Snatch. (2000)

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Director:

Guy Ritchie

Writer:

Guy Ritchie

Stars:

Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, Brad Pitt

Top 250 #109 | 4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Benicio Del Toro	...	Franky Four Fingers
Dennis Farina	...	Cousin Avi
Vinnie Jones	...	Bullet-Tooth Tony
Brad Pitt	...	Mickey O'Neil
Rade Serbedzija	...	Boris the Blade (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Jason Statham	...	Turkish
Alan Ford	...	Brick Top
Mike Reid	...	Doug the Head
Robbie Gee	...	Vinny
Lennie James	...	Sol
Ewen Bremner	...	Mullet
Jason Flemyng	...	Darren
Ade	...	Tyrone
William Beck	...	Neil
Andy Beckwith	...	Errol

Storyline

Turkish and his close friend/accomplice Tommy get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets badly beaten by Pitt, a 'pikey' ( slang for an Irish Gypsy)- who comes into the equation after Turkish, an unlicensed boxing promoter wants to buy a caravan off the Irish Gypsies. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog!

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Plot Keywords:

diamond | boxing | fight | gypsy | boxer | 

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Taglines:

Now you see it, now you don't!

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language and some nudity

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

19 January 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Diamonds

Filming Locations:

Bethnal Green Town Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$27,932 (USA) (8 December 2000)

Gross:

$30,093,107 (USA) (9 March 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, SKA Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the final scene, the 86-carat diamond is referred to as an 84-carat diamond.

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Goofs

When Lincoln is talking to Sol in the shop about his diamond, he has his finger on his forehead in the surveillance camera, but in the next shot, his hand is not on his head.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Turkish: [narrating] My name is Turkish. Funny name for an Englishman, I know. My parents to be were on the same plane when it crashed. That's how they met. They named me after the name of the plane. Not many people are named after a plane crash. That's Tommy. He tells people he was named after a gun, but I know he was really named after a famous 19th century ballet dancer.

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Crazy Credits

In the closing credits, "Gypsy kids" is misspelled "Gyspy kids."

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Connections

Featured in Great Movie Mistakes (2010)

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Soundtracks

"KOSHA NOSTRA THEME"
(uncredited)
Written by John Murphy & Daniel L. Griffiths

User Reviews

There are few films that can make me laugh like this one can

`Snatch', written and directed by Guy Ritchie is by far one of my favorite films of all time – it is easily in my personal Top Thirty. In the film, about (what else?) several schemes that happen to go very wrong yet manage to intertwine and (for better or worse) resolve themselves in the end, Ritchie assembles one of the funniest cast of characters in recent memory. Let's see if we can keep this straight:

Turkish (Jason Statham) and his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) are amateur boxing promoters who, after their premier fighter is wounded, have to find a replacement to fight, or one of the meanest guys in London, Brick Top (Alan Ford), who just happens to run the boxing matches and stands to make a lot of money off of the fight is going to impart his unique brand of justice on them. Enter Mickey (Brad Pitt) the gypsy who knocked their fighter out, who is an unintelligible drunk with quite a right hook. Meanwhile, there is a diamond `the size of a fist' that has been stolen by Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro). On his way back from London to America where he is planning on fencing the diamond, trouble ensues, and his fence, Cousin Avi (Dennis Farina) is forced to come to London to find both Franky and the diamond with the help of characters like Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones) and Doug `The Head' Denovitz (Mike Reid). Of course, this can't happen easily, as there are a trio of inept thieves on the trail of the diamond as well as my personal favorite character in the film, Boris `The Blade' Yurinov (Rade Serbedzija) – or as he's better known, `Boris the Bullet Dodger'.

Did you get all that? The performances by all of the above actors, and several more that I didn't even mention are all really good, particularly Brad Pitt's. Every single actor in `Snatch' looks like they are having one hell of a good time working in the film. This story, while complex and with many ramifications from the core plot is absolutely brilliant and a lot of fun. There are many one-liners that I still personally use four years after first seeing the film, and the intricate weaving of the characters to tell a very simple heist story is just SO good. `Snatch' would be a great film due to its story alone, but Guy Ritchie's direction is so dead on, the film transcends brilliant and becomes FAN-insert your choice of expletive here-TASTIC. The slick cinematography, lightning-fast pacing and fun camera angles are right on target with the story. Add on a great soundtrack that spans Oasis, techno and a traditional-sounding Hasidic song and Ritchie has presented the viewer with an instant classic.

While this was not the first time I had seen the film `Snatch', it was the first time I'd watched the film knowing that I would have to analyze it slightly in order to funnel my thoughts from the film just being `Phenomenal!' to `Phenomenal because…..' While I can certainly be classified as an unabashed Madonna fan, and have been for the last two decades, I REALLY hope that Ritchie decides to drop his wife from his film work and not continue on the `Swept Away' path, rather, to get back to the work that has earned him well-deserved high praise. Sorry Madge.

--Shelly