Snatch
Stealin' stones and breakin' bones.
Snatch (2000)
Production
Budget
$100 000 000
Revenue
$83 557 872
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Jason Statham
Turkish
Alan Ford
Brick Top
Stephen Graham
Tommy
Brad Pitt
Mickey O'Neil
Robbie Gee
Vinny
Lennie James
Sol
Benicio del Toro
Franky Four Fingers
Short description
Snatch is a British crime comedy built around a stolen diamond and the many people who want it. A thief known as Franky Four Fingers is meant to carry a large stone from Antwerp to New York for his boss, Avi, but he stops in London to sell some smaller gems. There he is drawn into a bet on an illegal boxing match, which turns out to be a setup designed to rob him. Meanwhile, promoter Turkish and his partner Tommy are arranging a fixed fight with the local underworld boss Brick Top and end up recruiting a Traveller fighter named Mickey O'Neil, who has his own ideas about how the bout should go.
Guy Ritchie wrote and directed the film, his second feature after Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and the one preceding Swept Away in his filmography. Matthew Vaughn produced. The large ensemble includes Jason Statham as Turkish, Alan Ford as Brick Top, Stephen Graham as Tommy, Brad Pitt as Mickey O'Neil, Dennis Farina as Avi and Robbie Gee as Vinny, among 73 credited cast members and 134 credited crew.
Made for about 10 million dollars, the film took roughly 84 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.2 from over 970,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.8 from around 10,000 votes. The critics' rating of 6.6 from 141 reviews is noticeably lower than either audience figure.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the phone call between Four-Fingers and Avi's cousin, Four-Fingers changes into four different outfits.
- In the scene of Boris Britva's murder (in the corridor with the fire exit), no powder gases are visible emerging from the barrel of the Desert Eagle during the second shot, although the sound is present.
- Dave Courtney was offered the role of Brick.
- In one scene, Vinnie Jones hits a man on the head with his car door. Tom Delmar, the stunt coordinator and stunt arranger, volunteered to play the victim. He did the same in the 1998 film “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” directed by Guy Ritchie.
- According to commentary available on the DVD, it was very difficult to work with the first dog brought in for filming. During a scene with Vincent, Sol and Tyrone in the car, it attacked Lennie James and bit him in the groin, fortunately without any lasting consequences. After this incident, the dog was replaced.
- One of the boxers is called Bomber Harris. The same nickname was borne by Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force during World War II. In a special German edition of the British comedy group “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” in 1971, there appeared a Colin “Bomber” Harris, a man who fought with himself.
- The British version of the film is 104 minutes long, while the American version is 102 minutes long.
- In Guy Ritchie’s previous film, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998), there is a scene of conversation between Harry, Barry, and Chris. Barry says, “No, Harry, you can’t,” after which Chris repeats the same phrase, and then Chris and Barry repeat it together. A similar joke is found in “Snatch,” when Alex and Suzie first separately, and then together, repeat the phrase “yes, Dad, you told us.”
- Throughout the opening credits, the robbers discuss the Virgin Mary. This episode is very similar to the opening scene from “Reservoir Dogs” (1991), where the discussion revolved around Madonna's song “Like a Virgin.”
- The following episodes were removed from the film: In a scene where, in the back room of the pawn shop, Benicio Del Toro’s character – Frankie Four Fingers – sits with a kettle cover on his head, he is allowed to take it off to open the case. He manages to briefly deceive three Black bandits by pulling a gun out of the case instead of a diamond. He falls along with the chair to which he was handcuffed and drops the gun. An episode in which Tony with a bullet in his teeth (Vinnie Jones) urinates on Errol, while Cousin Avi yells at Errol’s boss – Brick Top – about being given a fake instead of a real diamond.
- When filming the scene where Vinny and Sol are sitting in a car near Brick Top’s betting shop, and Tony – with a bullet in his teeth – approaches them, Vinnie Jones was absent from the set because he was in a police station at that very time, due to a fight he’d started the night before filming.
- Filming took place from October 18 to December 12, 1999.
- Guy Ritchie can be spotted in the bar when Doug the Head refuses to buy precious stones: the man reading a newspaper in the corner of the bar is Guy Ritchie.
- Due to the small budget, the producers couldn't afford to hire the necessary extras for the boxing match scene. Each time the camera changed angle, the extras had to move around to create the effect of a huge crowd at the match.
- 26 people die in the film.
- To maintain order on the set, Guy Ritchie introduced a peculiar system of fines, including penalties for ringing mobile phones, lateness, sleeping on the job, talking, and expressing dissatisfaction...
- The film's title is mentioned only once, when Vinny, handing a squeaky toy to a dog, says: “Don't Snatch!”
- In one scene, Boris the Blade pulls a butcher's knife from under his jacket. Soap did the same in the film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998).
