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Snatch
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Cast:
Dennis Farina
Brad Pitt
Jason Statham
Vinnie Jones
Benicio Del Toro
Rade Sherbedgia
Stephen Graham
Alan Ford
Lennie James
Critic's Review:
Guy Ritchie's sophomore follow-up to his 1998 sleeper hit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch revisits the previous film's territory of London's crime-ridden underbelly, and does so with the same brand of humor and stylish direction that made Ritchie's first effort a surprise success. With a labyrinthine plot that is ostensibly oriented around a missing diamond, Snatch introduces viewers to three groups of characters intent on retrieving the elusive stone, which has been stolen from an Antwerp jeweler. In the first group are friends and business partners Turkish (Jason Statham, who also supplies the film's voice-over narration) and Tommy (Stephen Graham), who join up with Mickey (Brad Pitt), an Irish gypsy and boxer. Turkish and Tommy make arrangements with Mickey to take a fall in a match engineered by lunatic gang leader Brick Top (Alan Ford). In another corner resides equally loony Russian gangster Boris the Blade (Rade Sherbedgia), who has asked Jewish gangster Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) to place a bet on the match for him. Boris is also scheming to have Sol (Lennie James), the owner of a pawn shop, rob the place with a couple of dim associates. Meanwhile, Avi (Dennis Farina), freshly arrived in London from New York, hires Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) to find Franky when he goes missing; it seems that it was none other than Franky who was supposed to be transporting the purloined diamond to New York. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
My Review:
Led by an impeccable cast, Snatch represents the pinnacle of British cinema that started with The Full Monty in 1997 and ended with Layer Cake in 2004. Basically a gangster tale surrounding the theft and sale of a huge diamond, the film is notable for it's many characters and making Jason Statham a star.
Guy Ritchie's follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels still has the same kind of frenetic energy that typified his earlier work. The big difference here of course is the usage of many "big name" actors like Brad Pitt and Benecio Del Toro. Pitt is especially great here, playing a wandering gypsy bare-knuckle boxer whose English is barely understood. Also a stand-out is Vinnie Jones as Bullet-Tooth Tony. Jones was a former soccer star in England and there is no denying his physical presence. And in this role, as a working hit man, he nails it.
But even as good as this movie was, Ritchie has yet to duplicate the freshness of this (and Lock, Stock). Sure, he had Sherlock Holmes, which was a hit, but not because of Guy Ritchie. Snatch to me is one of those rare films that is nearly perfect on all levels--it doesn't have anything really meaningful to say about life, but it's a lot of fun to travel in its world for a couple hours.
Trivia:
Brad Pitt, who was a big fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), approached director Guy Ritchie and asked for a role in this film. When Ritchie found Pitt couldn't master a London accent, he gave him the role of Mickey the Gypsy.
To keep things in order during production, director Guy Ritchie introduced a system of fines on set. There were fines for mobile phones ringing, arriving late, taking naps during shooting, being "cheeky", being unfunny, and/or moaning and complaining. One staff member was even charged for letting the craft service table run out of coffee cups.
When Mickey "wins" a new trailer van for his mother from Turkish, he specifically picks out "periwinkle blue" as the color. In Psycho (1960), we are told that Norman Bates helped to pick out a "periwinkle blue" dress for his dead mother. Mickey, just like Norman, is also responsible (although indirectly) for his own mother's death.
When Vinnie Jones is introduced in the movie, he is slamming a man's head in a car door, It was the head of stunt co-coordinator and action director Tom Delmar, who volunteered for the job.
Bullet Tooth Tony's character is introduced slamming a man's head between a car door and a car, which the same actor does in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), another Guy Ritchie film.
The hardcore band "Cold War from Orange County, California" quotes this movie several times throughout their CD "From Russia With Love." Some of the lines quoted are: ("Quote" - Character / Song in which quote is used) "From Russia with love, ah?" - Doug The Head / Love Betrays "Heavy's good, heavy's reliable." - Boris the Blade / Painful Delight "Do you know what "nemesis" means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible c*nt... me." - Brick Top / Retrace My Steps
Lennie James actually hit himself in his private parts with the shotgun while blasting a hole in the wall at the bookies, but continued the scene. That footage was used in the film.
Boris the Blade pulls a large cleaver from his belt. Soap did the same thing in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), another Guy Ritchie movie.
Guy Ritchie reportedly paid US $1 million for the use of Madonna's song, "Lucky Star".
