Wednesday 13 November 2013
LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS TRAILER AND POSTER ANALYSIS
In the movie trailer, there a certain key factors that are used to reach out to the desired to make the Gangster genre seen, for example the action music in the background, I feel that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is mixed with the action genre, this is shown in the music that is played in the background, it is quite intense action music. Action is one of the conventions used in certain Gangster movies. Another factor was the use of the tagline, "The Comedy That Conquered Britain." We see that not only is it a gangster film but it is mixed with Comedy as well. One shouldn't expect over all seriousness that classic gangster movies entail. Some of the scenes chosen in the trailer prove the theory that it is a comedy movie. The clip of Jason Statham balancing cigars in his ears, mouth and on top of his head. Also the final bit when Big Chris and Little Chris were in the car and Big Chris was giving him instructions to what they should do about counting money and finding the guns and then he told Little Chris to put on his seat belt. Finally the gangster movie is made evident through the various typical gangster conventions portrayed in the trailer, for example the gambling, the money, the various groups of people portrayed as gangs and the use of guns and bullets. All these conventions have been isolated as things that we would expect to see in a gangster film. Evidence of this can be taken from other gangster movies such as Scarface. Money is always a key objective for the gangs to obtain by any means necessary that is through violence, this shown through the use of arms such as the shot guns mentioned in the title of the film (Two Smoking Barrels) that is a double barrel shot gun.
There are three movie posters that came with this film, each of them have differences and similarities which can be used to asses the genre of the film.
the First poster has all main four protagonists on it with different facial expressions and props. The first man, has a nervous look on his face, this could be used to make relevance of the comedic element as his facial expression is quite humorous, one may wonder what he has gotten him self into. The second man is holding a stack of cards, this can be linked to gambling and it connects to the tag line, "they lost half a million in cards, but they still have a few tricks up their sleeve." Also gambling is one of the conventions of gangster films. The third man, is holding a stack of money most likely representing the money mentioned in the tagline. Money is also a convention of Gangster films as a main objective and the final man is carrying the shot gun representing the convention of violence and also the guns mentioned in the title.
The second poster is simpler. It has an animated image of a double barrelled shot gun with a finger on the trigger representing violence and connected to the film title. It also has the four protagonists on top of the barrels, one of which is carrying a duffel bag. From my own knowledge I know that on the streets, people in gangs used duffel bags to carry large sums of money. After watching the film it was made evident that the duffel bag was what the four men used to carry the money that they had stolen. In this poster the tagline is "A disgrace to criminals everywhere" this gives the audience an idea that the main protagonists in the film are not all that they are cracked up to be, it makes the audience wonder whether or not they are hardened criminals like the average gangster.
The final poster has two of the main protagonists on it and one of the other main characters, Big Chris played by Vinnie Jones a famous british football player. He is well known for his role in different films but mainly for his football career. His role in the poster I believe is to appeal to a wider audience of football fans, more so British nationals. Again, just like the other posters the two double barrel shot guns are shown representing the two smoking barrels in the title.
The tag line in this poster is a quote from a british magazine which reads "The years best british movie mixes the authenticity of a long black friday with the jet black humour of Reservoir Dogs, and the intricately plotted wit of the italian job, one of the funniest films I have seen in years." There were a few key words highlighted in the tag line these are Best British Movie and The Funniest Film. This suggests to the audience that it is a British Film and it suggests large amounts of comedic elements which is unconventional for a gangster movie.
Monday 11 November 2013
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock stock and to smoking barrels is a movie mainly about four friends Tom, Eddie, Bacon and Soap. who invest money in a high stakes game of black jack hosted by a gangster named Harry aided by Barry aka Barry the Baptist. Eddie is opted to play the game because he is their ace in the hole he has the ability to read peoples expression which makes him ideal for the game. Harry is informed of this and he installs a camera in the building to see Eddies cards. Harry ends up winning the game putting Eddie and his friends in debt with Harry who give them three days to give him back his money. Eddie and his friend are threatened by Barry who says he will cut off their fingers and toes for everyday that goes by without the payment and if that doesn't work he will kill his dad and destroy his pub. Meanwhile Harry put the debt collecting duties in the hands of his most trusted and ruthless debt collector Big Chris who is always accompanied by this prodigy and son Little Chris.
A few days pass, and the boys still have no plans to pay back the money. Eddie over hears his neighbours planning a heist involving marijuana and just enough money to pay back Harry with, he tells his friends and they make a plan to rob the robbers. Tom acquires a pair of two double barrel antique shot guns from Nick the Greek. Who had earlier made a deal about purchasing Marijuana from Rory, another Gangster and a well known Sociopath.
