The biopic Legend, starring Tom Hardy, highlights the rise and fall of these infamous gangsters.GQ.reveals some amazing facts surrounding the history behind the terrible twosome. Amazon's Choice for legend tom hardy. Legend (2015) 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,614. DVD $9.93 $ 9. 93 $14.98 $14.98. Get it as soon as Mon, Jun 1.
Some Tom Hardy love today. Apologies to all the DiCaprio-Hanks-Gosling-Depp-Denzel fans, but if we’re talking male actors in 2017, it’s Daniel Day Lewis and Tom Hardy. There’s no space today to even get into Bronson, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, or The Dark Knight Rises. And did you see Taboo?!!! Daaaaaaaamn!
Today though, we’ll look at a movie Hardy did that may have flew under your radar– Legend. Hardy pulled lots of Best Actor wins for these roles but no Oscar love, which is robbery. How do you do a tour-de-force on TWO performances as both Kray brothers and not get an Oscar nod? I’ve got the script from Brian Hegeland and a bunch of clips from the movie. Let’s match them up and you tell me this wasn’t one of the best performances from 2016. Apologies for the script non-spacing, I tried fixing it, but the blog tech won’t fix it, so screw it… Let’s do this…
First, the opening, where you get the excellent CG effect of Tom Hardy playing both brothers, setting up the movie:
EXT. LONDON SKYLINE – DUSK
PANNING DOWN from the heavens to the city below. Seen from
the East End looking west. Traffic in the streets, the
Thames, St. Paul’s. The BELLS at Bow Church can be heard.
FRANCES (V.O.)
story about the Krays. You could
The Legend Tom Hardy
two about them.
EXT. LINCOLN CONTINENTAL – ROLLING THE WEST END – NIGHT
We are low on the rear fender looking up, awash in neon:
Ronnie Scott’s, the Marquee Club. We catch glimpses of the
But I was there and I am not
INT. LINCOLN CONTINENTAL – ROLLING THE WEST END – NIGHT
In the backseat, the Krays: REGGIE tough and fit, RON off
kilter in style. An odd slowness here, like time has stood
They were brothers. But bound by
well. Counterparts. Gangster princes
Ron, heavier, thicker, bespectacled, looks to his brother.
FRANCES (V.O.)
Bloodthirsty, illogical, but funny
Reggie looks out the window watching London pass by.
FRANCES (V.O.)
lifetime do you find a street
when I say it took a lot of love for
I love this bar fight scene with the rival Richardson gang. A proper shootout!
Legend Tom Hardy 123movies
Four customers scurry out. The other EIGHT are RICHARDSON
GANGSTERS. Approaching from all sides. Tough bastards. Tooled
up with coshes and pipes. One, Mike Jobber, holds a razor.
Reg, Ron, the Richardsons were
look after you.
(re: Jobber’s razor)
MIKE JOBBER
RON
What are you going to do with that,
Ron indicates some hard metal shoved down in his pockets.
RON (CONT’D)
proper shoot out with some proper
Geronimo.
Reg, this lot are fucking nonces.
Get out of my way….
Motioning, with what seem to be guns, Ron walks past the
RON (CONT’D)
A shoot-out is a fucking shoot out! Like a Western…
And then he’s gone. One of the gang closes the door behind
You’re brother’s done a runner.
REGGIE
You don’t mind if I pour myself a
Reggie reaches over the bar, starts to POUR a GUINNESS.
Jobber trades incredulous looks with the others.
Also love this scene with Chazz Palminteri as an American mafioso looking to go into business with the Krays:
London’s going to be the Las Vegas
and someone to muscle for us.
We can do your security, but we
to work with you.
PAYNE
Final Shooting Draft
BRUNO
say. He just said it. We’re in your
discussions of this nature.
He sends this as a good will
Reggie opens briefcase one. It is filled with $100 BILLS.
BRUNO (CONT’D)
briefcase contains business of my
Payne opens this one: It contains banded stacks of…
BRUNO (CONT’D)
bearer bonds. Jacked from a bank in
America. Can you guys handle it?
Reggie looks at Payne. Payne gives the slightest nod back.
REGGIE
Boys who jacked it get twenty
sixty/forty. This works out, Reggie,
of those bad boys. Does that sound
Fifty/fifty, mate.
Bruno considers him back…
BRUNO
Legend 2015 Cast
Lastly, Tom Hardy fights with himself when Reggie come home from jail to find Ron running the business into the ground:
Ron sees Reggie and Frances are starting out of the club.
Reg! Reggie!
Legend Tom Hardy
Reggie pauses as his brother starts forward, glass raised.
