Snatch (Guy Ritchie,2000); The Crime Comedy Film Entwined With British Nostalgia
- Katherine Goodyear
- Aug 3, 2017
- 2 min read
This has to be by far, the most iconic British film of the 00s. I am aware that this is a very strong statement to make, but hear me out. With British films, the can only cater to a certain target audience, considering that other individuals who live in other areas would never necessarily understand British humour/slang, but when an audience does understand, it's almost satisfying, maybe even euphoric. Guy Ritchie is the professional of British style films, with the incorporation of great actors such as Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and even Brad Pitt. Although it is not a sequel, this film does share similar themes, visual and sound styles to Guy Ritchie's other film, 'Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels' (Guy Ritchie, 1998). This film was then largely successful in the box office, with a budget of £10 million, it grossed approximately £12 million in the UK, and grossed $83.6 million worldwide. This film's keen characteristics definitely caught the eye of many spectators.
I do believe that the actors help characterise who they are portraying. Turkish (Jason Statham) is a relatively miserable and sarcastic boxing promoter, who gets on the wrong side of a ruthless gangster. his witty comments and narration really help the spectator create a connection with Turkish, which then creates amusement for the audience, making them more intrigued to watch. One Punch Mickey O'Neill (Brad Pitt) is the facetious gypsy, I do believe that Pitt took on a big challenge, coming out of his acting comfort zone and having the role of someone he wouldn't conventionally play, but he perfected the character flawlessly. The assortment of characters make the film compelling, comedic and and thrilling all at once. It also intrigues me how Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) can make an intimidating character seem a lot more slapstick, which then subsequently helps to lure in the spectator more than beforehand. Not only the characters, but the multi-stranded narrative that all correlates with each other makes the film more "watchable" due to that you have many cultures, different personalities, separate plots and different non-diegetic sound to relate to certain characters, it all fits and flows, which creates more of a pleasant watching for the spectator.
The conclusion to this is the fact that this film is both barbarous and engaging. The multi-stranded narrative, embedded with non-diegetic sound that is nostalgic to the ears of the audience, concocted with the characters, which weave in and out of each others lives to induce the narrative structure, aid to the amusement which allows the juxtaposition between that and the earnestness. Nevertheless, you cant get a better British film than this, it is most truly one of a kind, Guy Ritchie is the king of crime comedy, and let us all bow down to him!
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