The Business (film)


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The Business

Promotional movie poster for the film.
Directed by Nick Love
Produced by Allan Niblo
James Richardson
Written by Nick Love
Starring Danny Dyer
Tamer Hassan
Geoff Bell
Georgina Chapman
Music by Ivor Guest
Cinematography Damian Bromley
Distributed by Pathé
Release date(s) 2005
Running time 97 min
Language English
Budget £2 million

The Business is a 2005 British crime/gangster film written and directed by Nick Love, who performed the same duties on The Football Factory. The film stars Danny Dyer (Frankie), Tamer Hassan (Charlie), Geoff Bell (Sammy) and Georgina Chapman, and follows the rise and fall of Frankie's career within Charlie's and Sammy's drug importing business on the Costa del Sol (aka the "Costa del Crime") in Spain during the 1980s.

Contents

Plot

The film is told from the viewpoint of Peckham-Frankie (Dyer), who narrates, in a particularly colourful fashion, his experiences following his murder of his mother's abusive boyfriend. To escape justice for his crime, he accepts a job delivering a bag to bar-owner and fellow criminal ex-pat "the Playboy" Charlie (Hassan) in Spain. Impressed by his honesty in not opening the bag, Charlie takes a liking to Frankie, introduces him to his business associates, including the psychotic Sammy (Bell), and invites him to remain in Spain and work as his driver. Deciding he prefers an exciting life of sun, drugs, women and crime, to being a nobody back in London, Frankie accepts and becomes involved in the business of smuggling cannabis across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco.

The film then follows the rise-and-fall pattern common to many gangster films, showing first the criminals living the high life as their cannabis trade is booming, and then the downfall as greed and jealousy (not helped by the obvious attraction between Frankie and Sammy's girl Carly (Chapman)) introduce rivalries between them, and eventually split them up. Charlie and Frankie decide to go into business alone, importing cocaine instead of cannabis, but this is the cause of the final catastrophe. Not only do they both become increasingly addicted to the drug itself, but also the Mayor, who had been happy to ignore the cannabis trade but had warned them not to import cocaine, discovers what they are doing and uses the weight of the law to shut them down.

A few years later (6 months before the 'real-time' narration), Frankie and Charlie are homeless thugs in need of a wash and reduced to stealing in order to survive. While organising a disappointing reunion party at Charlie's old bar, Frankie meets Carly again and decides to make one last deal. He invites Sammy in on a pick-up, but while both intend to betray the other, Carly has given Sammy a pistol with an empty clip. Sammy tries to shoot Frankie, who in turn beats him with a rock and escapes through a sewer as the Spanish police shoot Sammy to death. Frankie emerges from the sewer to meet Carly, who had masterminded the whole thing, finally getting his happy ending. But at the last minute, he realises he can't trust Carly, so he knocks her out and drives off into the sunset on his own.

Cast

Soundtrack

The original music for the film was written by Ivor Guest, but most of the soundtrack consists of popular 80s chart hits, which give the film much of its atmosphere and flavour. The songs featured include:

  1. Duran Duran – Planet Earth
  2. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome
  3. Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long
  4. The Cult – Wild Flower
  5. Loose Ends – Hangin’ On A String
  6. Rick James – Ghetto Life
  7. Blondie - Heart of Glass
  8. Simple Minds – Don't You (Forget About Me)
  9. Martha and the Muffins – Echo Beach
  10. The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
  11. A Flock of Seagulls – I Ran
  12. Belouis Some – Imagination
  13. Shannon – Let the Music Play
  14. David Bowie – Modern Love
  15. Talk Talk – It's My Life
  16. The Knack – My Sharona
  17. Roxy Music – Avalon
  18. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Maid Of Orleans
  19. Adam & the Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier
  20. Blondie – Call Me

Real life parallels

The characters and events in this film may be a reference to the Brinks Mat robbery that occurred in the mid 1980s. Like in the real robbery, the gangland characters were forced to flee England to avoid arrest, and continued their business overseas, including the Costa Del Sol and other similar locations.

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