Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Analysis

 In the critical approaches in the gangster genres we had to watch three films the first being Scarface and now the second is  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 "Taratinoid spin of the British gangster movie"  directed by a very well known director of the gangster/crime cockney film "Guy Ricthie" (Snatch, RocknRolla and Revolver), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is about A botched card game in London triggers four friends (Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran and Jason Statham), thugs, weed-growers, load sharks and debt collectors to collide with each other in a series of unexpected events, all for the sake of weed, cash and two antique shotguns. 

From the outset of this film the director (Ricthie) lets you know where it's set what type of film it is and the main point which is an unconventional element in the gangster genre is that it is going to be a comedy film as well, this being a an unconventional element in the gangster genre as it's known to be a very serious genre for example "The Godfather" being one of the most famous gangster film ever made being a very serious film with a strong and serious script/storyline. While Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is nothing like "The Godfather" being classed under a gangster film, it is still classed as a gangster film but it is classed under a British Comedy Gangster. The film opens up with two of the four main characters selling knock off stolen jewellery to Londoners on a stall one of them (Statham) is selling the jewellery and the other (Moran) is pretending too be a customer to get others to buy more and also a look out for the police, then the police turn up chasing them both down the street while in slow motion the narrator (Alan Ford) brings you into who these characters are and what they do for a living and also sets up the film by saying "It's time to move on and he knows it" letting the audience know there moving on from that life into something bigger, set entirely in a fantasy East End where women almost don't exist and shot through a drunken haze it creatures a world related to reality and to old crime movies but also self-contained and original. 

A number of features give the opening an idea of the genre fro the rest of the film; The lighting at the very beginning shows that it's real life, no fancy camera work, straight to the point, no complexity. It's very normal. Bacon literally suffering the products into the bag shows that he has no customers respect, literally there for the money. This reflects on the genre of the crime, his witty,dry, yet rude sense of the humour reflects on the comedy side to the film, although there are no references to thriller, you know there will be violence in the remainder of the film because he's running from the police, and throws the suitcase in the air to make the policemen stumble. The location reflects their lives, in everyday streets to the dark alleyways, almost a premonition into the rest of the movie. As the certification of the film is an '18' it's target audience is aimed at adults over the age of '18', but considering the genre of the film, storyline and actors involved it has a specific adult audience. 

The film includes drugs, gangs and violent issues for example one of the side stories is about drug dealers/growers is the drug and gang part of it and there are three main scenes in which the violence shows that it is for an '18' and above audience, firstly a scene in which one out of three of the only girls in the film wakes up grabs a gun and shoots up a place in a drug growing house and kills someone in which blood is splattered everywhere, secondly in which the main bad guy in the film "Harry" dies in a final showdown in which some of the other stories come together and again there is blood splatter in gun fight. Lastly a scene in which Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) crashing his car into another to hurt Dog (Frank Harper) then he drags him out of the car puts his head between the door and then the camera shows from the point of view of Dog looking up at Big Chris smacking his head in with the car door.