A toast to my brother! Home at last.
And Frances! Dear lovely Frances.
Reggie can’t bring himself to leave. He motions Frances to
wait, but she follows him as he meets his brother.
Here, what are you playing at?
Legend Tom Hardy Cast
I’m not playing; you are. Finally
you don’t even thank me?
Thank you for what?! For running
For ruining all my hard work?!
What are you shouting at me for? You
what I had.
You’re fucking unbelievable.
We can fix it. We’re together again.
Reggie…
‘Let’s go’
feels himself losing his brother…
We’re talking about earning a
being gangsters which is what we
As Reggie reacts to that, Frances stands her ground.
One day, Ron Kray, your miserable
April 3, 2017If you're unfamiliar with the infamous Kray twins, you'll get to know them pretty well after watching Legend, which opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 20 (the British crime thriller debuted in the UK on Sept. 9). Based on a true story, Legend follows the tale of Reginald 'Reggie' Kray and his twin brother, Ronald 'Ronnie' Kray (both portrayed by all around great guy Tom Hardy). The brothers are English gangsters who run amok in London during the '50s and '60s, mingling with the underworld just as easily as they do with politicians and celebrities. The film charts their rise, but also the downfall that ultimately landed the siblings in prison in 1969.
Reggie's wife Frances Shea (Emily Browning), who committed suicide in 1967, narrates the film from the afterlife, so it's no surprise that Legend touches upon some pretty heavy topics, such as mental illness and murder. The material stems from the Kray twins' lives, as told through a book titled The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins by John Pearson. But just how much of the film is accurate to the real-life crimes of the Krays? In The Guardian, a close friend of the family, Maureen Flanagan, gave commentary on what she thought the film got right and what it missed the mark on. Her overall opinion?
'I thought the film was great... In this film, Tom Hardy is chilling. He’s got everything right as Reggie: the walk, the beautiful hands, the way he holds the cigarettes and that frown which was always quizzical as if he’s just about to ask you a question. And then, on the other hand, when he plays Ron, he’s menacing and he’s got the stare absolutely right. I think he gives a fabulous performance.'
Flanagan went on to describe the film's accuracy in portraying the romance between Reggie and Frances (Reggie apparently really did propose to her by climbing up a drainpipe to her bedroom window, as shown in the film). However, Flanagan said that a scene in which Reggie physically assaults Frances wasn't based in reality. According to Flanagan and other people who knew Reggie well, such an attack never occurred in real life. According to Pearson, Frances herself also insisted that Reggie was never physically violent toward her, as a review of the film in The Guardian noted. Continued the paper,
According to John Pearson, Reg’s intimidation of Frances was psychological: he talked about killing her, her brother and her parents and brandished his gun. Knowing she was afraid of the sight of blood, he cut his own hand and dripped blood all over her as she slept.
Flanagan also described the Kray family matriarch, Violet (Jane Wood) as 'the most important person in [the Kray brothers'] lives.' In the film, however, Flanagan says her character was 'dismissed' and 'only in a couple of scenes.' Furthermore, Violet is shown in the film to mistreat Frances, but Flanagan claimed that she had only ever seen Violet showing kindness to Frances.
As far as Ronnie's homosexuality being portrayed openly in the film, Flanagan claimed that Ronnie actually had a small circle of friends and family (known as 'The Firm') whom he informed about his sexuality. 'A lot of men who really thought that there might be something there would never have said anything to [Ronnie],' Flanagan said. 'He would have attacked them so they wouldn’t ask. Later on, it just became knowledge with the people that he considered 'the firm.' It was accepted.'
In The Guardian's review, it's noted that the film sets up Ronnie as a paranoid schizophrenic and Reggie as the 'rational' twin, but it's also stated that 'It’s certainly true that many people found Reg the less terrifying of the two, but both men were violent and unstable from the beginning.' The murders which finally land both brothers in jail are shown in the movie; Ronnie shoots a criminal named George Cornell point-blank, which is true to life. The movie attempts to give a motive for the murder, but in reality, the true rationale is unknown. The film also depicts the murder of the infamous criminal Jack McVitie by Reggie as a stabbing that occurs at a party, but in reality, McVitie's murder was an involved double effort, with McVite held back by Ronnie and urged his brother, Reggie, to go through with the stabbing.
When it comes down to it, as glamorous as the Kray brothers' lives appeared to be — spending time with famous celebs like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland — and as bigger-than-life as the movie title suggests, the reality of the Kray brothers is dark, twisted, and hardly worth being labeled a legend.
Images: Universal Pictures (2); Studiocanal