Snatch is a comedy, crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie and produced in 2000 by Matthew Vaughn with Columbia Pictures Corporation and SKA Films. Since Snatch, Ritchie has directed 6 feature films: Swept Away (2002), Revolver (2005), Rock n Rolla (2008), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015) and he is currently filming Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur for 2016. These films all have in common the genre of crime and therefore share themes such as money, status and power, showing that this is what Ritchie possibly feels comfortable working with. Guy Ritchie's first film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) is very similar to Snatch regarding its style, plot, setting, themes and characters and Robert Ebert said Snatch "follows the Lock, Stock formula so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song".
In Snatch, the music was by John Murphy, the Director of Photography was Tim Maurice, the editor was Jon Harris and production design was by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski. Regarding its critical and financial reception, Snatch was very successful, grossing a total of $83.6 million after having a budget of $10 million and it was rated 8.3 on IMDb. It won five awards: Empire awards for the Best British Director and Best British Actor (Vinnie Jones), a Golden Reel award for Best Sound Editing and a special recognition for excellence in filmmaking. I personally feel that the film was worthy of more than five awards, especially regarding the performances because for me, they were all excellent and this was one of the main strengths of the film which secured a solid and enjoyable viewing.
Starring Alan Ford (Brick Top), Brad Pitt (Mickey), Jason Statham (Turkish), Stephen Graham (Tommy), Benicio Del Toro (Franky 4 Fingers) and Vinnie Jones (Bullet-Tooth Tony), Snatch is a fantastic, wild, event-packed film, full of conflict, deceit, brutality and intimidation that is bound to hold your attention for the entire duration. Full of hilarious one-liners and fantastically well developed characters, Ritchie has created an exceptional piece of work. Snatch is made up of a multi-strand narrative with two main intertwined plotlines: Brick Top pulls Turkish and Tommy into the world of match fixing. Their original boxer gets badly injured by Irish gypsy, Mickey after Turkish wants to buy a caravan from the gypsies. Turkish and Tommy have to convince Mickey to fight and lose for them. At the same time, a massive diamond heist is taking place and as more characters enter the equation, even including a dog, things go from bad to worse and the money and guns becomes the main focus point.
I am a huge fan of cinematography and Snatch is definitely an example of very effective camera-work and with the incorporation of slow motion, stills, unique angles, black and white and colour shots, the audience's focus is kept maintained and they are drawn into this bizarre narrative, given them a sense of escapism from their reality. The opening title sequence was truly incredible and it was a great way to immediately draw in your audience and create a buzz that will intrigue them to continue watching. As you can see in the video below, this sequence features quick-paced editing which goes from action to freeze frame, introducing the protagonists one by one and giving the audience a small insight into their characteristics and possible personality.
There were many key scenes throughout Snatch but my favourite two were: meeting Sol and Vinnie's driver: Tyrone and Brick Top's pig story. I personally found the Tyrone scene hilarious as it was an expression of the characters inner personalities and we see the three men in a more relaxed environment, meaning we as an audience can gain a connection with them due to the more light-hearted tone. Brick Top's pig story is another one of my favourite scenes, firstly because it was very unexpected and I believe this sums up the film because every small section of the narrative comes with new surprises and I had no idea what to expect throughout. Secondly, I believe it holds an implicit meaning to what it appears on the outside. Brick Top refers to feeding dead bodies to pigs and I believe the reference to pigs is meant to represent and symbolise the other characters because they gradually turn more and more greedy in terms of wealth, money, status and power.
In conclusion, I loved Snatch because it had absolutely solid performances from all of the characters which resulted in an entertaining experience that although was definitely very confusing at times, held my attention throughout and I would recommend it for sure. However what disappointed me about Snatch was the lack of strong, female characters as all of the protagonists were male and the exclusion of the female gender shows women to have less importance than men so I would have like to have seen some important females being thrown into the mix. I now feel inspired to watch more of Guy Ritchie's films and I would rate Snatch 8.5 out of 10!
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