Peaky Blinders is a story of moral struggle, love, and human nature

Peaky Blinders is a story of moral struggle, love, and human nature
*Spoiler alert: Discusses story line throughout series 1

*Season Two Review now up here.

 Binge watching Peaky Blinders was surprisingly emotional and stimulating because I'm not a big TV watcher. I'd choose a good book most days to sitting in front of a TV. On a friends recommendation  I tuned in to watch Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, Annabella Wallis as Grace, and the gang Peaky Blinders in this BBC drama written by Steven Knight. I found myself drawn into the characters by their depth and by their humanness. They each have their own agenda and faults, and because of the length of the series, we see each of these characters struggle and change with their circumstances. Watching this series was like reading a lovely book. You get a chance to really know the characters, sympathize with them, know their back story, and its a pleasure to see what they will do. I decided it would be interesting to analyze Peaky Blinders as if it were a novel.
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What hit me right away was the music and the sound track. A simple strumming sound of approaching danger, silence and breathing, the clopping of hooves. The sound of fear. Thomas Shelby sits bare back on a black horse, stone faced, expressionless. An extended breath of red dust. As it breaks into the cocky strut of "The Red Right hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I realize this show will be about the silences between the words, the slightest expression given by it's main characters, and the music will help take us there.

Let us examine a few of the characters and their moral standings. The other characters are also interesting, but for this blog we'll look at these.


Thomas Shelby
Thomas is a disciplined Character.  He doesn't waste a motion or word.  He is blunt and thoughtful at the same time.  He doesn't care about anything, he cares about everything.  He starts out as a numb war veteran, moving forward because that's all he knows how to do to keep the pain away, keep moving forward.  He finds refuge in his ability to outsmart his enemies, but this also leaves him alone. It's too easy for him, he is smarter, quicker, stronger, and always ahead of everyone.  He has no equal in his immediate surrounding, except for perhaps his Aunt Polly (played by Helen McCrory), who is a passionate, intelligent, strong and loving woman.  She is having a hard time keeping up with him herself.  She's lost control of him, and this scares her.  To keep from feeling, he separates himself emotionally from everyone including his family even though they are most important to him.  He expresses his love for them with loyalty.  He just goes forward into his challenges, driven by a need to escape and a desire to become powerful.  The Barrel of feelings hidden underneath layers of rationalization is overflowing into his dreams, haunting his sleep.  So he never can let his guard down and he can't relax his mind.  A positive affect of this is his supreme focus in the moment.  He doesn't allow his mind to wander and this gives him an edge.  Without wasting a sideways glance, he is aware of everyone in the room, using his peripheral vision, he is hyper alert at all times. Every little action has a purpose.  He also knows the power of his gaze and he uses it to disarm, refusing to make eye contact until he chooses your worth it and then holding it unflinchingly.

Grace Burgess
Grace is angry inside and driven by a need for revenge of her father's death by the IRA.  Following in her father's footsteps as a cop, her job as a undercover agent gives her life purpose and without it she would be directionless.  She, like Tommy, has found solace in action.  She is self righteous and willing to lie and use her beauty to meet her needs.  She is very beautiful but instead of dressing up she dresses down often having a bare face, making her appear innocent.  For this, and because we've already fallen for Tommy we want to hate her.  "Want" being the key word.  Grace believes she is on the right side, and discovers as the series goes along her mistake.  She is naive in that she starts out seeing things in black and white; good and bad.  She strives to be tough, and she puts herself in Tommy's view blindly thinking she'll be able to outsmart him because she underestimates him.  Yes, she is afraid of him, but not as afraid as she should be and she is also cocky.  For this both of them have met their match. Neither one sees it coming.  She doesn't expect to have feelings for him because she forgot she had any feelings except the desire for revenge and she isn't looking for love.

Inspector Campbell (Sam Neill)
The Inspector begins the series imagining he is going to win against evil.  He is an agent of the law and the king which makes him self righteous and stubborn.  To him, Thomas Shelby represents everything that is wrong in the world.  We quickly learn that he is fond of Grace and he battles the jealousy he feels having her close to Thomas with his need to get the information she can provide.  He hates being manipulated into an agreement with Tommy for the Guns and this leaves him feeling powerless.  Tommy forces him into a position where he must question his own moral high ground.  He is making a deal with the devil and he will do anything to regain the upper hand.  His battle with Tommy has become personal. That first meeting between Tommy and Campbell is the turning point where we see inspector Campbell gradually walk farther and farther down the road towards corruption and darkness.  I would not say he is a good man. His use of language about his enemies is a demonstration of poetic negativity; "They feed on the pus of all this corruption like maggots in a corpse…like flies they will swarm and spread"

Arthur Shelby
The oldest Shelby Brother, Arthur, is a mess.
He is a drunk and a bully,  his redeeming quality being his loyalty to his family.  He acts like a child, throwing temper tantrums and surrendering to his emotions.  He is a tough fighter, taking pleasure in acts of violence. When Thomas takes control of the peaky blinders from him, he is almost relieved.  His source of weakness is he wants to make a father figure proud.  Like everyone, he wants to feel he is worth something. With his fathers brief appearance we see how childlike and vulnerable he is. He becomes obsessed with fighting because of  his father. and when he's in the ring, it's like he's fighting his dad again. Fighting to be someone his father would be proud of, and then fighting to prove that he is better than his father because his father broke his heart.  Like a dog, once Tommy proves he is the alpha, Arthur shows his belly.  Arthur wants to be a good man, but his vices are in control.

