Legend - Weekly Film Analysis

'Legend' is a 2015 biographical crime drama directed by Brian Helgeland, the film follows the lives of identical twin gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray as they rise to power through their organised crime empire in the East End of London during the 1960s. The film includes themes of greed,family,drugs, and pride as the Kray brothers attempt to regain their brutal reputation as 'Gangsters', as well as fighting their own personal battles as Reggie try's to regain his relationship with Frances (his newly wedded wife), and Ronnie suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia resulting in his extremely un predictable personality. 

Tom Hardy does an exceptional job playing both Reggie and Ronnie through out the film as he uses incredible method acting in order to switch between the twins and accurately portray their very different individual personalities, achieving detailed characterisation for both brothers, but still allowing the audience to see the clear similarities between the twins due to to Tom Hardy's physicality remaining the same. As well as Tom Hardy delivering dialogue in a particular cockney accent and using vocabulary associated with the particular time period, I also thought production designer Tim Conroy included detail in the set production that added to the authenticity of the film as it allowed the audience a strong insight into the environment of which the Krays lived and worked in during the 1950s-1960s. When watching the film it soon becomes clear that Reggie's soon to be wife Frances (Emily Browning) delivers much of the dialogue in the form of a voiceover, this provides the audience with an honest opinion on the twin gangsters as her opinion and love for the two brothers begins to decrease over the linear structured film , this happening as the Krays begin to become completely absorbed in the increasingly more dangerous life of crime, eventually leading to their downfall as they are caught and imprisoned.

In conclusion I think Tom Hardy's outstanding performance as the notorious Kray twins provided this film with an accurate portrayal of their very different individual personalities ,as the audience gets a clear insight into the different intentions of both brothers through out the film as they both attempt to deal with there own personal problems while regaining their reputation as gangsters. This stand out performance provided the film with the characterisation of both brothers that I personally haven't seen in any pervious Kray films, concluding in a dramatic biographical story allowing the audience a detailed insight into the rise and downfall of the notorious twin gangsters, while also allowing the audience to be sympathetic with the brothers as the film also displays the problems they faced ( Ronnie's sexuality constantly being the joke of their rivals and enemies), not only focusing on the crime they partook in.