SNATCH (2000)
My blog is for those who have watched a movie once and want to watch it again. I simply try to highlight why it should be watched again.
SPOILERS WILL BE THERE AS INTENDED AUDIENCE HAS ALREADY WATCHED THE MOVIE ONCE. JUMP OUT IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS.
As you have already seen this movie you would know that it revolves around a diamond. Diamond the size of a “F****** fist”. But it takes a repeated viewing to realise that there is something else Caravans. Point taken that people died for the diamond but a lot of them fought for caravans (Gorgeous George, Mickey, the hare and two huge dogs).Turkish, Mickey and Mickey’s Mom want caravans (rather Mickey wants it for his mom). Mickey doesn’t even know about a diamond even after the movie ended (even we don’t know about him when the movie ends... kind of makes it even). Which makes me think what would the crazy piker do if he knew?
Why should we watch the movie again? (and again and again ??)
Conventionally genre for this movie maybe comedy or crime. A lot of people may not agree with me but for me this movie is a musical. Almost all interactions in this movie have a background score and each and every bit of music hits the nail right on its head. The music is used to convey the mood and intentions of the characters perfectly. First timers will definitely notice “Golden Brown....” which creates the perfect feeling of upheaval of circumstance. However you may need to watch the movie more than once for those tiny bits of background music when characters talk. The effect is splendid.
Probably in order to ensure that they don’t rush up the movie there is a lot of small talk irrelevant to the movie. They have been put there to expand the characters mostly.
“Yes Tyrone what have you done”
”It was two minutes five minutes ago”
“Its Tip-Top just i am not sure about the colour”
“Are we gonna ever get in this place?”
And lots more...
They have been craftily written and keep you entertained. For a second timer just ensure you haven’t missed any. Probably try to make sense of Brad Pitt’s dialogs, Best of Luck.
The story of this movie moves with almost each and every scene. Speaking of which the director is actually handling two stories , half integrated in the mid (via brick top) and completely joined at the very end only(The dog). Ofcourse milk throwing scene is also there. An interesting aspect of the movie is that a few of the characters never meet each other still significantly impact each other’s fortunes.
Bets go off due to Mickey hitting Gorgeous George and fighters being changed leading to frustration of Vinny and Sol and killing of Franky Four Fingers and so on. Mickey was only trying de-fraud Tommy look what happened. So forth there are many such butterfly effects.
The movie has a dark shades in it throughout. I suppose “Bad food worse weather London” is like that? I don’t know. However the characters are all very colourful. My theory is that the dark shades of the movie are there to ensure the colours of the character don’t lose focus. We don’t have a single brooding type in the movie- not even Tommy. The only brooding in the movie is when Bad boy Lincoln scratches his neck trying to understand what moissanite is. There is a definite finality in the way people make their remarks. They have a conviction in their beliefs though I am not sure if they have belief in where they picked up these beliefs. As Turkish tells Tommy “What have you been reading?” These interactions add a fun element to the whole experience. Actually the movie rather than being a series of unrelated events is more about these characters who mouth off wisdoms to each other. Some who think they are in control like Bullet Tooth Tony and Brick Top die and the fools like Sol and Vinny stay alive (in jail).
There is a way of illustrations in the movie which give it a edge over many. One being whenever Franky Four Fingers and gambling are mentioned together the track “Viva Las Vegas” plays. Other one is the way “REPLICA” is shown on guns with sound of a typewriter. There are many such scenes in the movie.
Though there is violence in the movie I never felt bad about it. I guess that is because of the sense of unrealism about characters and events. Boris the Bullet Dodger- who dodges bullets, Bullet tooth tony who lives after being shot six times etc are very surreal. Yeah the death of Mickey’s mother was sad and I wished Guy Ritchie would have found a better workaround. She is one of the only four ladies (two of them twins) by the way. I guess no lady in the movie got a screen time of more than three to four minutes. All were strong characters by the way. The lady at the bookies being the best.
My favourite character in the movie is Vinny. He is thief but has a heart and not much brain. His love for the dog causes a lot of what happens in the movie eventually. Too bad Vinny ends in jail.
I sometimes think about the end. What is in store after the movie ends? Cousin Avi reaches London and then what happens? Does he simply buy the diamond and go back. Won’t that be too boring? I guess there will ba another series of hilarious events involving some curious characters. I love it that they didn’t come with a sequel. Lets keep the future Snatch world to our own imagination.
Waiting for your comments. Will love to hear your views. Thanks for patient reading
