Snatch (film)

Snatch.
File:Snatch Movie Poster.jpg Theatrical poster for Snatch
Directed by	Guy Ritchie
Written by	Guy Ritchie
Produced by	Matthew Vaughn
Starring	Jason Statham Stephen Graham Dennis Farina Vinnie Jones Brad Pitt Alan Ford Lennie James Ade Robbie Gee Rade Šerbedžija Benicio del Toro Mike Reid
Cinematography	Tim Maurice-Jones
Edited by	Jon Harris
Music by	Noel Gallagher Massive Attack John Murphy Tim Rowlands
Distributed by	Columbia Tri-Star
Release dates	September 1, 2000
Running time	103 min. (approx.)
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Languages	English
Budget	US$10 million (approx.)

Snatch. is a 2000 crime film by British writer-director Guy Ritchie, and featuring an ensemble cast. Set in the London criminal underworld, the movie contains two intertwined plots — one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter named Turkish (Jason Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a psychotic gangster named Brick Top (Alan Ford).

The film is characterized by an assortment of colourful characters, including the "pikey" Irish Traveller Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), Russian-Uzbek ex-KGB agent and arms-dealer Boris 'the Blade' Yurinov (or Boris the Bullet-Dodger) (Rade Šerbedžija), professional thief-gambling addict Frankie "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro) and bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). It is also distinguished by a kinetic direction and editing style, a circular plot featuring numerous ironic twists of chance and causality, and a fast pace.

The movie shares similar themes, ideas and motifs as Ritchie's first film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It is also filmed in the same visual style and features many of the same actors, including Vinnie Jones, Jason Statham and Jason Flemyng, who appears in a minor role as one of the 'pikeys'.

Plot

The movie begins with Turkish (Jason Statham) narrating. In Antwerp a valuable 86 carat diamond is stolen. Franky "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro) takes the stone to London, but one of the Russian thieves tells him he can get a gun from Boris the Blade (Rade Serbedzija). Meanwhile Turkish and Tommy, who work in the world of unlicensed boxing matches, are preparing their fighter, Gorgeous George (Adam Fogerty) for a match. Turkish sends Tommy, his cowardly, dim-witted accomplice, to go buy a new caravan. Turkish then notices Tommy has a gun bought from Boris the Blade, as they are dealing with the leader of the unlicensed boxing world, Brick Top (Alan Ford). Brick Top is a dangerous crime lord in London who kills people who displease him, and then feeds them to pigs. He's counting on Turkish to win this fight, which means they cannot let him down.

The Russian tells Boris that he sent Franky to buy a gun, so Boris plans to steal the stone. In New York, Abraham "Cousin Avi" Denovitz (Dennis Farina) is told Franky has the stone. Avi tells Franky to visit his cousin in London, Doug the Head (Mike Reid), an expert, so that they can sell the stone for what it's worth. Avi also tells Franky to stay away from gambling. Franky then visits Boris, who offers him a gun if he places down a bet for an unlicensed boxing match at a bookies in Boris' name.

Tommy and Gorgeous George arrive at the Irish gypsy ("Pikey") campsite. They buy a caravan from Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), but the wheels fall off. Tommy asks for a refund but Mickey refuses, which angers Gorgeous and Mickey then challenges him to a fight. At first, Gorgeous seems to be winning, but then Mickey knocks him out with one punch, breaking Gorgeous' neck and jaw but not killing him.

Sol (Lennie James) and his brother Vinny (Robbie Gee) have just bought a dog from the Pikeys. Boris offers them $50,000 to hold up the bookies.

Franky shows Doug the diamond but tells him he has to go to the bookies. Then we see Sol, Vinny and their getaway driver, Tyrone (Ade) getting ready. They are told to rob the bookies when a man with four fingers and a briefcase (Franky) enters it. They are then supposed to get what's in the case (the diamond) for Boris, while they get the takings. But Tyrone backs the car into a van which knocks Franky out.

Turkish and Tommy are left without a fighter, so they decide to use Mickey. Mickey says he'll do it as long as they buy his Mom a new caravan. They agree and go to see Brick Top. They both tell Brick Top that they lost Gorgeous George. Brick Top is furious about this and tells them they can't change fighters so late. He insists Mickey has to go down in the 4th round.

Avi arrives in London to look for Franky with Doug's help. Sol and Vinny rob the bookies but the teller informs them that there's barely any money. She turns on the security lock. While Sol and Vinny try to escape, they take off their masks when a security camera is on. Tyrone opens the locked door from the outside and they all escape. (This scene was inspired by an actual case, in which a bank robber, fearing getting trapped, failed to realize that the front door could only be opened from the outside, later noticing it when an old lady entered the bank.) As they're about to leave, Franky wakes up and gets out of the van. Tyrone notices he has four fingers and a briefcase and then knocks Franky out and they take him with them.