Aunt Polly

Aunt Polly is immediately likable. Classily dressed, she is confident and intuitive.  She and Thomas have a relationship of mutual respect and she has the ability to get Thomas to confide in her.  She admires him but her experience tells her his ambition is dangerous.  I would say she is the mother of the family.  She is often seen holding the children, and she looks after each of the adult Shelby's as if they were her own.  She is perhaps the most loyal of all, and as we shall see, will do anything to have the family together.  She isn't afraid of much and she knows being on the right side of the law doesn't mean moral superiority.  To her love of family is the highest good.  She gives a great deal of strength to the Shelby Clan.


Now the fun Begins as these wonderful Characters interact.
Their relationships are what I really find fascinating.  In this series Steven Knight Demonstrates he knows something about human nature; The battles within, the subtleties of expression, and the evolution of a soul.  Because of the emphasis on detail, I do wonder how much influence he had over the characters facial expressions and body movements and how much he left up to the actors.  Either way, the end result is beautiful.

Tommy proves Grace wrong.
He has shown his compassion and cunning in saving his comrade with a bullet of sheep's brains. He is not evil. He is underneath, a good man, driven by circumstances to act badly. Thomas is driven to change these circumstances and he wants to make his business legit. Because of Tommy's hyper alert state he sees Grace. He recognizes the qualities in her that he knows of himself and he understands her. Most look away from his stare, but she holds it. She is willing to stand up to him, and ask for what she wants wether it is to sing, or for more pounds to buy a dress. This is a welcome challenge. As we know, the weaknesses of those around him have alienated him and in a world of fools they each see someone else striving just as hard to survive. She knows they are on opposite sides, but he is more like her than anyone she has met so far and this confuses her. She grows more and more disenchanted with Inspector Campbell, who underestimates her and makes her feel angry. This pulls her even closer to Tommy. When Tommy is forced to kill the IRA Agent because of her disobeyed gun shots and the delay of the police assistance Grace finally gets that she isn't on the right side. Her own side failed to show up and Tommy was forced into the whole situation with the agents because of her earlier killing of the first IRA agent. She got him into the mess, so that night when he apologizes to her for his behavior, she knows that she is really the one at fault. The next day she tells Inspector Campbell she wants to resign and admits her change of feelings. She offers to give the location of the guns with the assurance that Tommy will be protected. She can't possibly make up for her lies to Tommy, but she can try and keep him safe. "You took a risk coming here" she says when he comes to her as the police are looking for him. At this point he has won her over.  She has now become a character who questions the moral authority of the police and the law and recognizes that everyone is somewhere in the middle of Good and Bad, especially herself.

Tommy Loves Grace
His falling for her is gradual.  He admires her intelligence and courage, and decides she is an opportunity that has landed in his lap, just like the guns.  He wants to find a use for her. Sitting in the car knowing full well that he has offered her as a whore to Billy Kimber, he is overcome with self loathing and changes his mind. He wanted to be able to use her without caring, but he really didn't have the heart for it when it came down to it. Plus part of him didn't want to bring her any more pain then he already saw in her eyes. Maybe it was his overconfidence that kept him from suspecting her behavior or maybe it was his desperation at needing to feel love and be loved that blinded him.  Either way, he fell very hard for her.  He needed her love like a dying dried out tree needs water.

When they finally make love its innocent.  She must know that he will discover her lies and find her out, but she chooses to give herself to him anyway, even if it means she won't be able to keep him.  She gives him herself because she just wants to love him and he soaks it in.  He sees a future with her, he sees everything in her.  She has brought him peace, finally he is able to let his guard down, and he feels safe with her. Our hearts break for him knowing his feeling of safety is false and his surrender to her will bring pain, but we want him to feel loved too.  It's painful afterwords when he asks her to help him "With fucking everything, fucking life.  I found you and you found me." The next scene we see the first real smile of the season on his face.  The dreams of tunnels have ended and he finally starts to feel himself again.

Therefore, when he discovers her betrayal it is doubly painful, he's finally started to heal, and now the damage will be even worse.  What will become of him? Will his heart turn so dark he becomes  a monster?  In his final letter, his admission that he loves her, gives us hope for him.  He's smart enough to understand that circumstances caused the betrayal and he is no stranger to circumstance.

Inspector Campbell and Thomas Shelby battle for control
Entangled in an fictitious agreement, each resents the other and works towards getting domination. Back and forth they take turns hitting each other with maneuvers of intelligence, blackmail, and witty insults. Inspector Campbell was not in the war and this is thrown in his face by Tommy over and over. By the end of the series Inspector Campbell has become so low that he visits a prostitute and threatens Grace with a Gun. His jealousy of Thomas has eaten him to the point where he has lost himself. Even with Grace's inside knowledge Thomas was able to out smart him and gain the advantage.

The Shelby's end the series ahead, but it's a bittersweet ending. Tommy has reached his goal of taking over Billy Kimber's Gambling empire. As he toasts the Shelby Family Business his Aunt Polly looks on with knowing sorrow. Her child's heart is broken, for Tommy is as a son to her.

In conclusion, Peaky Blinders is a journey into a past culture brought to the present with modern music and relatable struggle. Steven Knight's story illustrates the gray area between good and bad, and the constantly fluctuating motivations of human nature.

My Questions for Cillian Murphy:  As an actor do you find yourself taking parts of the characters you play with you and which parts do you keep of Thomas Shelby? Does playing such a strong character change you in anyway?