Britain has made enormous and magnificent contributions to the movie medium. Animation by Aardman. Hitchcock, Alfred. Colman, Olivia. 007. The British gangster movie is also at the top of that list. Sure, American films like Scarface, The Godfather trilogy, and Goodfellas may frequently garner the genre's attention, but no one does dark, gritty, violent, and darkly hilarious quite like the British. There is no other place where you would see football-hardman-turned-movie-hardman Vinnie Jones driving down the street with a poor geezer's bone stuck in his vehicle window!
As a result, Team Empire put together a list of the greatest British gangster films ever produced, complete with tracksuits, geezer nicknames, and knuckles dusted. We've covered everything, from comedic classics to grim tales of crime and savagery from the turn of the century to modern subversions of the genre template. These are films of intellect, culture, and sophistication. You know what we mean, a little bit more than a 'ot dog?
Bull (2021)
Neil Maskell, who can make sucking a 99 flake appear nasty, is rarely as brilliant as he is in Bull, a little-known independent gangster movie that is really stingy and deserving of more attention. This is a gangster film with a lingering, unnerving sense of remorse; the tone is less lighthearted and more somber and mysterious. Don't call it a comeback when Maskell's title character Bull unexpectedly and unwelcomely returns to his grim, caravan-heavy criminal neighborhood. With a brutal, relentless, solitary purpose, writer-director Paul Andrew Williams masterfully flips the cliché of the man-on-a-mission revenge-thriller. Long after the credits have rolled, its unsettling conclusion will linger in your mind and might cause you to rethink your caravan vacation.
Terrace Down (2009)
Down Terrace, a darkly humorous parody of everything we believed to be true about gangsters, was the beginning of Ben Wheatley's career, which has since led him from Tudor psychedelia (A Field in England) to Jason Statham on a jet ski (Meg 2: The Trench). Although it was made on a shoestring budget, it has a scrappy energy and aesthetic and immediately sets the tone for which Wheatley would become famous: a caustic sense of humor that is dry to the bone, a preference for violence, and a subtle sense of naturalism that gives the typical gangster clichés a sense of realism. It is set in Brighton, Wheatley's hometown, and follows a group of crooks as they attempt to smoke out the snitch among themselves, with increasingly violent outcomes. This is a novel take on the "crime family" template—Sopranos-On-Sea, if you will—and an interesting artifact of a young esoteric director.
Snatch (2000)
Alan Ford's elderly criminal Brick Top in Snatch was the only one to use the C-bomb with such symphonic flair. While increasing the number of gags and preserving the same feeling of joyful chaos, Ritchie's swaggering sequel to Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch's diamond heist/bare-knuckle combination manages to carry more narrative weight than its predecessor. It's the characters that really make Ritchie's world come to life, despite all of its imaginative language and flashy music videos. You can't help but love Jason Statham's braggadocious fight promoter Turkish, Stephen Graham's helpless Tommy, Lennie James and Robbie Gee's inept gangsters, Benicio Del Toro's Franky Four-Fingers, and Rade Šerbedžija's Boris the Blade. Even Brad Pitt's One-Punch Mickey, whose persona hasn't held up as well over time, is still hilarious. Of course, there is also Ford's Brick Top, a vicious gangster and self-described "dreadful cunt" who alternates between being absolutely amusing and terrifying. When it was first released, the movie received mixed reviews from some who felt it was a tonal rerun of Lock, Stock. We can only respond by saying, "Feed 'em to the pigs, Errol."
The First Gangster (2000)
Gangster No. 1 was released at a period when the British gangster movie was drowning in a post-Lock, Stock muck of sawn-off shotguns and quipping geezers. The plot, which was originally intended for the Sexy Beast trio of director Jonathan Glazer and writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto (who left because of the frequently mentioned "creative differences"), follows an elderly cockney criminal named Gangster 55 (Malcolm McDowell) as he reminisces about his past after his former business partner Freddie Mays was released from prison. Paul Bettany is the young, sexually conflicted Gangster, tearing it up in '60s London with Freddie (David Thewlis), channeling a young Michael Caine. Packed with ideal period embellishments, yet never overpowering. Paul McGuigan, a former photographer who is now a director, adds flair to the look while removing Guy Ritchie's cackling and delight. This is the harsh, gory glory of mafia life.
Cake in Layers (2004)
Matthew Vaughan's dazzling debut demonstrated untapped promise for both filmmaker and star, and it was essentially a drug-sprinkled playground for Daniel Craig to show off his 007 skills prior to Casino Royale. The future Bond is a nameless cocaine distributor who, strangely, would rather keep his nose clean when it comes to violence and the politics of his line of work. This is the Kingsman filmmaker's directorial debut. When mob boss Jimmy (Kenneth Cranham) recruits him to go on dubious business ventures into London's criminal underbelly, his clandestine operation is upended. With baby-faced Tom Hardy and Ben Whishaw, as well as a breakthrough performance by Sienna Miller, the picture has been a showcase of up-and-coming British talent since its release in 2004. With its pacy energy, cleverly cut one-liners, and suspenseful ending, this contemporary gangster film is one that deserves to have it both ways.
Read Also: Aspects to Evaluate in Your Megalopolis Review
Krays (1990)
It didn't make sense prior to the release of The Krays. Martin and Gary Kemp, two attractive brothers who play guitar and bass in the New Romantic musical group Spandau Ballet, respectively, are playing the lead roles of the real-life mobster twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray in a big-budget feature film. Nope, absolutely no sense. However, they were excellent, giving eerie, electrical performances. A disturbing study of intimidation, Peter Medak's drama is grim (you can smell 1960s east London here), brutal (Ronnie giving a "Chelsea smile" is scarring on multiple levels), and frequently extremely tense. It also depicts a man (Reggie) collapsing, with deadly results, culminating in a brutal and unforgettable stabbing sequence. Though it's a good picture with two strong performances by Hardy, Brian Helgeland's 2015 version, which starred Hardy as both brothers in Legend, didn't make the same impression as this one. It was revealed by those Spandau lads. Unadulterated gold.
The performance (1970)
Mick Jagger exclaims, "I need a bohemian atmosphere!" in this strange 1970 gangster drama (thriller? Horror? Comedy? The Rolling Stone plays dissolute former rock star Turner, holed up in a debauched mansion, in his most outrageous movie appearance, which is saying a lot considering he made Freejack. Gangster Chas, played by James Fox, starts hiding there and gets involved with Turner and his two girlfriends. Psychedelic mushrooms exist. The camerawork is quite avant-garde. Fox dons the women's attire. Although the performance is less bohemian than completely insane, it does deliver on atmosphere. "The film is neither very good nor very bad," some said at the time, unsure of how to interpret it. "Interesting," a shell-shocked Roger Ebert said. After fifty years, it is still a powerful film that blends aspects of gangster and hallucinogenic horror, with utterly opaque goals. But it must be seen as a genuine cinematic original. The phrase "it paints a well-trod genre black" is reminiscent of Jagger.
