June 23, 2004
Gangster Talk
I've worked out something quite important about particular personal responses of mine to movies.
London gangster movies. I don't like them. They're far too... London.
Characters talk like I used to talk and occasionally still do. They talk like various people I know and are likely to meet. They walk down streets that look vaguely familiar and take cabs to places I have frequented at varous points in my life. It creeps me out how such a movie can immediately approach me as casually acquainted and intimate with my life. Maybe it's because it feels more real. It's the detail that always feels invasively deliberate. Like the writer or director has targetted me and my demographic purposefully, rooting through lives to find the little things.
Suddenly I appreciate the US movie industry. Seriously. As much as it drives me insane when it decides that the US is the only country of any importance or even the only country that actually exists, it's better than having my head messed with. I'll put up with end-of-the-world movies that only ever show either L.A. or New York getting destroyed, this seems like a half-reasonable compromise. Fictional is just so much more comfortable when it's very clear it has nothing to do with me. I have another reason to be glad I'm not american, it makes so many movies that much more accessible. You guys can keep all the gangsters.
I'm thinking carefully about this. I may have to make an exception for british zombie movies. I like them, and I suppose it's the whole the-dead-have-come-back-to-life-and-are-trying-to-eat-us aspect that manages to distinguish the fictional nature of the story for me and creates that sense of distance that I have found I require.
I went to see I'll Sleep When I'm Dead yesterday. This is what has prompted the realisation that maybe I'm not quite comfortable with London gangster movies. Good in general although I felt they could have used much more of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' character. Clive Owen was very uninspiring as far as I was concerned, but that also may have had more to do with the character than the acting. Slightly bitty in places and lost its sense of subtlety in others, but overall the interesting psych angle made up for that. So, er, yeah, that was a positive review.
Posted by Missiedith at June 23, 2004 11:41 PM | TrackBacki didn't know jonathan was in that one. there should be more of him in every film hes been in- he is a bloody good actor- i just wish directors, editors and producers would notice this fact.
Posted by: rachel at June 25, 2004 8:38 PMBeing an utterly sad muppet, I've just bought the complete series 1 of Chancer on DVD. 650 minutes (yes, just under 11 hours!) of running time, four DVDs. So old it's not even in stereo, or widescreen.
Absolutely Ace.
Posted by: Lyle at July 1, 2004 9:09 AMclive owen was soooo hot in chancer back in the days
Posted by: rachel at July 3, 2004 1:31 PMI quite like the London gangster films. They've got a unique, "hard man" style and bluntness that the American mafia/black street gangster types lack.
Its that same familiarality in London films that appeals to me, because I came from, and live in, East London, borough of Havering.
Maybe that familiarality in London mob films doesn't appeal to you because such reminding of your past brings back rather unpleasant memories? Just a thought.
-Peter
Posted by: Royal Marine at December 13, 2004 6:44 PMlondon gangster films=dogs bollox! how can you not like Snatch,lock,stock and/or cult classic Love,honour and obey? These films,along with all Brittish films(london set or not) are leading the headway against the american (shit) films invading our treasured film industry that we all know and love! you cannot call yourself British!!!
Posted by: Tom the don at February 25, 2005 11:40 AMplz
Posted by: nina at March 11, 2005 6:53 AMdrug barons,gangland britain article’s: 11th Jul 2005 - 20:35 GMT
(a reprt by the guardian)Traditional crime families
Picking up where the Krays left off, today’s crime families shun the limelight but, according to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, still represent the greatest threat to law and order. Active in all criminal activities from drugs and prostitution to money-laundering and protection, they have the advantage of occupying their home turf, thus forcing all other gangs to strike allegiances or risk constant confrontations.
Albanian and Pakistani mafia
The new kids on the block. Heavily involved in prostitution and trafficking of illegal aliens, the Albanian and new Pakistani gangsters are now using their foothold in the UK to launch themselves into the drug business, particularly the heroin trade. Police fear bloody clashes with Turkish and Pakistani gangsters who currently control the market. New Pakistani gangsters may clash with there old Pakistani counterparts to take over the drugs empire, Studies show that the most influential and ruthless ringleader of the pp gang called Prince Riz is the most dangerous and frequent threat to the heroin trade, Prince Riz is a millionaire gangster from eastlondon heavily involved in money laundering, protection rackets, extortion, importing humans from his native country pakistan, taxing top end clubs and ring leading local criminal activities in the area, this high profile criminal has been described as the new Reggie Kray
By the guardian on 07.11.05 11:41 pm
East London is big! Big up all my e11, e12, e15, e10 heads. no1 cares bout pakis in east der all wasteman dat get bucked wen they step outta line. Big Up East London Stay reppin!!!
Posted by: Ghetto Boi at October 4, 2005 5:04 PMFUK U
Posted by: sarah at October 19, 2005 9:18 AM