Johnny Was
Encyclopedia
Johnny Was is an Irish/British gangster movie directed by Mark Hammond
Mark Hammond
Mark Hammond may refer to:* Mark Hammond , South Carolina Secretary of State* Mark Hammond * Mark Hammond, main character in the video game series The Getaway...

, written by Brendan Foley
Brendan Foley
Brendan Foley is an Irish writer, film producer and director.He grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has written feature scripts for companies in UK, US, Canada, South Africa and Thailand. He wrote and produced the 2005 thriller Johnny Was, starring Vinnie Jones, Eriq La Salle and Patrick Bergin...

, and made in 2005 by Ben Katz Productions, Borderline Productions and Nordisk Film. It was released in the UK in 2006
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...

 by Sony Pictures and in the US by First Look Studios.

Synopsis

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 to lie low in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison, hellbent on derailing the Irish peace process with a few well-placed bombs. Unable to escape Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

, they are trapped together in Johnny's anything-but-safe safe house, sandwiched between a Rastafari
Rastafari movement
The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

an reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 pirate radio station upstairs and a West Indian Yardie
Yardie
Yardie is a term stemming from the slang name originally given to occupants of "government yards", social housing projects with very basic amenities, in Trenchtown, a neighborhood in West Kingston, Jamaica. Trenchtown was originally built as a housing project following devastation caused by...

 heroin-dealing gangster, Julius, downstairs.

As the charismatic Flynn finds common ground with the Yardies, Johnny fights to realize a peace process of his own, but makes the mistake of falling for Julius's girlfriend Rita, causing all-out war.

It is a thriller in the vein of The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film...

, in which questions of race, morality, identity and loyalty play out against a soundtrack of reggae, rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 and drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

.

Cast

  • Vinnie Jones
    Vinnie Jones
    Vincent Peter "Vinnie" Jones is an English film actor and retired Welsh footballer.Born in Hertfordshire, England, Jones represented and captained the Welsh national football team, having qualified via a Welsh grandparent. He also previously played for Chelsea and Leeds United. As a member of the...

     - Johnny Doyle
  • Eriq La Salle
    Eriq La Salle
    Eriq La Salle is an American actor and director, known for his portrayals of Darryl in the 1988 comedy film Coming to America and Dr. Peter Benton on the NBC drama series ER.-Early life:...

     - Julius
  • Patrick Bergin
    Patrick Bergin
    Patrick Connolly Bergin is an Irish actor and singer. He may be best-known internationally for playing the menacing husband of Julia Roberts' character in the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy and is also known for his role as Irish terrorist Kevin O'Donnell in the film adaption of Patriot Games....

     - Flynn
  • Samantha Mumba
    Samantha Mumba
    Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba is an Irish singer and actress.Her first album was released in 2000. Her most notable role was Mara in the 2002 film The Time Machine. She has also appeared in a number of Irish independent films.-Early life, education and early career:Mumba was born in Dublin,...

     - Rita
  • Lennox Lewis
    Lennox Lewis
    Lennox Claudius Lewis, CM, CBE is a retired boxer and the most recent British undisputed world heavyweight champion. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship...

     - Ras
  • Wilson Jermaine Heredia
    Wilson Jermaine Heredia
    Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, for which he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical...

     - Sparra
  • Roger Daltrey
    Roger Daltrey
    Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...

     - Jimmy

Production notes

Johnny Was was principally financed by Ben Katz Productions, the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission, the Irish Film Board, and Nordisk.

The scene set in Brixton Market
Brixton Market
Brixton Market comprises a street market in the centre of Brixton, south London, England, and the adjacent covered market areas in nearby arcades Reliance Arcade, Market Row and Granville Arcade ....

 was actually filmed at Smithfield Market in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

. Many of the other shots were taken in various locations around Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. Lisburn
Lisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...

 railway station was used as a substitute for Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

 railway station.

Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...

, the lead singer of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

, played Jimmy Nolan. Patrick Bergin
Patrick Bergin
Patrick Connolly Bergin is an Irish actor and singer. He may be best-known internationally for playing the menacing husband of Julia Roberts' character in the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy and is also known for his role as Irish terrorist Kevin O'Donnell in the film adaption of Patriot Games....

 had previously played a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...

 in Patriot Games
Patriot Games (film)
Patriot Games is a 1992 film directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Tom Clancy's the novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October. In the movie, Jack Ryan is played by Harrison Ford, Jack's surgeon-wife, Dr...

.

Reception

Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

gave a good review to the original reggae soundtrack by Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood is an English record producer best known for his work with dub music as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy...

.
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