There have been several movies that ventured into the world of ‘The Krays’ over the years and helped build up the larger picture of Britain’s most notorious gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray. The first I recall is  the 1990 Peter Medak directed film starring Martin and Gary Kemp as the Brothers.  Since then there has been Legend, starring Tom Hardy as Ronnie and Tom Hardy as Reggie, and also The Rise of the Krays (2015), and The Fall of The Krays (2016) directed by Zackary Adler and then in 2018 came The Krays: Dead Man Walking.   Now to read that, you might think why is there another film about The Krays coming out? Well quite simply, (a) because people want to see these films and (b) because there are so many stories yet untold and so many stories told from the viewpoints we haven’t seen before. This is where Krays: Code of Silence falls into line.  Directed by Ben Mole ( Behind The Line: Escape To Dunkirk) and written by Luke Bailey, Krays:  Code of Silence shifts the focus from Ronnie and Reggie, to that of Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read, (played by True Blood’s Stephen Moyer), a Detective who takes another stab at putting the Krays behind bars after a failed attempt in 1965.   

Krays: Code Of Silence isnt another retread of the same scenes we have seen in other films, and its all the better for it. Yes we did see ‘Nipper’ Read feature in some of the other Kray focused films, but here ‘Nipper’ is front and centre and we not only get to see his battle to take down Britain’s most notorious gangsters but we get to see the pressure he is under from those around him.

Ben Mole has directed a really interesting and engaging film and whilst through my own style choices did struggle a bit with the odd surreal sequence in the film (but they are few and far between), I had such a fun time watching the film.  The casting is also wonderfully interesting with Ronan Summers (who has been in way too many cool projects for me to list here) playing Ronnie AND Reggie Kray, He did play them so well I didnt realise that Ronan was playing them both until I read the end credits. Stephen Moyer is excellent as ‘Nipper’ and to be honest, the whole cast did a wonderful job. 

So if you are thinking ‘oh no, not another Krays film’ then think again. This is more a film about the plan to take down the Krays, than it is about the Krays running their empire and I loved it for that!   Id definitely recommend checking the film out.

On DVD and digital now