‘You had to fall asleep wrapped around her beautiful, beating heart...’
It’s a tough ask to expect an audience to sit with a film in which the protagonist is a detestable piece of shit all the way through. While not every film needs to be sunshine and rainbows, unrelenting nihilism without a shred of warmth is a bitter pill to swallow. Gangster No. 1 is a brutally effective film but it is an unpleasant viewing experience…
We follow the rise and fall of an unnamed East End gangster (portrayed by Malcolm McDowell in later life and voice-over and by Paul Bettany as a younger man) through the swinging sixties to the end of the ’90s. While times change, our protagonist remains the same. Violent, tyrannical, alone. Elsewhere, David Thewlis stars as crime lord Freddie Mays with Saffron Burrows also appearing as a tough gangster’s moll. There are also supporting roles for Eddie Marsan, Andrew Lincoln and Jamie Foreman.
While both Bettany and McDowell are compelling, the latter could be playing a grown-up version of Alex DeLarge, the character is so hateful that it’s difficult to spend 100 minutes in his company. There is nobody to root for here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does mean that it can be quite a joyless film. Despite being based on a stage play, Gangster No. 1 is a cinematic movie. Director Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin) uses smash cuts, montage and canny lighting to symbolise our protagonist’s crumbling state of mind. When combined, the end result is a stylish and unique film that is a world away from many of the films within this genre that were being made around the same time. Football Factory this ain’t.
Gangster No. 1 may have a derivative title, but it’s closer to the dark realism of Sexy Beast than the violence-glorifying slapstick of Snatch or Lock, Stock. A difficult film to enjoy but an effective one nevertheless.