Harry had hired two lower level criminals name Gary and Dean to rob a bankrupt millionaire of two antique double barrel shot guns before the card game. These guns were worth millions of pounds. However Gary and Dean for their own benefit sold the guns to Nick and where later threatened by Barry to get them back.
Dog is a leader of a small group of thieves who is very violent, he learnt his information about the Marijuana and the chemists from one of their friends. Even though the heist didn't go exactly according to plan, they were able to acquire the marijuana and a large amount of money from the chemists. On returning back to their hide out they were ambushed by Eddie and his gang who left them tied up in their own apartment and departed with the marijuana and the money.
The story begins to come together when Rory discovers that his chemists have been robbed, he interrogates Nick and uses him to find the people that robbed his chemists. Meanwhile Dog, furious with what had just happened to him, throws one of his partners through the wall and discovers that his stash was being hidden in the room right next to them. At around the same time Rory and his men are on there way to take back what he believes is rightfully his.
There is a shoot out and everyone perishes but Dog and the Lone Chemist. Meanwhile Big Chris and little Chris are on their way to collect Harry's debt and Eddie and the boys are on their way home from the pub. As they enter the house they see all the Carnage, and realise that both the money and the guns are gone. Big Chris gives the guns and the money to Harry and upon returning to his car, he finds Dog holding a knife to the neck of little Chris. Meanwhile Gary and Dean return to Harrys office and it ends up in a shootout with all of them dead including Barry the Baptist, by this time the four boys were on their way to Harry's to ask for more time, but as Eddie and Tom enter Harrys office, they again stumble upon the carnage. Eddie takes the money but Tom stays behind with the guns.
With Nick and Little Chris still in the car Big Chris crashes into Eddies car and kills Dog by smashing his head into the car door. He inspects the car that he crashed and takes the money from the boys. He goes into the house and sees Tom surrounded by corpses with two short guns in arms. Big Chris respects the situation and takes his son away with the money.
The remaining friends are arrested and with no ties to the crime are let go, however Tom still has the shot guns and the others ask him to get rid of them. Big Chris returns an empty duffle bag and a book which shows the boys how the much the guns were worth, desperate attempts to get a hold of Tom. The film ends with Tom hanging over the Thames with his ringing phone in his mouth and the shot guns in hand.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had a multi strand narrative this means that there was more than one story intertwined with in the film. The main story was the story of Eddie and his gang being in debt and trying to get the money back to Harry, while he is fixated on acquiring the antique shot guns. Also in the mix of everything Dog is planning a heist which upsets Rory the sociopathic gangster. This technique is usually used to keep the audiences attention, by telling other stories leading up to one final dramatic showdown the audiences interest is peaked because they wish to know what will befall of the various characters.
The film possesses an alternative narrative structure, this means that the events that transpired with in the film were in order leading up to the conclusion. In the beginning we see the boys putting together the money, followed by the card game, then the plan to interrupt the heist, Tom getting the guns, the heist and the robbery, followed by them collecting their money and attempting to return it to Harry which is were the beginning of the end happened. The only thing that corrupted the main story was the small stories mixed in with the main plot which where established as part of the multi strand narrative which is a technique commonly used in soap operas.
I would say that the film is an enigma because of the open ending. The entire film I was expecting them to pay off the debt or to get away with the money. But as Big Chris took the money I thought it would just end there but they found out the true value of the guns which they had asked Tom to throw away so the audience is left wondering how it really ends, whether Tom answers his phone, if he drops the guns or not et cetera.
There are a lot of counter actions that stop the protagonists from reaching their goal. In the beginning its Harry and Barry cheating in the Black Jack game, Big Chris is one of the main counter actions that they face in the film. He maintains the balance of the story line and allows the movie to continue because every time they boys are close to reaching their goal Big Chris is in the way. This is known as the Equilibrium.
Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels had a good climax, it maintained the audiences suspense the entire time, it kept them guessing about what would happen next. Every time an event would transpire it would build up to an even better moment in the film.
Through the various techniques and conventions used in the film I discovered that Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a ultimately a gangster movie with comedy as its sub genre. The gangster genre is noted through the various conventions such as gangs, guns, drugs, women, rivalry, money and gambling and organised crime. I compared the film to Scarface there are a lot of conventions they have in common. For example the use of drugs as a source of income, having someone to maintain the natural order of the organised crime division, Lock Stock had Barry and Scarface has Sosa. Some of the way they represented women in Lock Stock and Scarface was similar. The use of guns, part of Lock Stock is centred around the two antiquities and the movie has very many scenes involving shoot outs just like Scarface had, although the ones in Scarface were more explicit. Finally the violence and overall content in terms of language, nudity and the various massacres.
