Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

When news broke that Peaky Blinders would be continuing and looking to finally bring the story of Tommy Shelby to a close with a dedicated movie, I was rather ecstatic. The six seasons of this show, spanning almost a decade's worth of television, became rather dear to me for a variety of reasons beyond simply its excellent quality. However, when it was revealed that Netflix would be involved, my confidence in the project started to waver, even if the core creative team from the series, including creator and writer Steven Knight, would be returning for the project. Anyone who has seen Netflix's original films will be aware that they typically arrive in wildly uneven quality, with some excellent options (Knives Out for one) and some that you can't help but wonder why they were even greenlit in the first place. So would Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man fit into the former category and send off Tommy Shelby in a worthy conclusion, or instead slip into the latter category and serve as an unwanted stain on the series' heritage?

After just rolling credits on Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, it's clear that this is one of Netflix's better films, even if it is not as strong as the mainline series. We pick up long after the events of Season 6 and find a defeated and reclusive Tommy Shelby, waiting patiently for the day that death will claim him. However, the world is falling apart amidst World War II and Birmingham is once again a powder keg waiting to explode, with a more violent Peaky Blinders gang, led by Tommy's distant son, Duke, proving to be trouble once more. When fascists and Nazi supporters enter the fray, and innocents serving to simply better the world become casualties of this war, it's clear that Birmingham needs its gypsy king back, with Tommy ending his solitude to his own dismay.

There's no denying what this film is and why it has been made. It's not here to set up the next era of Peaky Blinders, it's not here to tell a heroic war story, it's the final act in Tommy's tale, a way to truly bring a firm end to perhaps Cillian Murphy's most famous character. It's grim, dark, and consistently shadowed by the ghosts of his past. There's not much here that will make you smile or grin, it's an exploration into the psyche of a man that wants to be freed from life's vicious grasp, and unfortunately this cannot come without a price.

There are shocking moments in this film, methods used to similarly conclude the narrative arcs of other key characters in the Peaky Blinders story, and some are effective while others come across as a wasted necessity. For example, Paul Anderson isn't in the cast, so you can probably infer what that means for Tommy's brother Arthur, one of the former very key characters to the wider narrative. In fact, by this point, there aren't many remaining Shelby's to focus on, which means we find a cast made up of a lot of new stars and characters. I don't have much wrong with this, but one of the best parts about Peaky Blinders is always how it has steadily introduced characters and made you connect with them or understand them over the course of one or several seasons. This film has a fraction of the time, so Barry Keoghan's Duke, Rebecca Ferguson's Kaulo, and Tim Roth's John Beckett don't quite land in the same way that past characters have. To me, this is a bit of a waste of such excellent talent.

Similarly, the plot is structured in such a way that there's a lot of exposition and traditional Peaky Blinders smoldering within the first hour, which would be fine if there were six-hours worth of television to tell the full story. In this format, we're left with less than an hour to tie this tale up into a lovely little bow and the result is a breakneck turn of events where it doesn't exactly feel like Tommy's send off is as perfect as it should have been. As for what's next, I'm also not sure that Keoghan's Duke, if he is to be the basis for the next era, has what it takes to fill the immense shoes left by Murphy.

Ultimately, as far as a standalone story goes, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man works as fine entertainment, but it's certainly not the best that the wider series has been. The parts of this film that stand out the most are the elements that Peaky Blinders has always handled well; the set and costume design, the marriage of ambience and music, the remarkable performance of Cillian Murphy. This film continues these parts of Peaky Blinders we all know and love, but then it stumbles a tad in its narrative make-up and how it's trying to do too much, too inefficiently, in too little time.

It's not nearly a stain on the legacy of Peaky Blinders and it is without question one of Netflix's better original films (not that the bar is typically that high), but does it match the truly astounding quality of the main television series? No, no it does not.