Snatch (2000)
Where to Watch
- During the filming of Snatch, the director famously rewrote the ending on the fly after seeing the incredible chemistry between the lead actors on set.
- If you look closely during the crowded sequence in the second act of Snatch, the original author of the source material makes a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo.
- Unlike modern films, the massive explosion sequence in Snatch used zero CGI. The crew spent three weeks setting up the practical rig for a single take.
Snatch is a 2000 British crime comedy directed by Guy Ritchie, a hyperkinetic ensemble piece set in the London criminal underworld. The film weaves together multiple storylines involving an 86-carat stolen diamond, unlicensed boxing matches, and a colorful cast of criminals, hustlers, and con artists. Brad Pitt stars as Mickey O'Neil, an Irish Traveller bare-knuckle boxer whose incomprehensible accent and unpredictable fighting style wreak havoc on the plans of Turkish, a small-time boxing promoter played by Jason Statham, and Tommy, his hapless partner.
Meanwhile, the stolen diamond passes through the hands of various criminals including Franky Four-Fingers, Boris the Blade, and Brick Top, a terrifyingly calm gangster who feeds his enemies to pigs. Guy Ritchie refined the frenetic editing, freeze-frame character introductions, non-linear storytelling, and dark comic violence he had established in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, creating a film that moved with the speed and precision of a con artist's sleight of hand. Brad Pitt's unintelligible pikey boxer was a comedic revelation, and Ritchie's ability to make his incomprehensibility itself a running joke demonstrated sophisticated comic writing.
Snatch earned $83 million worldwide on a $10 million budget and established Guy Ritchie as the defining voice of British gangster cinema.