All these conventions are what defines majority of the gangster films that are in existence.
The comedy element of the film is something which it doesn't share with Scarface. Gangster movies are usually to be taken seriously, they may have a few witty elements inside them but it is unconventional to have the two genres mixed together. Some of the comedic elements that we see in Lock Stock include the low level robbers Gary and Dean, some of the things that happen to them and the way they react to them may seem funny to the audience, for example when Gary had his hair shot off.
There are various ways by which men and women are represented in the film, for example the three women in the film, the first one was the old woman at the Black Jack game, she was a strong figure head evidently used to dealing with gangsters but she doesn't take any nonsense from any of them. The second woman was the woman that was with the chemists she seemed in over her head just an average junkie, she never had any dialogue so and she was weak but courageous in a stupid way. Finally the sexual objectifying stripper, which was in the club when Barry was talking to Dean and Gary, she was just used as a sexual object to peak the interest of the initial target audience.
Males are represented as strong individuals with a keen eye for business, they a money oriented and determined. All of these elements are seen in nearly all the main characters in the film.
In terms of target audience I believe that they age group is 18+ this is because of the overall explicit nature of the movie, mainly the language and the violence. The gender it is targeted to is males this is simply because of the content and the way which they have represented males as the strong independent masculine type in the film. In terms of ethnicity, I feel that the film is for mainly black and white people because they had a strong male black British lead as well as all the other Caucasian leads in the film. Nationality wise I feel that the film is particularly for British people, this is because of the nature of the film, the comedic elements are British, most people who aren't British nationals wouldn't understand the wit behind the jokes or the cockney slang in some of the speech or the nature of the imbalance between Northerners and Southerners.
As regards to the violent nature of the film, I found it tolerable, the only exceedingly violent scene was when Big Chris killed Dog and even that in my opinion was some what justified and in terms of camera operations enjoyable due to the point of view shot that they used for it. Other wise the movie wasn't as violent as Scarface or City of God. I found it enjoyable, I really liked the film minus the open ending.
A few days pass, and the boys still have no plans to pay back the money. Eddie over hears his neighbours planning a heist involving marijuana and just enough money to pay back Harry with, he tells his friends and they make a plan to rob the robbers. Tom acquires a pair of two double barrel antique shot guns from Nick the Greek. Who had earlier made a deal about purchasing Marijuana from Rory, another Gangster and a well known Sociopath.
Harry had hired two lower level criminals name Gary and Dean to rob a bankrupt millionaire of two antique double barrel shot guns before the card game. These guns were worth millions of pounds. However Gary and Dean for their own benefit sold the guns to Nick and where later threatened by Barry to get them back.
Dog is a leader of a small group of thieves who is very violent, he learnt his information about the Marijuana and the chemists from one of their friends. Even though the heist didn't go exactly according to plan, they were able to acquire the marijuana and a large amount of money from the chemists. On returning back to their hide out they were ambushed by Eddie and his gang who left them tied up in their own apartment and departed with the marijuana and the money.
The story begins to come together when Rory discovers that his chemists have been robbed, he interrogates Nick and uses him to find the people that robbed his chemists. Meanwhile Dog, furious with what had just happened to him, throws one of his partners through the wall and discovers that his stash was being hidden in the room right next to them. At around the same time Rory and his men are on there way to take back what he believes is rightfully his.
There is a shoot out and everyone perishes but Dog and the Lone Chemist. Meanwhile Big Chris and little Chris are on their way to collect Harry's debt and Eddie and the boys are on their way home from the pub. As they enter the house they see all the Carnage, and realise that both the money and the guns are gone. Big Chris gives the guns and the money to Harry and upon returning to his car, he finds Dog holding a knife to the neck of little Chris. Meanwhile Gary and Dean return to Harrys office and it ends up in a shootout with all of them dead including Barry the Baptist, by this time the four boys were on their way to Harry's to ask for more time, but as Eddie and Tom enter Harrys office, they again stumble upon the carnage. Eddie takes the money but Tom stays behind with the guns.
With Nick and Little Chris still in the car Big Chris crashes into Eddies car and kills Dog by smashing his head into the car door. He inspects the car that he crashed and takes the money from the boys. He goes into the house and sees Tom surrounded by corpses with two short guns in arms. Big Chris respects the situation and takes his son away with the money.