At the boxing match, Turkish tells Mickey to go down in the 4th round. Mickey seems to comply but in the match he knocks the other opponent out with one punch. Brick Top then leaves in embarrassment.

Sol, Vinny and Tyrone have Franky tied up in their shop. Boris and tries to make the exchange but Sol and Vinny are angry that there was little money in the bookies and demand half of the diamond. Boris then shoots Franky in the head, and chops his arm off to get the suitcase. He leaves Franky's body.

Turkish plans to leave the country but Brick Top and his henchmen interrupt him. He tells Turkish that he wants Mickey to fight again but he really wants him to go down in the 4th this time. He then takes everything from Turkish's safe as punishment and tells his henchmen to find the people who robbed his bookies. Turkish and Tommy then revisit the campsite to find Mickey. They then make a coursing bet with Mickey, but lose. Brick Top's henchmen recognize Tyrone, and they chase him down in a Godfather pastiche montage sequence.

Sol and Vinny get a friend of theirs to try and get rid of Franky's body. While they're lifting the body, Brick Top comes in and starts to give them advice on how to get rid of bodies by feeding them to pigs. Brick Top then leads them to a room lined with plastic and body bags and henchmen with knifes. They have Tyrone in a body bag, still alive, and are about to put them in the bags as well. The scene then cuts to Avi still trying to find Franky. Doug suggests they use a bounty hunter by the name of Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones), who survived being shot in the chest six times in one sitting. Brick Top puts Sol and Vinny and the bags as well and is about to have them cut, when Sol says he can get him the diamond. Brick Top gives them two days to find it and bring it to him. We then cut to Bullet-Tooth Tony introducing himself to Avi as Avi tells him to help find Franky. Tony then drives Avi to a guy that Tony knows, Mullet, to get information. Tony sticks Mullet's head in the car window and shuts it on his head and then proceeds to drive. Mullet then tells Tony that Sol and Vinny robbed the bookies that Franky was going to and took off with him. Tony and Avi then go to Sol and Vinny's shop and holds them at gunpoint when they find out Franky's dead and the diamond was taken. Sol then tells them that Boris took it. Meanwhile, Turkish tells Brick Top that Mickey won't fight unless they buy his caravan which they can't do since he took all their money. As punishment, Brick Top sends his henchmen over to Turkish's place to smash his arcades and burns down Mickey's mom's caravan while she's asleep in it. Turkish fights off the henchmen but gets beaten. Tommy then holds the thugs at gunpoint while he and Turkish escape.

The next day, Turkish and Tommy visit Mickey and he says he'll do the fight. Meanwhile, Sol and Vinny send Tyrone to Boris's place and tell him to call them as soon as he sees him. Back at Doug's place, Avi and Tony devise a way to find Boris, when they realize he's in the shop. Tony and Avi succeed in capturing Boris while Avi's bodyguard, Rosebud, is wounded. They get Boris to tell them the diamond is in the briefcase. The scene then cuts to Sol and Vinny with replica guns to use to threaten Boris, when they get a call from Tyrone about the whereabouts of Boris. A series of chain events than occurs: while Turkish and Tommy are on their way back, Tony and Avi are right behind them, while Sol, Vinny and Tyrone follow them to get the stone. Tommy starts lecturing Turkish that he should stop drinking the milk he's been drinking throughout the film and then throws it out the car window. Tony and Avi start devising a way to kill Boris, when the milk hits the front car window, causing them to crash and Boris escapes. Vinny asks Sol if the replicas work to which Sol fires it in the car, distracting Tyrone and causing him to hit Boris. Tony and Avi leave the scene, while Rosebud was impaled with a sword that he was holding when they crashed and proceed to head to a bar to get cleaned up.

Sol, Vinny and Tyrone head into the bar to steal the diamond. Avi goes into the bathroom to get cleaned up while Tony orders a drink. Sol and Vinny hold Tony at gunpoint and demand that he hand over the diamond. Tony then gives a monologue about how they thought they were in control but they're not, because he notices their guns say "replica" on the side and his guns is a desert eagle .50. Sol, Vinny and Tyrone start leaving when Avi comes out of the bathroom with the case and they demand that he hand it over. All of a sudden, Boris bursts through the door with a huge gun he got from his shop and also demands the diamond. Tony hears the commotion and proceeds to shoot through the wall while telling Avi to duck. Avi, Sol and Vinny all duck, while Boris and Tyrone are hit. Sol and Vinny take off with the case and Tony demands Tyrone to tell him where they went. Boris then picks up his gun and is about to shoot when Tony comically shoots Boris repeatedly until he finally shoots him in the head. He's about to finish off Tyrone too, but his clip runs out, calling him lucky and taking off with Avi. Sol and Vinny then proceed to Brick Top's place while leaving the dog at the shop. When they get there, Tony pulls them over and demands to be taken to the diamond, while Vinny hides it in his pants.

