Obituary: John Mackenzie, film director

Director who learned from Ken Loach and made what many see as the best British gangster film

John Mackenzie, film director.

Born: 22 May, 1928, in Edinburgh.

Died: 8 June, 2011, in London, aged 83.

JOHN Mackenzie's film The Long Good Friday is not only acknowledged as his most compelling film but it is widely considered the UK's greatest gangster movie. Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is a ferocious East End gangster who tries to do a deal with the American mafia. But into this hectic atmosphere Mackenzie brought a sense of balanced realism; he was keen to let Hoskins display a more vulnerable quality for, as he said, "the worst villains in the world have certain qualities that are liked, and Bob had the personality and humour to pull it off".

Niall Fulton, senior programmer at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, organised a retrospective of Mackenzie's films two years ago. "John came to Edinburgh and despite a recent stroke he was bright and exceptionally articulate. He was a formidable character, had a superb intellect and, without a doubt, one of the most important film-makers to come out of Scotland. In all his films there is a definite sense of power and dramatic edge."

John Mackenzie was educated at Holy Cross Academy and then read history at Edinburgh University. He studied drama and joined the Gateway Theatre Company in Edinburgh's Leith Walk.

He moved to London in the early 1960s and worked for the BBC where his talents were spotted by the distinguished director Ken Loach, who made him his assistant, working on such socially significant teleplays as Up the Junction and the famously controversial Cathy Come Home. The experience of working with Loach proved invaluable and Mackenzie gained a wide experience of movie making and, not least, working within a tight budget.

Mackenzie did get some solo directing jobs on such programmes as ITV's Saturday Night Theatre but his first television drama was There is Also Tomorrow in 1969 and two feature length films including Made, which was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year.

In the late 1960s Mackenzie started working with the Glasgow-born screenwriter Peter McDougall. Their first major success, Just Another Saturday, detailed the harsh working conditions of the Glasgow shipyards. The two collaborated on three other commanding films - all with Scottish backgrounds. The Elephant's Graveyard and Just a Boy's Game explored life and social conditions in Scotland.

But in 1979 the two made their most accomplished and dramatic film for STV - A Sense of Freedom, which starred David Hayman, Hector Nicol and Fulton Mackay.

Based on the violent life of Jimmy Boyle, the film magnificently captured the very essence of evil that Boyle represented - from the opening sequences in Glasgow back streets filmed in semi-focus with a searing jazz rhythm being played in the background.

Mackenzie then cut to a smoky bar and Boyle enters in smart suit and menacingly says to the landlord: "I hear you have had a bit of bother recently. I might be able to get rid of them for you."

The film made uneasy viewing. The Scottish Prison Service would not allow Mackenzie to film in its prisons, so he had to use Dublin's Kilmainham Prison. But the film won much praise and the rigour and unflinching direction from Mackenzie was widely admired.

One critic wrote: "Like it or loathe it, A Sense of Freedom should be watched by any budding film makers. Certainly it is one of Scotland's finest film exports ever."

There then followed The Long Good Friday, which was set against the development of Canary Wharf in London and follows the fraught efforts of the Hoskins character to mastermind a dubious property deal with the Americans.

Mackenzie kept a tight grip on the direction and in scenes such as when Hoskins is turned down by the Americans he allows Hoskins to let rip with a powerfully invective speech only for him to get into his car and be confronted by a gunman (played by Pierce Brosnan in his debut film role).

Post production was beset by problems - not least Hoskins threatening to sue the American distributors if they dubbed his Cockney accent. The original television producers wanted the IRA content softened but Mackenzie and his colleagues resold the rights to George Harrison's Handmade Films so that it could be seen in cinemas. In one interview Mackenzie said of the storyline: "A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on his action, and Harold wants to know who they are. He finds out soon enough, and bloody mayhem ensues."

It was that keen sense of drama, balanced by irreverent humour and directorial zest that has made The Long Good Friday a cinema classic.

Mackenzie returned to Scotland in 1998 to film Looking After Jo Jo for BBC Scotland. The drama starred Robert Carlyle. Again the story is sordid and uncompromising. It centres on a petty Edinburgh thief and drug dealer (Carlyle) who menaces the Sighthill housing estates. Mackenzie's sense of pace and his ability to draw a subtly threatening performance from Carlyle brought the film warm praise.

Niall Fulton believes that Mackenzie's career deserves far greater recognition - especially in Scotland.

He said: "Last year we showed Made at the Film Festival and critics are reassessing its importance as a movie. John made a huge contribution to Scottish cinema and easily ranks alongside the finest in British cinema."

Mackenzie met Wendy Marshall when they were both drama students and they married in 1956. She predeceased him and he is survived by their three daughters.