Snatch
Six men stand in front of a white background. Above each man is their name. The first man is dressed in a fur coat and a trilby hat, and labelled "Mickey". The second man has greyish hair and glasses on, and is inscribed as "Brick Top". The next two men have long coats on, and are labelled "Tommy" and "Turkish". Below them is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier just known as "Dog". The fifth man wears a long dark suit and is labelled as "Bullet-Tooth". The last man is a chubby black man in a leather jacket and flat cap, labelled "Tyrone". Below them is the film title "Snatch" with the tagline "Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones".
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGuy Ritchie
Written byGuy Ritchie
Produced byMatthew Vaughn
Starring
CinematographyTim Maurice-Jones
Edited byJon Harris
Music byJohn Murphy
Production
company
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
(under Screen Gems in the United States and Columbia Pictures internationally)
Release dates
  • 23 August 2000 (2000-08-23) (UK)
  • 6 December 2000 (2000-12-06) (US)
Running time
102 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[3]
Box office$83.6 million[4]

Snatch is a 2000 crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, featuring an ensemble cast. Set in the London criminal underworld, the film contains two intertwined plots: one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter (Jason Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a ruthless gangster (Alan Ford) who is ready and willing to have his subordinates carry out severe and sadistic acts of violence.

The film features an assortment of characters, including Irish Traveller "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), Russian weapons dealer Boris "the Blade" Yurinov (Rade Šerbedžija), professional thief and gambling addict Franky "Four-Fingers" (Benicio del Toro), American gangster and jewellery expert Abraham Denovitz known as "Cousin Avi" (Dennis Farina), small-time crooks Sol (Lennie James) and Vinny (Robbie Gee), getaway driver Tyrone (Ade), and bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones). It is also distinguished by a kinetic direction and editing style, an intricate double plot featuring numerous ironic twists of chance and causality, and a fast pace.

The film shares themes, ideas, and motifs with 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, Jason Flemyng, and Alan Ford.

Plot

A gang of robbers dressed as Orthodox Jews steal a 86-carat (17.2 g) diamond, along with a stash of smaller diamonds, during a heist in Antwerp. Franky Four-Fingers, the leader of the gang, goes to London to see diamond dealer Doug The Head on behalf of New York City jeweler and Jewish-American organized crime figure Cousin Avi to fence the diamonds. During the getaway, one of the other robbers tells Franky, who is leaving for London, to obtain a gun from arms dealer and ex-KGB agent Boris The Blade. He then later calls Boris, his brother, and tells him to steal the diamond from Franky before he can turn it over to Doug.

Meanwhile, unlicensed boxing promoter and slot machine shop owner Turkish is persuaded by crime boss Brick Top to put his boxer Gorgeous George in a match against one of Brick Top's boxers. However, when Turkish sends his partner Tommy and Gorgeous George to purchase a caravan from a group of Irish Travellers, George is challenged to a fistfight by Traveller bare-knuckle boxing champion Mickey O'Neil, who knocks George out with a single punch. Turkish persuades Mickey to replace the injured George in his upcoming match by agreeing to purchase a new caravan for Mickey's mother. Brick Top grudgingly agrees, but only on the condition that Mickey will throw the fight in the fourth round.

Boris gives Franky a revolver in exchange for a favour: Franky is to place a bet on Boris' behalf at Brick Top's bookies. Avi, knowing Franky has a gambling addiction, flies to London with his bodyguard Rosebud to pick up the diamond personally. Boris hires Vinny and Sol, two pawnbrokers and small-time crooks, to rob Franky while he is at the bookies. The robbery goes awry when they crash their car into Franky's van while trying to park, trapping Franky inside. Sol, Vinny, and their getaway driver Tyrone are caught on camera and find no money at the bookies (since Georgeous George's cancellation means that all bets are off), but manage to kidnap Franky in their escape. At their pawn shop, Sol and Vinny hold Franky captive with a sack over his head. Upon Boris' arrival, Sol and Vinny demand he gives them half of the cash when he sells the diamond, during which Vinny utters Boris' name. To cover the mention of his name Boris kills Franky by shooting him in the head, and leaves with the diamond.

