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Featuring a blistering and powerhouse performance from Tom Hardy, Legend tells the darkly comic tale of Reggie and Ronnie Kray, charting the twins’ infamous rise and fall on the streets of London throughout the 1960’s.
In this richly textured world that the often terrifying twins inhabit, music plays a vital role in setting the 60’s London scene. The soundtrack is built from a swarming and authentic concoction of jazz, blues and R&B music that flooded infamous west end clubs like The Flamingo and Esmeralda’s Barn throughout Reggie and Ronnie’s eventiful criminal careers.
As we’re introduced to their lives of of crime, violence and excess, The Meters’ ‘Cissy Strut’ roars into life and blesses your ears with a slick infusion of funk, soul and rhythm, providing the soundtrack for Reggie as he embraces his inner Robin Hood and gives a single mum a few cash notes during a stroll down his street.
A montage of shady deals and money stacking during a bright period for the Kray’s is complimented perfectly by The Small Faces’ chaotic and triumphant ‘Grown Your Own’, screeching guitars and infectious percussion storming the speakers as the twins rapidly build their criminal empire.
Watch the trailer for Legend below
Jazz cuts from the likes of Georgie Fame and Ronnie Scott fill the clubs that the middle class inhabit, those in attendance hoping to catch a glimpse of the widely feared twins as they swing and sway to swooping mixtures of brass, melody and relentless percussion.
Combining dark humour with intense drama and moments of shocking violence, Legend is an often thrilling ride which focuses on character over crime, painting the Krays in a predominantly positive light and choosing to sweep darker elements under the carpet. Combining a swooping soundtrack with a storming double performance from hardy, it's certainly worth seeking out.
Legend hits cinemas across the UK now.