Back at Turkish's caravan, he, Tommy, and Gorgeous (whose jaw is in a brace) discuss the consequences of what will happen after the fight. Tommy is afraid that Mickey will knock the opponent out, while Turkish is worried about Mickey even making it to the final round, since after Mickey's mom's funeral, they all get drunk. Back at Sol and Vinny's shop, they find that the dog wrecked it. Tony demands the diamond, and Vinny says that the dog must have eaten it. Avi tells Tony to "open" the dog. After hearing this, Vinny gives them the diamond. While Avi's examining the diamond, the dog eats it, catching Avi off guard and causing him to fire his gun wildly at the dog. The dog escapes and when Avi tries to run after it, he realizes that he accidentally shot and killed Tony. Avi then heads back to New York. The next day, Mickey has a hangover from last night but still does the fight. Brick Top places his henchmen outside in vans with guns ordering them to kill Turkish and the rest if the fight doesn't go as planned. After the brutal fight, Mickey finally makes it to the 4th round, but when he looks like he's down he gets back up and knocks the opponent out with one punch. Turkish, Tommy and Mickey make it out of the building, but Brick Top sees them and tells one of thugs in his car to give him a gun. We then hear a gunshot and see Turkish and Tommy flinch, but then the scene rewinds back to the fight. Before the fight, Mickey bets on himself, and then during the fight, many Pikeys with guns killed all of Brick Top's henchmen and when Brick Top asked for the gun, the Pikey in Brick Top's car shot him and killed him. Mickey and the rest of the Pikeys then take off.

The next day, the Pikeys are revealed to have left their campsite. While Turkish and Tommy are at where the Pikeys originally were, the cops show up and question them. Vinny's dog then shows up, and they claim they were taking it for a walk. The cops let them go, and they both drive by Sol and Vinny who are also being questioned as to why they have Franky's body in their trunk. We then cut back to the beginning of the film where Turkish and Tommy are in a room with an unknown man who is revealed to be Doug the Head. They ask him if he knows anyone who'd be interested in this diamond. Doug then calls up Avi, and he then heads back to London.

Reaction

Snatch was largely successful, both in critical acclaim and at the box office, and has gone on to develop a devoted cult following. From an estimated budget of $10,000,000 (according to the Internet Movie Database), the movie grossed a total of $30,093,107 in the United States and £12,137,698 in the United Kingdom. Rotten Tomatoes lists Snatch as having 71% of the reviews (133 reviews listed in total) as being "fresh" (positive).

Snatch also appears in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time at number 466.

While the film received mostly positive reviews, several reviewers commented negatively on perceived similarities in plot, character, setting, theme and style between Snatch and Ritchie's previous work, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. In his review, Roger Ebert, who gave the film two stars, raised the question of "What am I to say of "Snatch," Ritchie's new film, which follows the "Lock, Stock" formula so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song?", and writing in the New York Times Elvis Mitchell commented that "Mr. Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead". Critics also argued that the movie was lacking in depth and substance; many reviewers appeared to agree with Ebert's comment that "the movie is not boring, but it doesn't build and it doesn't arrive anywhere".

Cast

Cast, including the eventual fate of each character.