Instead of throwing the fight, Mickey once again knocks his opponent out with a single punch. Infuriated, Brick Top seizes Turkish's savings and demands that Mickey fight again and lose. Mickey refuses to fight again unless Turkish buys an even better caravan for his mother, but Turkish has no money to pay for it. In order to force Mickey to fight, Brick Top's men trash Turkish's arcade and burn down Mickey's mother's caravan, killing her. They then track down Tyrone, Sol, and Vinny to kill them for robbing his bookies. Sol bargains for their lives by offering Brick Top the stolen diamond, and is given 48 hours to retrieve it.

Avi and Doug hire Bullet-Tooth Tony to help them find Franky. When the trail leads to Boris, they kidnap him and retrieve the diamond, while being closely pursued by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone. Turkish and Tommy, who are on their way to purchase a gun from Boris, are driving on the same stretch of road at the time. When Tommy throws Turkish's carton of milk out of their car window, it splashes over Tony's windscreen, causing him to crash, killing Rosebud. Boris escapes from the wreck only to be hit by Tyrone's car. Tony and Avi are confronted by Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone at a pub but Tony intimidates them into leaving by commenting that their pistols are all replicas while his handgun is real. The wounded Boris arrives with an assault rifle and a grenade launcher looking for the diamond, but is shot and killed by Tony, who also wounds Tyrone. Sol and Vinny leave the wounded Tyrone and escape with the diamond, which Vinny hides in his pants. When Tony catches up to them, they tell him that the diamond is back at their pawn shop. Once there, Vinny pretends to have misplaced the diamond, then accuses his dog, which he got earlier from the Travellers, of eating it. When Avi tells Tony to kill the dog, Vinny gives in and produces the diamond from his pants, but the dog snatches the diamond away and runs off, presumably back to the Travellers' campsite. Avi wildly fires at the fleeing dog, accidentally killing Tony. Avi then gives up and returns to New York City.

Mickey agrees to fight to avoid more carnage, but gets so drunk after his mother's wake that Turkish fears he will not make it to the fourth round. If he fails to go down in the fourth round as agreed, Brick Top vows that his men will murder Turkish, Tommy, Mickey, and all the Travellers.

At the fight, Mickey makes it to the fourth round as per Brick Top's plan, and is knocked down by his opponent. But at the last moment, Mickey recovers and once again knocks out his opponent with one punch. Outside the arena, as Tommy, Turkish, and Mickey try to run for their lives, Brick Top and his men are ambushed and killed by the Travellers. It is revealed that this has all been planned out by Mickey to avenge his mother. In fact, instead of throwing his fights as instructed, he had been secretly betting on himself to win - making huge profits, due to Brick Top driving up his odds.

The next morning, Turkish and Tommy find the Travellers' campsite deserted as Mickey and "the pikeys" have escaped with their winnings. When confronted by the police, Turkish and Tommy cannot explain why they are there, until Vinny's dog suddenly appears and they claim to be walking it. On their way back, they cross paths with Sol and Vinny, who are arrested for hiding Franky and Tony's bodies in the boot of their car. Sol and Vinny watch in defeat as Turkish and Tommy drive away with the dog (and the diamond).

Turkish and Tommy take the dog to a veterinarian to extract a squeaky toy that it had swallowed, and consequently discover the diamond in its stomach. They consult Doug about selling the diamond and he calls Avi, who returns to London to purchase it.

Cast

Production

Principal photography for Snatch was filmed between 18 October and 12 December 1999, in London and Buckinghamshire.[5] A half-hour documentary of the production of the film was released featuring much of the cast along with Ritchie.[6] Tom Delmar worked as the stunts choreographer for Snatch, and he has also choreographed stunt sequences in films such as Aliens, 102 Dalmatians and Velayudham.[7]

Reception

Box office

Snatch was largely successful, both in critical response and financial gross, and has gone on to develop a devoted cult following. From a budget of $10 million,[3] the film grossed £12,137,698 in the United Kingdom,[8] $30.3 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $83.6 million worldwide.[4]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74%, based on 142 reviews, with a weighted average score of 6.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though perhaps a case of style over substance, Guy Ritchie's second crime caper is full of snappy dialogue, dark comedy, and interesting characters."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score 55 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[11]

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 gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing that while ostensibly rooted in the London underworld, Pitt's Irish traveller community were the most interesting element of the plot and the film's clearest predecessors were all American: Dick Tracy comics, Damon Runyon stories, and zany Marx Brothers comedies. He 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?"[12] Writing in the New York Times Elvis Mitchell commented that "Mr. Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead".[13] Some critics also argued that the film 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".[12] The film has gone on to develop a cult movie following,[14] and features within the IMDb top 250 rated films.[15]

