Gangster No. 1

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with an unnamed, veteran British gangster (McDowell) attending a boxing match with friends. Upon hearing in conversation that a gangster by the name of Freddie Mays is to be released from prison after completing a 30-year sentence, he becomes upset and leaves without a word.
The narrative moves back in time to the 1960s, showing a younger Gangster (Bettany). He comes to the attention of a very influential London gangster, Freddie Mays (Thewlis), who recruits him to be an enforcer. The Gangster is eager to please, and while his violent actions at first dismay Mays, he soon proves his loyalty to Mays with creative ways of murder. However, the Gangster quickly becomes obsessed with and deeply jealous of Mays' glamorous lifestyle and success.
The Gangster soon discovers that Mays' main rival, Lennie Taylor (Jamie Foreman), is planning on killing Mays. Instead of warning his boss, the Gangster decides to let the attack take place, killing the only other member of his own gang who knew of the impending attack. It goes on as planned, and the Gangster sits in a car nearby to watch as Lennie and his gang shoot and stab Mays and slit the throat of his fiancée, Karen (Saffron Burrows). Later that same night the Gangster goes to Lennie's flat, shoots him in the leg, and then tortures him to death.
The Gangster discovers the following day that Mays did not die in the attack, but was hospitalised. Upon his recovery, Mays is unjustly convicted of Taylor's murder and sent to prison for a 30-year sentence. With Mays out of his way, the Gangster becomes leader of the gang and consolidates his power over the city's underworld. In a sequence spanning the intervening years between 1968 and 1999, he organizes a bank heist, opens a casino, fixes horse races, and builds his gang to over 300 men. The film's narrative returns to the aged Gangster at the boxing event.
The Gangster discovers that Karen also did not die, and is due to marry Mays, who has left prison a changed man. The two men meet in the flat that once belonged to Mays. The Gangster angrily denounces Mays, but Mays seemingly has no fight left in him, wanting only to marry Karen and retire in peace. The Gangster threatens Mays with a gun. He then gives Mays the gun and begs him to kill him, but Mays leaves.
The film closes with the Gangster, having apparently lost his mind, committing suicide by stepping off the top of a building, with his last words being "I'm number one".

Tags: revenge, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
A brutal black comedy and an ultra-hip crime-flick in one -  it's a cockney masterpiece, a genuine Pearly King of a movie.The year is 1968 and our eponymous hero (we only ever know him as `Gangster') is taken under the wing of Freddie Mays, the quintessential East End gangleader.
The film is effectively narrated and performed by Malcolm McDowell, but Paul Bettany is the one who really shines here, replicating McDowell's charisma as an uncaring and violent youth, whilst also injecting some of his own spirit into his character.
NON-SPOILER ALERT about the ending, they use a different person for the main character as the older version, but everyone else plays themselves just with makeup....(Don't get me wrong the guy they got 'Malcolm McDowell' to play as the older gangster is the best narrator and therefore carries the movie, but it's just weird and very hard to over look) Not to mention Paul Bettany who is a genius in this movie as well!
The story begins in 1999, with an old gangster performed by Malcolm McDowell being advised that Freddie Mays (David Thewlis) would leave jail after thirty years in prison.
Malcolm McDowell is Gangster 55, telling the story in voice overs, and Paul Bettany shines as the Young Gangster giving a great performance, which carries the film from cookie cutter gangster film, to one of the best.This film is filled with inspirations from many others, such as Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, Get Shorty, etc.
While some do work, such as "Look into my eyes", others don't, McGuigan, near the end of the film, fast forwards through decades in just a couple of minutes, we don't feel like we are with these people throughout their reign of terror in England.
1. Years go by and Freddie finally is released, while McDowell eagerly awaits his return, he expect some conflict, but what he get is a let down, I won't ruin what happens, but you'd expect something explosive.So Gangster No. 1 showcases great performances from the actors involved and shows a great story that takes it time, instead of bang bang, you're dead.
GANGSTER NO.1 (2002) *** Malcolm McDowell, Paul Bettany, David Thewlis, Saffron Burrows.
Bloody good Brit flick about English thugs recalled in flashback by McDowell and portrayed by  Bettany (both equally excellent in a teeth-gnashing kind of way) recollecting their bumpy ride to the top and rocky relationship with head kingpin Thewlis getting in the way.
