Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Is a Violent Delight From Netflix

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a new Netflix-BBC co-production currently in US and UK cinemas, is a big-screen outing for Cillian Murphy’s anti-hero Tommy Shelby, a traumatized World War I veteran and brutal gangster. Over the course of six bloody seasons, Murphy carved the legend of Tommy into the long and proud tradition of British gangster stories. As a long-time fan of the series, I couldn’t wait to see how it would perform in theaters.

You don’t need to have seen any of the series, which is a bit like vintage Sopranos with distinctive Midlands accents and modern rock music on the soundtrack. With minimal exposition, the film quickly tells you everything you need to know about Tommy and the Peaky Blinders gang – so named because they keep razors in their flat caps and do indescribable things with them.

Fans of the series needn’t worry either: the film is written by series creator Steven Knight and directed by Tom Harper, who directed part of the first series. Stylistically, it really is part of the show. The bloody violence in the dark pubs contrasts with Tommy’s opium- and PTSD-influenced visions, ghostly images of the dead, and the supernatural witchcraft of the gypsies. It’s quite an atmosphere.

Gray-haired, bespectacled, and haunted by his deceased family, Tommy hides in his empty mansion after the events of Season 6. Literally writing his legend, he tries to put his life story on paper in an effort to exorcise his many demons. His estranged son, Duke (Barry Keoghan), has taken over as leader of the Peaky Blinders and is making a name for himself as a violent war profiteer as bombs pelt the industrial city of Birmingham, England, at the start of World War II.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that, soon enough, Tommy puts away his reading glasses, puts on his three-piece suit and flat cap, and drives his glorious Rolls-Royce to Birmingham to confront his wayward son. Murphy is as formidable and elegant as ever in this role.

The series has always been woven with real-life characters and I expected Tommy to revisit his long relationship with Winston Churchill and perhaps end up working for the British Secret Service. It’s not really that sophisticated a concept. A traitor named John Beckett (Tim Roth) plans to distribute a vast amount of counterfeit Nazi money via gangs like the Peaky Blinders and bring down the British economy. Will he be able to persuade Duke to betray his country?

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Roth is comically obnoxious in the role, a real scenery-chewing villain. The film opens with him loading millions of counterfeit £5 notes onto a train at a concentration camp. He turns to the camera and sneers, “Heil fackin’ Hitler,” and that’s about all you need to know about him.

Having Barry Keoghan play Cillian Murphy’s son is brilliant casting. I love Keoghan in everything he does, and as Duke he displays a sneering disdain, a cold-eyed brutality and, when pushed, a sweaty panic that feels real.

It’s a big-budget production, with impressive fireballs and gunfights, but it’s not what gamers would call AAA – solid AA. One scene particularly struck me: when Duke is stalking his prey through the bombed-out city streets, it cuts again and again. A more ambitious film could have done it in one take. Nonetheless, its magnificent period costumes, eerie misty canals, and cast full of characterful faces give it a distinctive visual identity.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man arrives on Netflix on March 20. If you’re not familiar with the series, I’d say it’s well worth a month’s subscription: pour yourself a glass of bootleg whiskey and enjoy a thrilling, fast-paced crime drama with a swagger all its own. Knight says it’s a “stepping stone” to other seasons of the show, so there’s plenty more where that came from.

Fans, go see it in the cinema. By order of the Peaky Blinders.