Character	Actor	Status	Explanation
Turkish	Jason Statham	Alive	Accidentally finds the diamond and takes it to Doug The Head. Doug calls up Avi who promptly flies over, but it is not clear if Turkish sells the diamond or not. The film ends without a full resolution.
Tommy	Stephen Graham		Gains a dog, and alongside Turkish, finds the diamond in the dog.
Gorgeous George	Adam Fogerty		Broken neck and jaw (gained early on in film by Mickey).
Mickey O'Neil	Brad Pitt		His Irish Traveller friends have just killed Brick Top, Errol, and his hit squad. Mickey walks off with a great deal of betting money.
Boris The Blade aka The sneaky Russian	Rade Šerbedžija	Deceased	Comically shot several times. Finally shot through the head in the Drowning Trout by Bullet Tooth Tony.
Sol/Solomon	Lennie James	Arrested	The body of Frankie Four Fingers is found in their car by the police.
Vinnie/Vincent	Robbie Gee
Tyrone	Ade	Presumably alive	Last seen in the Drowning Trout, where Bullet Tooth Tony tries to shoot him and calls him 'lucky bastard' because his magazine is empty.
Bad Boy Lincoln	Goldie	Unknown	Last seen in Brick Top's meat locker, but he is allowed to leave.
Douglas "Doug The Head" Denovitz	Mike Reid	Alive	Turkish & Tommy bring the diamond to him, and he calls Avi to tell him.
Abraham "Cousin Avi" Denovitz	Dennis Farina		Flies over to London after Doug calls him.
Frankie "Four-Fingers"	Benicio del Toro	Deceased	Killed, and soon after has his arm severed, by Boris the Blade, for the briefcase containing the stolen diamond.
Bullet Tooth Tony	Vinnie Jones		Shot accidentally by Avi, who is aiming wildly at Vinnie's dog
Brick Top Polford	Alan Ford		Killed by Mickey's Traveller friends in retaliation for killing Mickey's Mother, after the bare-knuckle boxing match.
Errol	Andy Beckwith		Killed alongside Brick Top.
Rosebud	Sam Douglas		Impaled in car crash when holding a sabre
John	David Legeno	Unknown, Presumably Deceased	Last seen kidnapping Tyrone alongside Errol, not in Brick Top's limo or with hit squad at bareknuckle boxing match.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Two versions of the soundtrack album were released, one on the Universal International label with 23 tracks and a TVT Records release with 20.

Track listing

1. "Diamond" - Klint
2. "Vere Iz da Stooone?" - Benicio del Toro
3. "Supermoves" - Overseer
4. "Hernando's Hideaway" - The Johnston Brothers
5. "Zee Germans" - Jason Statham
6. "Golden Brown" - The Stranglers
7. "Dreadlock Holiday" - 10cc
8. "Kosha Nostra Theme" - John Murphy
9. "Avi Arrives" - Dennis Farina
10. "Cross the Tracks (We Better Go Back)" - Maceo & the Macks
11. "Disco Science" - Mirwais
12. "Nemesis" - Alan Ford
13. "Hot Pants (I'm Coming Coming I'm Coming)" - Bobby Byrd
14. "Lucky Star" - Madonna
15. "Come Again" - Alan Ford
16. "Ghost Town" - The Specials
17. "Shrinking Balls" - Vinnie Jones
18. "Sensual Woman" - The Herbaliser
19. "Angel" - Massive Attack
20. "RRRRR... Rumble"
21. "Fuckin' in the Bushes" - Oasis
22. "Avi's Declaration" - Dennis Farina
23. "Don't You Just Know It" - Huey "Piano" Smith

DVD releases

The film has been released in multiple incarnations on DVD.

In 2001, a two-disc "Special Edition" was released, containing both a full screen and widescreen presentation of the feature. Also included was an audio commentary track with director Guy Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn. The special features on the second disc included a "making of" featurette, deleted scenes, original theatrical trailer and TV spots, text/photo galleries, storyboard comparisons, and filmographies.

On 17 September 2002, Sony released a "Deluxe Collection" set in the company's superbit format. This release contained two discs, one being the special features disc of the original DVD release, and the other a superbit version of the feature. As is the case with superbit presentations, the disc was absent of the additional features included in the original standard DVD, such as the audio commentary. (The disc did still contain subtitles in eight different languages including a "pikey" track, which only showed subtitles for the character Mickey.)

Nine months later, in June 2003, a single disc setup was released, with new cover art, containing the feature disc of the special edition set. This version was simply a repackaging, not including the second disc.

Deluxe Edition error

In January 2006, yet another two-disc set was released. This version was set to be a repackaging of the original two-disc special edition release, containing the same features and content, but with different menu setups and decor. The box set featured a new theme represented in the cover art and included were a custom deck of playing cards and dealer button in the same theme. Also included was a supplemental booklet revealing extended filmography information about the cast as well as theatrical press kit production notes.

Soon after the set was released, it was discovered the feature disc that was supposed to contain the film in its original special edition incarnation (with audio commentary, et cetera) was not included. Instead the superbit release, containing the higher quality version of the film, was in its place. Customers posted in multiple online forums detailing the mistake. Some customers were happy with the switch while others were disappointed, as the disc contained a higher quality display of the film, but lacked the audio commentary track and the "Stealing Stones" feature option that were stated as included on the packaging.

According to some customers, after e-mailing Sony and explaining the situation the company replaced the customer's disc with the correct version.

It has also been stated that the error has since been corrected and later releases of the Deluxe Edition set included the proper disc.

External links

• Snatch at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• DVD versions and details