D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die…
Snatch, 2000.
Written and Directed by Guy Ritchie.
Starring Jason Statham, Stephen Graham, Alan Ford, Dennis Farina, Brad Pitt, Vinnie Jones, Robbie Gee, Lennie James and Benicio del Toro.
Snatch is the hilarious and well-woven story of the London underworld and its inhabitants. Turkish (Statham) is a small time boxing promoter who finds himself in the pocket of local gangster Brick Top (Alan Ford). With Turkish’s latest boxer unable to fight after being knocked out by Gypsy bare-knuckle boxing champion Mickey (Pitt) he is stuck for a fighter. When he asks Mickey to take the fight he knows Brick Top is going to screw him over for changing fighters and he instructed to tell Mickey to go down. Mickey has other plans and knocks out the other fighter. Turkish falls deeper into Brick Top’s pocket.
Brick Top isn’t happy and sets his men out to burn down Mickey’s Mum’s caravan and she dies in the blaze. When Mickey is asked to take another fight he insists it is to stop any more violence, but Mickey has other ideas and plans to get his revenge. Turkish struggles to keep his head above water with Brick Top breathing down his neck and he knows that if the same thing happens in the next fight he is going to find himself being turned into pig feed.
All the while a variety of other gangsters, crooks and lowlifes are searching for a stolen diamond the size of a fist so they can cash in. As all of their paths cross through a host of robberies, unlicensed boxing matches and underworld dealings the plot thickens, the diamond changes hands over and over again before ending up in the possession of Turkish.
The film’s stories interlink at a fast pace and with the collection of colorful characters all getting one over on each other just to lose out again soon after. The film also boasts and a fantastic soundtrack with tunes like The Specials ‘Ghost Town”, Oasis’ ‘Fuckin’ In The Bushes’ and The Stranglers ‘Golden Brown’ all used beautifully to add to the character and pace of the film. Ritchie’s direction echoes the style of his previous film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but with a stronger cast and bigger budget this time out it has an extra slice of production value to it that makes it a very slick little film.
Snatch is a film that must be seen before you die because of the amount of reusable quotes Ritchie has written into his great script. Possibly my favourite is this little exchange between the ruthless pig farming gangster Brick Top and our main character Turkish.
Turkish – “You take sugar?”
Brick Top – “No thank you, Turkish, I’m Sweet enough”.
Classic.
D.J. Haza
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Originally published December 6, 2011. Updated April 10, 2018.
