Legend (2015) — The Double-Hardy Masterclass Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton.

Legend (2015) is more than just a biographical crime film about the Kray brothers. It’s a dark symphony about human nature, power, love, and the price a person pays when trying to control a monster with the same face.

London in Legend isn’t a city of romantic dreams. London appears as a living entity – cold, greedy, and emotionless. The line resonates like a prophecy: “The world is quite like London. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is.” The world isn’t moral, nor immoral; it simply exists. And in that world, Reggie and Ronnie Kray aren’t inherently evil – they are the perfect product of an environment where power dictates truth.

What makes Legend special isn’t the violence, but how Tom Hardy transforms two men with the same face into two completely different souls. Reggie Kray embodies reason and ambition, the desire to wear a smart suit. He believes in order, in “doing business honestly,” and in the idea that a gangster can become a gentleman if they know how to conceal blood under a white shirt. Reggie loves Frances, and that love is not superficial. It’s a yearning for redemption, for escape from the spiral of crime to become a normal person – or at least a less monstrous version of himself.

Conversely, Ronnie Kray is the embodiment of chaos. Schizophrenic, violent, uncontrolled, Ronnie doesn’t pretend to be kind. He lives true to his darkest instincts, considering violence his mother tongue. If Reggie believes that power needs to be organized and operated, Ronnie believes that power is only valuable when it instills fear in others. Ronnie doesn’t want to “legitimize” his empire; he wants it bloody, chaotic, and absolute.

The greatest tragedy of Legend lies in the fact that Reggie cannot escape Ronnie, nor can he escape the dark side within himself. The two brothers are not just blood relatives – they are two halves of the same person. Reggie represents the illusion of control, Ronnie the harsh reality of instinct. And no matter how hard Reggie tries, Ronnie is always there, whispering, destroying, dragging everything back to primal violence.

Frances – played by Emily Browning – is the fragile heart of the film. She is not merely a “muse,” but a mirror reflecting the price of power. Frances’s gaze shifts from adoration to fear, from hope to despair. She loves Reggie, but that love is consumed by the world he cannot – and does not want to – leave. Frances realizes a painful truth: she loves not just one man, but an empire built on blood. And no one leaves that empire unscathed.

The film uses contrasting frames to emphasize the dual theme: the glittering lights of the nightclub contrast with the grime of the harbor; polite handshakes are punctuated by the sound of bones breaking in the pub; meetings with the American Mafia run parallel to Ronnie’s outbursts of madness. All of this creates the feeling that glamour and violence are inseparable – they nourish each other.

The final scene, when rain pours down on London and Reggie looks at his own reflection, is a fateful moment. It’s indistinguishable between Reggie and Ronnie. Ronnie’s voice rings out like a curse: “A shootout is a shootout, like a 22-carat Western.” It’s an affirmation that violence, once chosen, will always find its way back. The two brothers stand back to back, but in reality, they were never truly separated.

Legend is a testament to Tom Hardy’s rare acting prowess. Not everyone can make the audience forget they’re watching someone play two roles. Hardy doesn’t “act” Reggie and Ronnie; he lets them live, breathe, and destroy each other on screen. The film doesn’t demand that the audience forgive the Kray twins, nor does it force us to hate them. It simply invites us to look directly at the truth: the line between order and chaos, between reason and madness, is much thinner than we imagine.

Legend ends, but its echoes remain – like the rain on the streets of London. Neither good nor bad. It’s simply the world, and the people who have chosen their own way of existing within it.