Soundtrack

Snatch: Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones
Soundtrack album by
various artists
Released9 January 2001
GenreRock
pop
Britpop
reggae
jazz rock
LabelUniversal International
TVT
Guy Ritchie film soundtracks chronology
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
(1998)		 Snatch: Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones
(2001)		 Swept Away
(2002)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[16]

Two versions of the soundtrack album were released, one on the Universal International label with 23 tracks.[17]

Track listing

  1. "Diamond" – Klint
  2. "Vere Iz da Storn?" – 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. "Hava Nagila" – John Murphy and Daniel L. Griffiths
  9. "Avi Arrives" – Dennis Farina
  10. "Cross the Track (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. "RRRR...Rumble" – Charles Cork
  21. "Fuckin' in the Bushes" – Oasis
  22. "Avi's Declaration" – Dennis Farina
  23. "Don't You Just Know It" – Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns

Home media

The film has been released in multiple incarnations on DVD and other formats.

On 3 July 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, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released a "Deluxe Collection" DVD as part of the company's Superbit series. 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, on 3 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, omitting the second disc.

On 13 July 2021, Sony Pictures released Snatch on the 4k Ultra HD format, which features an HDR transfer of the film along with the special features of the previously released Blu-Ray.

Television

In April 2016, it was announced that a television series based on Snatch was in development, with the associated studios comparing the series to how the Fargo show expanded upon the original film.[18] Created by writer, executive producer, and showrunner Alex De Rakoff, the series is based on a true story heist for gold bullion in London, the show will be a Crackle exclusive release.[19] By August of the same year, Rupert Grint was named among the cast of the series, while also serving as an executive producer. Dougray Scott, Ed Westwick, Luke Pasqualino, Lucien Laviscount, Phoebe Dynevor, and Juliet Aubrey feature in recurring roles.[19] The series will consist of 10 episodes running one hour-long each, and was named the most-viewed series for the streamer.[19] The project was announced as a joint-venture production between Sony Pictures Television, Little Island Productions, and Sony Crackle Originals.[20] The series debuted on 16 March 2017 and ran for two seasons.[21][19]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Snatch (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 17 August 2000. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Snatch (2001)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Snatch (2000)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Snatch (2000)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  5. ↑ "Where Was Snatch (2000) Filmed?". 2 July 2022.
  6. ↑ The Making of SNATCH. Documentary of film production. .
  7. ↑ "Tom is the stunts choreographer for films like 'Snatch' and 'Velayudham'". IndiaGlitz.com. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "Snatch. (2000) – Box office / business". IMDb. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  9. ↑ "Snatch (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  10. ↑ "Snatch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Snatch (2000) - B". CinemaScore. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  12. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (19 January 2001). "Reviews – Snatch". Sun Times. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  13. ↑ Mitchell, Elvis (19 January 2001). "'Snatch': Man, All They Wanted Was to Go Buy a Trailer". New York Times. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  14. ↑ Gonzales, Dillon (16 March 2021). "Guy Ritchie's Cult Favorite Crime Film 'Snatch' Hits 4K UHD Blu-Ray This June". Geek Vibes Nation. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  15. ↑ Malvern, Jack. "Film critics and viewers at odds over ratings, analysis of IMDb shows". The Times. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  16. ↑ Potts, Diana. "Snatch Original Soundtrack review". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  17. ↑ Soundtrack for Snatch. Original Release Date  : 2000, Label  : Universal I.S., ASIN  : B00004YTY1.
  18. ↑ Spangler, Todd (20 April 2016). "Crackle Greenlights 'Snatch' Drama Series Based on Guy Ritchie Movie". Variety. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Andreeva, Nellie (19 April 2017). "Crackle Orders 'The Oath' Drama Series Produced By 50 Cent & Movie 'In The Cloud', Renews 'Snatch' & 'SuperMansion'". Deadline. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  20. ↑ Prudom, Laura (22 August 2016). "Rupert Grint to Star in 'Snatch' Series from Crackle". Variety. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  21. ↑ Britton, Luke Morgan (17 January 2017). "Watch Rupert Grint go gangster in trailer for 'Snatch' TV show". NME. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
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