It's combines a stylistically nasty, violent aesthetic with snappy, deliberately off kilter dialogue and deadly, serious performances that makes for a film that leaves a stark imprint in both our minds, and the British crime genre.
Paul Bettany plays an icy, wickedly ambitious sociopath known only as 55, a fledgling hood who draws the attention of top tier London gangster Freddie Mays (David Thewlis), in the pool halls of east London.
One misinformed hack in a major broadsheet even insinuated a link between this movement and recent, violent London crime.The problem with these films is an aesthetic, not an ethical one, and the type of ignorant criticism they have drawn reveals a lingering bourgeois contempt for a genre that has proved over the decades to be infinitely varied, subtle, adaptable, but, most importantly, through an awesomely powerful iconography, capable of exploring ideas about society and the individual, modernisation, capitalism, dissent, cinema, masculinity, violence, the body, role-play, psychology, sociology, metaphysics.
The problem with these new films, as I say, is not that they are overly violent or glamorise crime, but that they are ineptly made, hackneyed, opportunistic, with their makers revealing little knowledge of, or love for, the genre in which they're working.It's a pity for GANGSTER NO.
MacGuigan goes one further than Soderbergh - both directors emphasis role-playing, casting iconic 60s stars who seem to be making  it up as they go along, having a laugh, trying on accents and clothes, but while Terence Stamp achieves some kind of grace, Malcolm MacDowall goes very uncoolly mad.There are three pointers in the first ten minutes that tell us where the film is going in its refusal to glamorise, to mythologise.
'Gangster No. 1' falls into that category and while having many flaws, it still manages to capture the audience's attention with its' engaging tale.This dark, stylish and graphic crime flick is the creation of UK director Paul McGuigan whose past efforts include 'The Acid House' and 'Morality Play'.
The film opens with a stunning sequence in which a terribly miscast Malcolm McDowell retells his rise from a lonely soldier in a Crime Family to the head of the organization.Paul Bettany plays McDowell's younger self mysteriously called Gangster 55; who does a superb job at capturing the rapturous rage of this young criminal.
While working under Freddie Mays; played with an incredible sense of apathy by David Thewlis, we see Bettany/McDowell's character eye his position in this family on a much wider scale.The film spans itself over 30 years and we see some superb performances from Paul Bettany, David Thewlis and Saffron Burrows.
And what could have brought it past the level of simply being a good watch is the disappointing last half-hour where our main character's older self (McDowell)  is the focus of the film.The first hour is told in flashback narrative sequences where McDowell tells of his rise.
David Thewlis is on top form as the quintessential gentleman gangster head Freddie Mays and show stealer Jamie Foreman is outstanding as rival gang leader Lennie Taylor in a smaller but pivotal role.Paul Bettany's performance is simply mesmerising, edgy, scary and he perfectly plays the jealous and ambitious Young Gangster.
It's a great piece of casting thats credit goes to Jina Jay.Overall, it's a satisfying British gangster film that approaches the subject matter from a different angle, and that is from the inside out.
While there were a small number of humorous times, on the whole this is a serious and far more violent film.The other obvious connection is to "A Clockwork Orange." The films are related because of Malcolm McDowell, who figures prominently in both films, by the way that the young Gangster 55 is photographed glaring into the camera in a very similar manner to McDowell's Alex in the earlier film, and by the general level of violence.This isn't really my kind of film.
Gangster No 1 is more related to the classic Brit gangster movies, like Brighton Rock and Get Carter, than Guy Ritchie's pop video fluff and nonsense.It's gritty and dramatic with a deep homo-erotic subtext that many seem to miss, and contains one of the most brutal execution scenes ever filmed, disturbingly seen through the eyes of the victim.Paul Bettany shines and hints of the career yet to come, and is utterly convincing as the brash, violent and manipulative Gangster no 1.No great shakes at the box-office, but a future classic, this sits easily alongside Scorsese's early works..
the main flaw is a part reviewers seem to love: McDowell as the aging gangster; he simply does not register as the future of Paul Bethany as the young gangster- in height, looks, voice, demeanor; everyone else is right there, good fit, which means that the movie works very well until you get to the aging part; then the crazy, electric, calculating, vicious gangster turns into pretty much an old fud who walks around smoking cigars and rambling on about his past, i.e. not very interesting; it's as if Capone became a financier; electric deniro as the young godfather became an aged fredo instead of Brando who is quite civil and well kept- and will have the horse decapitated no problem; but until you get there, the movie is a first-rate but graphically brutal crime drama with brilliant small performances by lizard-tongued Lenny and others; camera is good, sets are good, script is good, editing is tight, impending terror and doom abound; but better and tighter and no end of movie letdown due to shift of time and place- and way too much shift in character- is the krays; blistering; stunning Billie whitelaw as the twins mum; it's graphically brutal, too, if that's a stopper, but an 8 or a 9 in this ilk.
