LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS

UK, 1998, 107 minutes, Colour.
Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham, Steven Mackintosh, Sting, Vinnie Jones, Lenny Mc Lean, P.H.Moriarty.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.

Here we enter the rather unlikely world of London gangsters and petty criminals. Small-budget and filmed generally in sepia tones which give it an underworld look, it is fall of gangster patter which sounds both poetic and crude. The plot is very clever, full of delightful coincidences and characters crossing paths in extraordinary patterns.

These are an amoral lot and, while justice is generally seen to be done in a violent way, the moral ambiguities and their comic tone last until the final frame.

1. The impact of the film? Its becoming something of a classic of the late 1990s? Gangsters UK style, the cast and their careers, the career of Guy Ritchie?

2. The variety of London settings, the world of the criminals, shops, the sex industry, gambling, street hustlers, chefs…?

3. The colour style, muted, the overtones, the sex, the musical score?

4. British gangster film – the differences from what is expected from American gangster films? The tone of the title?

5. The underlying irony in the screenplay, the introduction to the men, their hopes and ambitions, cash and deals in the street, shops, the variety of connections, the scams, interconnection of the characters and situations, each unaware of the others, the repercussions, justice, deaths – and the humour of the ending, with a character midway between bridge and river?

6. Tom, his shop, the contacts and the deals, price haggling? Bacon and Eddie and their scams on the street, chased by the police? Soap, his work as a chef? The money stash? Meetings, planning? The background of Eddie and his bar-owning father, tensions between father and son?

7. Harry, tough, the sex shop, his deals, the set-up of the game, his elaborate way of cheating? His tough and big henchman? The bets, increasing the odds, Eddie and his stupidity, losing, indebted to £500,000?

8. The effect on Eddie, wanting to share the blame on the costs with his friends, his drinking, interactions with his father, his father’s strictness? His father being targeted for the takeover of the bar? His schemes?

9. Harry, his money, the guns, his henchman organising the burglars, the comic touches with the characters, the break in, torturing the owners of the house, one being shot? Being told they could take the antiques? Taking the muskets, selling them, Tom and his possession of the muskets?

10. Big Chris, his work as a collector, his concern about his son, his son going with him, protecting him from bad language…? His finding the guns, getting them for Harry? The encounter with the different groups, car crash, getting the bank, the money, Harry’s death, his giving the money to Tom?

11. The drug dealers, the group, their deals, being overheard by Tom and co? The plan to rob them, carrying it out? Going to the drug lord to sell the drugs and do a deal – and the irony that they were his drugs in the first place?

12. The robbers, the setup, the drug lord, the shootouts, all the deaths?

13. Tom and the group, experiencing the robbery, getting the drugs, the mix-ups and shootings, talking with the muskets, Big Chris and the bag, the money and his wanting to do good?

14. Thinking the muskets were worthless, that the police could find them, getting Tom to throw them into the river, discovering their worth in the catalogue, the mobile phones and trying to ring him? His dropping the muskets on the ledge, trying to get them, holding on, his mobile phone ringing…!