- Vinnie Jones chases a dog with a knife, which has swallowed a diamond. In Dominic Sena's *Gone in 60 Seconds* (2000), his character is prevented from cutting open the stomach of a dog that has swallowed the car keys.
- In the mise-en-scène where Tony asks for a pint of 'black,' the bartender hands him a half-empty glass. He was about to pour the customer a full pint, but noticed approaching robbers.
- In the US, they wanted to change the film's title to "Snatched" or "Snatch'd".
- The word "fuck" is said 153 times in the film.
- A literal translation of the original title is “Robbery”.
- Almost all the idiotic situations that Sol, Vincent, and Tyrone get into are based on real events: Guy Ritchie borrowed them from documentary television programs about the most absurd crimes.
- The film barely shows death. It almost always happens off-screen.
- Upon learning from Guy Ritchie that he was to play a boxer, Brad Pitt became worried. He had just finished filming David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (1999), and the prospect of playing a similar role didn’t appeal to him at all. But Pitt was so eager to work with Guy Ritchie that he agreed anyway.
- As soon as the gong sounds, signaling the start of the fight between Mickey and the Bomber, the latter headbutts Mickey in the face. Mickey knocks his opponent to the floor with a single punch. This plot element was a tribute to Lenny McLean, nicknamed the Governor, who once knocked out 'Mad Gypsy' Bradshaw in a similar fashion. McLean played the role of Barry 'The Baptist' in Guy Ritchie's film *Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels* (1998). He died at the age of 49, less than a month before the film's premiere.
- Actor Jason Fleming jokingly said that the conditions on set were so unbearable that activists from the human rights organization “Amnesty International” picketed Brad Pitt’s trailer, claiming it was unfit for human habitation.
- The role of Brick was initially offered to Sean Connery. The actor liked the script and even decided to watch “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998). Producer Matthew Vaughn urgently arranged a screening for Connery. Connery came, watched the film, and then said: “Good film.” After which, he added in a tragic whisper: “But you can’t afford me.” In the end, Alan Ford played Brick.
- Ed, who played Tyrone, came to the film set looking for work as a security guard. After Guy Ritchie saw him, he immediately offered him the role of Tyrone.
- Rumor has it that Guy Ritchie paid $1 million for the use of Madonna’s song “Lucky Star.”
- Tyrone drives a Rover SD1 Vitesse, the fastest rear-wheel drive car in this model range with a 3.5-liter eight-cylinder engine. Its production began in 1976 and ended in 1986. The car used in the film had undergone some restyling. This vehicle was extremely popular with both police officers and criminals. Moreover, when the car was discontinued, some police officers bought used models for official use. Various engines were offered for it, including 2.3 and 2.6-liter six-cylinder engines, and also 2.4-liter turbocharged diesel engines (which were considered, as they say now, innovative in the 1980s). Eventually, the car was removed from the production line, and the design was sold to an Indian company. It was rebranded and reappeared on the market under the Standard 2000 brand.
- Brad Pitt is a big fan of the film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998). After meeting Guy Ritchie, Brad asked him for a role in his next film. Pitt received the role of Mickey the Gypsy after it became clear he couldn't convincingly imitate a London accent.
- The personality of the character played by Brad Pitt, and his unintelligible speech, were Guy Ritchie’s response to critics who complained about the strong London accent of the characters in his first feature film, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998). The director deliberately made the speech of Mickey “The Gypsy” so incomprehensible that neither the audience nor even other characters in the film could understand him.
- Mully tells Tony that the bookmaker was robbed by Vinny and Sol, who own a pawn shop on Smith Street. This street is located in Chelsea, a luxurious district of London.
- In the scene of Boris Britva's murder, Tony fires 8 shots from the Desert Eagle through the wall, after which he runs out of ammunition. This is understandable given that he reloads. He then fires another 8 shots, and again runs out of ammunition on the ninth. However, later, in the scene with the dog, Avi, using Tony's pistol, manages to fire as many as 12 shots from it without reloading.
- When Mickey tells Turkish about the new camper van for his mother, he particularly emphasizes that the trailer should be a pale blue color. In "Psycho" (1960), we learn that Norman Bates helped choose a dress of the same color for his dead mother. Mickey, like Norman, is also, albeit indirectly, responsible for his mother's death.
- Tim Maurice-Jones (cinematographer) played the man whom Four-Fingers (Benicio Del Toro) hits on the head several times during the robbery scene. In “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998), where Tim was also the cinematographer, he played the man whom Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean) drowns at the very beginning of the film.
- Lenny James, who played Sol, bruised his genitals from the recoil of a sawn-off shotgun while shooting at a wall. He finished the scene despite the pain, and those shots made it into the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