Every mistake that Sol, Vincent and Tyrone make were inspired by various late-night TV shows about real-life crimes gone horribly wrong.
Director Cameo: [Guy Ritchie] In the back of the bar when we are first introduced to Doug The Head. Ritchie is the man reading the newspaper.
Tim Maurice-Jones, the cinematographer, plays the man who is repeatedly battered over the head at the beginning of the movie by Frankie Four-Fingers (Benicio Del Toro). In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), for which he was also the cinematographer, he was the man being drowned at the beginning of the film by Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean).
Nearly every death in the movie takes place off-screen.
In the final scene, the 86-carat diamond is referred to as an 84-carat diamond.
In Guy Ritchie's previous film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), there is a scene in which Harry, Barry and Chris have a conversation. Barry says the line. "No, Harry, you can't," which is shortly repeated by Chris, then by both together. This joke is carried over to this movie when Alex and Susi do the same thing with the line, "Yeah, Dad, you told us."
When Guy Ritchie told Brad Pitt that he would be playing a boxer, Pitt became concerned because he had just finished shooting Fight Club (1999) and did not want to play the same type of role again. Pitt book the role anyway because he wanted to work with Ritchie so badly.
The U.S. distributors considered changing the title to "Snatched" or "Snatch'd".
The word "f***" is said 163 times.
During the opening credits, the Hasidic-clad diamond thieves are discussing the Virgin Mary. This is a reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992), where during the opening scene the thieves are discussing the Madonna song "Like a Virgin".
Franky Four-Fingers changes into four different outfits during the short telephone conversation to cousin Avi.
According to the DVD commentary, Bow, the dog was very difficult to work with. During car scene with Vincent, Sol and Tyrone, the dog was actually attacking Lennie James, and James was actually bitten in the crotch by the dog but didn't suffer any serious injury. The dog was replaced after that incident.
The producers couldn't afford enough extras for the boxing match sequences. Whenever a camera angle changed, the extras had to move around to create an impression of a crowded house.
When Vinny and Sol are sitting outside Brick-Top's Bookies, about to give him the diamond, the man that approaches the car is not really Bullet-Tooth Tony, it was a look-alike. Vinnie Jones didn't show up for shooting that day because he was in jail for fighting the night before.
Body count: 26
Brad Pitt's character and indecipherable speech was inspired by many critics' complaints about the accents of the characters in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Guy Ritchie decided to counter the criticisms by creating a character that not only couldn't be understood by the audience but the also couldn't be understood by characters in the movie.
One of the boxers is called Bomber Harris. "Bomber Harris" was the nickname of Arthur Harris, chief of RAF Bomber Command in World War II. The name later appeared in a German Monty Python special (Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (1971)) as the name of a man who wrestles himself - Colin "Bomber" Harris.
The role of Brick Top Polford was originally offered to Dave Courtney.
Turkish mentions that he is named after a plane crash. This is most likely a reference to Turkish Airlines Flight 981, which crashed in France en route to London's Heathrow Airport in 1974.
Just before Micky and Bomber Harris begin their fight, Bomber Harris head-butts Micky just after the bell rings. Micky recoils checking for blood on his glove and then floors his opponent with one punch. This was a nod towards Lenny "The Guv'nor" McClean when he fought "Mad Gypsy" Bradshaw in an almost identical fight. Lenny McLean worked with Guy Ritchie on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and passed away in 1998.
Throughout the movie, Turkish (Jason Statham) makes comments to Tommy (Stephen Graham) about his getting a gun for protection from "Ze Germans". Graham also played Sgt. Myron 'Mike' Ranney in the series "Band of Brothers" (2001), although Snatch was released a year prior to the series.
The car driven by Tyrone is a Rover SD1. It is the Vitesse version which was the fastest version made. It has a 3.5 litre V8 engine which ran on petrol/gasoline. The car was in production from 1976-1986 and in this time there was a "facelift" updated model as used in this film. The car is driven by the rear wheels and was a favorite amongst police and criminals when they were in production; so much so in fact, that the police started buying second hand cars and converting them for use in the police force when they went out of production. There were many different engines available, such as a 2.3 and 2.6 liter in-line 6 cylinder engine and a 2.4 liter turbo diesel engine, which was revolutionary in the 1980s. After the car went out of production, the design was sold to a company in India and it was re-badged and sold again as the Standard 2000.
Jason Flemyng joked that the working conditions on this film were so terrible that Brad Pitt's trailer was picketed by Amnesty International as not being fit for someone to live in.
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