"The film is about the myth of the Krays. It wasn’t about the reality" A producer behind The Krays has explained that he wouldn’t make the movie today, calling the subjects “cowardly psychopathic bullies”. The 1990 film stars Gary and Martin Kemp as the infamous East London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray, and was a critical and commercial success.
Ray Burdis was a producer on the project, though is now directing new film Last Kings of London , which is touted as a darker look at the Krays from the perspective of the police and ordinary people. “They weren’t folk heroes,” he said (via The Guardian ). “They were just a pair of cowardly psychopathic bullies, who terrorised the East End of London in the 1960s.
” Reflecting on glamorising the twins in his original film, Burdis explained: “Because I’ve grown up with gangsters as a north London boy, I wasn’t intimidated at all by the Krays. I was intrigued. I wanted to make a film that glamorised them at the time because that’s what you did in those days.
“When it went out, I was happy as it was a big film. But, as I got older, I thought this was wrong,” he admitted. “I feel bad about certain aspects of the film.
I thought it’s time for someone to speak out and tell the truth. “Although there were violent scenes, we steered away from that. We went for the matriarchal side of it .
.. mummy’s boys, good boys, lovely boys.
They fought for their mother – that [was] the premise of the film. The fil.
