the Krays’ lives.
Some scenes will raise controversy. A better film would perhaps have sought more stylistic unity, and steered clear of knuckle-duster based comedy – but overall, violence does not come well out of Legend, and the harrowing scenes of torture and murder are more likely to produce nausea than pleasure: criticism is likely to hinge more on style than on any more troubling undercurrent of an uncertain moral code. 
Legend film cast: Emily Browning, Colin Morgan, Christopher Eccleston
Though saddled with the least compelling main role, Emily Browning should be seriously lauded for carrying the narrative tenor of the film brilliantly, though to say why would be to give too much away. Her character arch suffers a little from the film’s moments of uncertainty, but also gives substance to its moments of brilliance.
Browning’s Frances Shea is, ultimately, another peripheral aspect of the core drama between the twins, but that evident fact about the Krays’ story is not overlooked by the film itself. Though her character is marginalised, her voice is not – Shea's stamp on the film is simply subtler than Hardy’s.
Viewers interested in seeing the young and ludicrously friendly BBC Merlin (Colin Morgan) appropriately playing the softest gangster ever, should get on board. Inspector Nipper Read is also one of Christopher Eccleston’s best pure character roles, and his fans will enjoy this demonstration of his range after his talents went largely wasted in Thor: The Dark World, his last cinematic outing.
If you do anything this October, then, watch The Krays film Legend: an impressive double-act performance from Hardy and a powerfully handled piece of crime drama, at the likes of which Helgeland excels. 



What Legend review: film about the Kray Brothers, Tom Hardy
Where Various Locations | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 01 Oct 15 – 01 Jan 16, 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Price £12.00
Website Click here to go to Legend: The Krays IMDB page



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 19 - 21 August
Things to do in London this weekend: 19 - 21 August
London's loveliest indoor swimming pools
London swimming pools you can visit without membership
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

A little more...

  • Did you know..?

    TOM HARDY

    Hardy has developed quite a habit of acting without co-stars. Hardy's 2013 hit Locke saw the star alone in a car for the duration of the film. Now, rather than simply playing the only onscreen character in the entire film, he will be playing both of Legend's major characters - Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

    SHEA FAMILY BACKLASH

    The family of Frances Shea, played in the film by Emily Browning, has criticised the film for its inaccurate portrayal of a marriage that ultimately ended in tragedy.

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Legend trailer

1

Psychological Drama

Thriller

Action

Blockbuster

Tom Hardy

Crime Drama

British

We Love

You might like

  • Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street, which will be shown as part of the Barbican's Colour of Money season

    Barbican Film Season: The Colour of Money

  • Benicio del Toro, Escobar

    Escobar movie: Paradise Lost, Benicio Del Toro review ★★★★★

  • Henry Cavill, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

    The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Film 2015

  • Still from Sicario film, Emily Blunt

    Sicario movie, Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro film 2015



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×