The remaining friends are arrested and with no ties to the crime are let go, however Tom still has the shot guns and the others ask him to get rid of them. Big Chris returns an empty duffle bag and a book which shows the boys how the much the guns were worth, desperate attempts to get a hold of Tom. The film ends with Tom hanging over the Thames with his ringing phone in his mouth and the shot guns in hand.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had a multi strand narrative this means that there was more than one story intertwined with in the film. The main story was the story of Eddie and his gang being in debt and trying to get the money back to Harry, while he is fixated on acquiring the antique shot guns. Also in the mix of everything Dog is planning a heist which upsets Rory the sociopathic gangster. This technique is usually used to keep the audiences attention, by telling other stories leading up to one final dramatic showdown the audiences interest is peaked because they wish to know what will befall of the various characters.
The film possesses an alternative narrative structure, this means that the events that transpired with in the film were in order leading up to the conclusion. In the beginning we see the boys putting together the money, followed by the card game, then the plan to interrupt the heist, Tom getting the guns, the heist and the robbery, followed by them collecting their money and attempting to return it to Harry which is were the beginning of the end happened. The only thing that corrupted the main story was the small stories mixed in with the main plot which where established as part of the multi strand narrative which is a technique commonly used in soap operas.
I would say that the film is an enigma because of the open ending. The entire film I was expecting them to pay off the debt or to get away with the money. But as Big Chris took the money I thought it would just end there but they found out the true value of the guns which they had asked Tom to throw away so the audience is left wondering how it really ends, whether Tom answers his phone, if he drops the guns or not et cetera.
There are a lot of counter actions that stop the protagonists from reaching their goal. In the beginning its Harry and Barry cheating in the Black Jack game, Big Chris is one of the main counter actions that they face in the film. He maintains the balance of the story line and allows the movie to continue because every time they boys are close to reaching their goal Big Chris is in the way. This is known as the Equilibrium.
Lock Stock and Two smoking barrels had a good climax, it maintained the audiences suspense the entire time, it kept them guessing about what would happen next. Every time an event would transpire it would build up to an even better moment in the film.
Through the various techniques and conventions used in the film I discovered that Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a ultimately a gangster movie with comedy as its sub genre. The gangster genre is noted through the various conventions such as gangs, guns, drugs, women, rivalry, money and gambling and organised crime. I compared the film to Scarface there are a lot of conventions they have in common. For example the use of drugs as a source of income, having someone to maintain the natural order of the organised crime division, Lock Stock had Barry and Scarface has Sosa. Some of the way they represented women in Lock Stock and Scarface was similar. The use of guns, part of Lock Stock is centred around the two antiquities and the movie has very many scenes involving shoot outs just like Scarface had, although the ones in Scarface were more explicit. Finally the violence and overall content in terms of language, nudity and the various massacres.
All these conventions are what defines majority of the gangster films that are in existence.
The comedy element of the film is something which it doesn't share with Scarface. Gangster movies are usually to be taken seriously, they may have a few witty elements inside them but it is unconventional to have the two genres mixed together. Some of the comedic elements that we see in Lock Stock include the low level robbers Gary and Dean, some of the things that happen to them and the way they react to them may seem funny to the audience, for example when Gary had his hair shot off.
There are various ways by which men and women are represented in the film, for example the three women in the film, the first one was the old woman at the Black Jack game, she was a strong figure head evidently used to dealing with gangsters but she doesn't take any nonsense from any of them. The second woman was the woman that was with the chemists she seemed in over her head just an average junkie, she never had any dialogue so and she was weak but courageous in a stupid way. Finally the sexual objectifying stripper, which was in the club when Barry was talking to Dean and Gary, she was just used as a sexual object to peak the interest of the initial target audience.
Males are represented as strong individuals with a keen eye for business, they a money oriented and determined. All of these elements are seen in nearly all the main characters in the film.
In terms of target audience I believe that they age group is 18+ this is because of the overall explicit nature of the movie, mainly the language and the violence. The gender it is targeted to is males this is simply because of the content and the way which they have represented males as the strong independent masculine type in the film. In terms of ethnicity, I feel that the film is for mainly black and white people because they had a strong male black British lead as well as all the other Caucasian leads in the film. Nationality wise I feel that the film is particularly for British people, this is because of the nature of the film, the comedic elements are British, most people who aren't British nationals wouldn't understand the wit behind the jokes or the cockney slang in some of the speech or the nature of the imbalance between Northerners and Southerners.
As regards to the violent nature of the film, I found it tolerable, the only exceedingly violent scene was when Big Chris killed Dog and even that in my opinion was some what justified and in terms of camera operations enjoyable due to the point of view shot that they used for it. Other wise the movie wasn't as violent as Scarface or City of God. I found it enjoyable, I really liked the film minus the open ending.
Thursday 7 November 2013
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