In addition to grime, gore, and disdain for governments, the ragtime gangsters of Peaky Blinders provided a minor education. They showcased the narrative resilience of the brothers-in-crime format, though unlike the immigrant Corleones, the Shelby siblings were native sons betrayed by their country.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a feature-length valediction to a small-screen classic, finds the criminally ruthless but emotionally wounded Thomas Shelby semi-retired and writing a memoir. Like his traumatic experiences tunneling under France during World War I, his current crisis is historically accurate, with a Birmingham spin: Nazi Germany's plan to flood the U.K. with counterfeit currency.
With Thomas out of the picture, and the Shelby organization lacking what little moral compass it had, Hitler's agent and fifth-column creature John Beckett forms an alliance with Thomas's son, Duke, who will put the money in circulation through a variety of Birmingham vices.
The general tone of the film is anticlimactic, but Thomas and Duke are on trajectories that spell out tragedy. Hard to say. But will the Shelby gang really go out as allies of fascism?
Those who followed the series know how blithely its creator, Steven Knight, had Thomas hop-scotching around from one group to another, nefarious human collections that included the government of Winston Churchill, the English police, and the black shirts.
Unabashed symbolism was always part of Peaky Blinders, from the white horse on which Thomas departed the series to the black one on which he returns to the story; the Nick Cave theme song; and the more arcane aspects of the Romani culture whence Thomas sprang and in which he takes refuge during the movie.
Straightforward storytelling was never the strong suit of the show, which relied very much on Mr. Murphy's charisma and that of his co-stars, notably Sophie Rundle, who plays sister Ada Shelby.
The future always looked grim in Peaky Blinders, but the fate of the show, which apparently has two Murphy-less years to go in a planned sequel, is beyond uncertain.
