With The Immortal Man, the Peaky Blinders, and Tommy Shelby in particular, receive an emotional but uneven farewell. What started in 2013 as a small-scale crime series grew larger with each season. Peaky Blinders moved from Thursday nights on BBC Two to Sunday night primetime on BBC One, and Netflix acquired the international streaming rights. In 2022, the series concluded after six seasons, but the story of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his criminal gang was clearly not finished. It was set to end with the film The Immortal Man. And although it's an uneven journey, Tommy Shelby takes a worthy farewell from our screens.
It's 1940, and while England and Germany are at each other's throats, Tommy Shelby leads a reclusive life in his country house. The criminal activities have now been taken over by his son Duke (Barry Keoghan), with whom he has a strained relationship. But when Duke gets into serious trouble with a group of Nazis, Tommy must step in once more.
Little remains of the once mighty Peaky Blinders.
There's not much left of the Peaky Blinders. From the once-powerful Shelby family, only Tommy and his sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) remain. And that's a shame. Now, Duke is an interesting character, but he was essentially on his own. In this short two hours, there wasn't enough time to delve into his accomplices. Also, at the beginning of this film, I felt like it was a repeat of the sixth season. Back then, Tommy had also turned his back on the little family he had left, and he had to take action again. It might have been more interesting to choose a slightly different angle than this.
Tommy Shelby receives a worthy farewell
That doesn't take away from the fact that the second half of this film is very spectacular. We see a lot of action and tension, and the Peaky Blinders vibe returns a bit. Moreover, the final act provides a fitting and emotional farewell for the character Tommy Shelby and everything he stands for. Although the end of the film is a goodbye, we also see a new generation rise, and The Immortal Man plants seeds for the already announced sequel series.
Additionally, the conditions for a good film are well met. Cillian Murphy once again proves that he is an excellent actor, and the rest of the cast is certainly commendable. It was a smart move to cast Barry Keoghan as Duke (in the series, he was played by Conrad Khan), and Tim Roth plays an amusing and intimidating villain role. Furthermore, wartime Birmingham looks great, and the music is fitting for the series.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man starts a bit uncertainly but manages to deliver a spectacular, emotional, and appropriate farewell to our favorite gangster from Birmingham. However, the story of the Peaky Blinders is not over yet. Creator Steven Knight has announced a sequel series that will take place after World War II. I'm looking forward to it.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
For me, this film primarily underscores how essential the long build-up of the series was. The story feels rushed and more superficial, meaning the emotional impact falls nowhere near the series.
Certainly. This is something you also saw in that Last Kingdom movie a few years ago. It is good that we have known Tommy for six seasons, but here, a story is told in just two tight hours that is normally stretched out over six hours.
It also didn't help that Arthur didn't return in the film. I refuse to believe that a Tommy Shelby would murder his brother. I found it strange that the writers chose this. I understand that they had to come up with something because the actor struggles with issues and they simply couldn't let him be in the film, but his story could have been told differently. Ada's death did not feel just either.
But that ending combined with that amazing song. You won't forget that.
"Once, I nearly got fucking everything. But nearly doesn't count. But throughout it all, I had my family. We are reunited now, in whichever place will have us. Burn my body. Let the ash blow. I am free."
Oh, and I read this afternoon that Barry Keoghan won't be returning as Duke Shelby in the spinoff. That's a shame, because I thought he acted very well too.
