London underworld gangster Harold Shand controls a criminal empire built on every vice except narcotics. Even his gun moll, Victoria, is a vision of class. For his next racket, Shand plans to buy up moribund London dock yards and redevelop them for the 1988 olympics. Yet on Good Friday when Shand meets with an American Mafia chief to seal their financial partnership, somebody kills two of his right-hand men, attempts to murder his mother, and blows his favorite pub to high heaven.
Directed by John Mackenzie and written by Barrie Keefe, this engaging complicated melodrama shows a man trying to control his animal urges and to act like a civic minded business man. He detests anarchy and tries to use violence only as a tool. Eventually he is doomed because his brand of capitalism can´t defend itself against the terrorism of the IRA..