Brian Helgeland‘s 2015 film ‘Legend‘ is a biopic of the Kray twin brothers, two gangsters who dominated the London underworld from the late 1950s until 1968 when they were both arrested, tried and sentenced to life in prison for separate murders. The style of the cinematic saga dedicated to crime families immediately brings to mind the films of Coppola and Scorsese dedicated to the world of the American mafia in general and New York one in particular. From a cinematic point of view ‘Legend‘ stands up to the comparison quite well, especially thanks to an extraordinary acting performance in a double role by Tom Hardy, even if it does not manage to reach the level of plot complexity and character richness of the best films Americans of the genre. But perhaps this is also due to the fact that even the phenomenon of organized crime in Britain and London has not reached the proportions of the crime empires overseas.
Reggie and Ron Kray were children of the war, living their childhood in Blitz London in the poorer neighborhoods of the East End of the metropolis. Their true path in life was influenced by their parents – the very ambitious mother and the deserter father who lived as a fugitive for many years after the war – but the screenwriters chose to deal very little with this aspect and almost completely left out their characters. At the beginning of the film we already find the two brothers involved in the world of crime. Ron is a true psychopath, violent and sadistic. His brother Reggie, more cerebral and apparently less inclined to violence, is the brains behind the business, which starts in a pub in East London, with ambitions to expand into the clubbing and casino world of the wealthier West End of the city. The two brothers are surrounded by a gang of henchmen, including accountants and corrupt lawyers, who are their accomplices. In the world of London vice they know and buy or blackmail politicians from both sides of the British political spectrum who support them, promote their businesses and often protect them when they get into conflicts with the police and the law. The appearance of Frances, the beautiful sister of Reggie’s driver, risks changing the balance of relations between the two brothers for a moment. Frances extracts Reggie’s promise that he will abandon the illegal business and transform himself from a gangster to a legitimate businessman, but abandoning the life of crime proves to be impossible for Reggie. The marriage of the two is opposed by Frances’ mother, but also by Ron, who sees in her a rival who can divert his brother from ‘business’. Ron and Reggie’s bond is inevitably headed for tragedy.
The film is based on a biographical book dedicated to the two brothers and accomplices in crime, written and published several years after their fall. The script shifts the focus of the story to the romantic connection between Reggie and Frances, making her the film’s voice-over narrator as well. The two twin brothers are described as very different in personality despite their physical resemblance. Tom Hardy‘s performance is virtuoso, supported by perfect editing. This is the strongest part of the film along with the authenticity of the reconstruction of the landscape of London 60 years ago. The vast majority of the scenes were actually filmed on location, on the streets, in the clubs and pubs where many of the events depicted on the screen took place, or in the interiors of carefully and accurately reconstructed London houses. Emily Browning interprets with sincerity and sensitivity the role of the girl in love who at one point becomes the chance of moral salvation for Reggie, but who in the end cannot escape the fate of becoming his victim. It’s a shame her role wasn’t given more consistency by the writers. This seems to me, by the way, to be the main problem of the film. Focusing on the figures of the two brothers and relying on Hardy’s excellent performance in the dual role, ‘Legend‘ very loosely draws the lines that define the surrounding characters, be it the gangsters who surround the two brothers, members of the Kray family or the policemen who are constantly following them and who will bring them to justice in the end. ‘Legend‘ is more than just a gangster film or yet another violent entertainment. It’s a masterfully rendered cinematic study of two underworld characters, but it misses the opportunity to also be a fresco of the complex underworld of London at the time.