Most of the dialogue of the character Gangster No1 is a narrative spoken by Malcolm MacDowell over scenes in which he is represented by Paul Bettany.
MacDowell is more obviously bad and does not quite gel with the more complex Gangster that Bettany plays.The film cleverly suggests much violence whilst showing very little.
This is simply a brilliant film, it contains everything that a good gangster movie should.
Paul Bettany whom plays the main character ("Gangster") as a young man is shockingly good.
This is a neo-classic film, with a story and performances that stay with you and linger -- like the shadow of the gaunt figure that Paul Bettany projects -- long after you've left the theater.
I like the acting peformances of Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis and Saffron Burrows in the film.
David Thewliss is wonderful as a dandy but deadly crew boss in swinging London and Saffron Burrows looks very at home in 60's regalia and like everyone in the film, gives a very strong Performance.This is a side of British film making that hasn't been seen in years; it seems more of a contemporary of Performance, Get Carter, and Poor Cow, than of Lock, Stock.., or Snatch (both very good films in their own right).
That's the whole point of this movie.Some people think that gangsters should be portrayed as having redeeming features - they don't, that's why the Krays never got out of prison alive.The evocation of 60's London gangsters is particularly good - and cleverly utilises the stylised look of the likes of Performance and Blow Up. Excellent..
It stars David Thewlis, Paul Bettany, Malcolm McDowell, Saffron Burrows, Kenneth Cranham, Jamie Foreman and Eddie Marsan.
And no one could ever write such a brilliant script like this again, Hope You Enjoy This Film.But it's not For soft hearted people,Very Violent scenes and all that.But the storyline also presents a kind of underworld justice.Trust Me Folk's...
As someone who knows and loves films, gangster, arthouse, intellectual or otherwise I can honestly say this is one of the best films ever made.No s**t, better than Long Good Friday, than Lock Stock, even Get Carter for Christ sake!
Apart from the brilliant performance, we have crisp, clean, careful sets- I always like a movie that makes a good screen-cap gallery.:)The script was top notch and full of details that were seemingly unimportant, but stuck in the back of your mind and made later events recogniseable and gave them a deeper sense.
I daresay a good part of that success comes from Malcolm McDowell's fantastic voiceover.And giving Bettany the 'look into my eyes' line was a stroke of genius.10 out of 10!.
i loved him in A Clockwork Orange, but I just didn't buy his performance here, especially since the other actors used makeup to age their characters, yet the older Gangster is played by McDowell who looks nothing like Bettany.
I could almost see similarities to "GoodFellas," "Once Upon a Time in America" and "The Sopranos" and even a little like "Shiner" - just one story- where an old gangster reflects upon his past and invites the audience to understand his life.The cinematography was supberb- the shots were full of color, mystery, treachery, fear and really captured the young gangster 55's character w/ his strong quiet expressions - you could almost glimpse into his dark soul.
The unnamed title character in this ultra-violent British Tarantino/Ritchie-esque flick is played brilliantly by Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale) in flashbacks and by Malcolm McDowell in present day.
Stylistically masterful, director Paul McGuigan handles this bloody tale by telling the story of the Gangster by using a mostly-wordless Bettany with creepy voiceovers by McDowell.
Although not the most original of stories, it is the performances that make the film stand out from the already-flooded British gangster genre.
It doesn't betray its stage origins much either save in two longish scenes at the beginning and end between Thewlis and McDonald.It is a story about gang warfare in London in the late Sixties and the rise to power of the main character who is never named (indeed in the credits he is noted as gangster 55).
