ianlouisiana Review of McVicar

McVicar (1980)

"Let us now praise violent men"Take a reality check instead.

[4/10 · 10 June 2006]

I completely fail to understand the fascination for ruthless violent and predatory professional criminals.Mr McVicar and his friend Mr Probyn were capable of causing serious harm to anyone who was foolish enough to attempt to prevent them stealing.That's what they did,basically - they were thieves,bullies with guns.If you had something they wanted then they'd take it. The rest of us,trying to earn an honest living,well,we're mugs.John and Wally....diamond geezers.Top blokes.Two of the "Chaps" Mr Probyn - "Angel Face" to the Press,had an appalling record of violence starting as a very young man.In some perverse fashion this brought him kudos from his peers until he was convicted of paedophile crimes and he suddenly became not quite the diamond geezer after all,but a nonce. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. No such disapprobation for Mr McVicar who,rather like the IRA,renounced violence.A Social Worker's wet dream,he took a degree and became an expert on aberrant behaviour,prison life,police malfeasance and the criminal justice system in general.Wherever his road to Damascus occurred it certainly wasn't within the period covered by "McVicar". Mr Roger Daltrey and the late Mr Adam Faith play Mr McVicar and Mr Probyn respectively,making them about as frightening as the Teletubbies. They hate coppers,they hate screws,and most of all,they hate nonces,which was just a tad hypocritical from Mr Probyn's point of view you might think. With all this hate going on it's no wonder our two heroes want to get out of prison,also there's not a lot they can nick in there and their life skills might get rusty. There is nothing in "McVicar" that persuades me to take it seriously. The performances aren't bad,they're just completely without a sense of menace.Mr Berkoff and Mr Winston can do menace,Mr Daltrey and Mr Faith can't.They couldn't rule a prison,for heaven's sake they couldn't rule Peter Pan's Playground.Sir Noel Coward as Mr Bridges in "The Italian Job" was more convincing. Without a constant underlying threat of violence from the two leads the whole house of cards collapses. Mr McVicar and Mr Probyn become just another couple of cheery cockney cons,and you can be absolutely certain that wasn't the case. If you yearn for the days when Ron and Reg ran the East End from Fort Vallance and you could leave your front door unlocked and they never hurt nobody wot didn't ask for it you may well enjoy "McVicar". But I think you should take a reality check....just in case.