I'm not one to look for such subtexts usually but this had a strong homoerotic theme below it - the gangster is never seen to be intimate with a woman and is intensely jealous of the Thewlis character, whereby hangs the whole film.One particular gory scene is seen by the audience from the victim's point of view and really is very frightening - the young actor playing the gangster, and like another reviewer his name escapes me, was very good in this particular scene (and indeed throughout) and should go far.Malcolm McDowell redeems his years in (presumably lucrative) American tat with a role he could got well over the top in and get away with it.
In fact this movie is the most intense, moody and dark gangster film since The Long Good Friday - the director should definitely apply to make the sequel!.
Paul Bettany captures the essence of a bitter, twisted, misogynistic homicidal maniac - he even looks like a young Malcolm McDowell (see "If").
Set in London it charts the rise and fall through the years of the main character simply known as 'Gangster'- played by Malcolm McDowell and Paul Bettany.
At the heart of this movie is the performance by Paul Bettany who is absolutely brilliant as the psychotic Gangster 55 .
Malcolm McDowell is also good as the older but not wiser Gangster but fails to match Bettany's icy brilliance .
Ultra-violent gangster film starring the king of ultra-violence - Malcolm McDowell.
The violence and language are excessive but the obvious madness of the Malcolm McDowell character and his inability to cope with the reformed and forgiving David Thewlis mean that the viewer has more to think about at the end than just a good laugh and high body count.A surprisingly good film although it is so dark in places that it is difficult to say that it was an enjoyable film..
This film is ripe with Tarantino inspired ultra-violence and is full of brilliant performances, especially McDowell, David Thewlis, and Saffron Burrows.
I thought that it would be mostly about Malcolm McDowell as this gangster, perhaps coming to grips with his former boss, Terry, played by David Thewlis, being released from prison after thirty years away.
But it's mostly McDowell narrating, looking back on his early years under Thewlis (and played by a very scary and subtle Paul Bettany) in 1968, when he was just an impressionable underling who could kick a good arse and take some names, but mostly seemed, as they say, 'quiet'.
It tells the story of a young gangster's (Paul Bettany) yearning for power under a gang lord's (David Thewlis) regime.The violence is less/more than A Clockwork Orange.
While this has plenty of crash-bangs - there is also time for character development, regret and irony.(There also seems to be casual references here to Clockwork Orange or maybe it is just the casting that is throwing me!?)Paul Brettany came out of this film with a brighter star on this chest, while David Thewlis (who has been better in other things) and the veteran Malcolm McDowell only tread water.
In the real world money always has its compensations though, don't knock it too much!While I don't want to go overboard about an independent film with limited ambition and the need for a firm stomach (there is one bloody point-of-view scene that is hell to watch!), I think it is well worth your time.I am a hard critic and most movies I watch I only watch the once, and that is often once too many!
Most of the film is told in flashback, which is excellent because we are revealed most of the story by the lead character's younger 1969 counterpart who is also a very impressive young actor, but we get a VERY exciting narration by Malcom, even more riveting than his voice-over in "Clockwork" and this film really makes the flashback thing work to great effect.
David Thewlis ('Naked') and Malcolm McDowell ('Clockwork Orange') both put in strong and memorable performances, and are backed up by relative newcomer Paul Bettany, the beautiful Saffron Burrows ('Deep Blue Sea') and a solid supporting cast.
Paul Bettany enjoys this part as well as Malcolm McDowell enjoyed playing little Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
Both the casting of Malcolm McDowell and the film's look indicate the influence of Kubrick on debut director Paul McGuigan There have been far too many British gangster films in recent times.
Paul Bettaney looks quite like the younger MacDowell (whose younger self he plays), and the film also has the talented David Thewlis on its cast list, but the net result is tiresome and thin, while the potentially interesting plot ends without subtlety or satisfaction.
I'll give this one 4/10 for McDowell and Bettany's good, but not great performances.
I have just watched this movie on DVD, l thought both Malcolm McDowell & David Thewlis were good, but l think that Mr Ferguson the writer must be a bit sick in the head, he must have thought of all the most weird and hurtful things that man can do to man and put them on film.The first 45 minutes of the film were ok as British gangster films go, but all we seem to be able to do as film makers is use 4 letter words, and many of them.....it then came to the part where the main character as a young man goes to the home of the opposing gang leader and proceeds to 1.
The guy playing the young gangster, however, does gives an undeniably good performance.
The film contains some brutal violence, like any good gangster movie, but they put it in needless contexts, and it's mostly pretty gratuitous.