How did Guy Ritchie shoot “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?”

In the 90s, Guy Ritchie already had some experience in directing commercials, but everyone did not reach the full meter. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was originally conceived as a short film. However, gradually the story of the adventures of the four guys acquired more and more new details, both comic and dramatic.

Raise money at poker

At first, Richie hoped that he would have a ready-made plot, since the director himself is not a master of narrative. However, nothing suitable that could be transformed into a script was never found. Then Richie took as a basis the crime chronicle and the stories of friends.

The plot is quite simple – a company of young people decides to cut money off playing poker. Solving all their problems with the help of gambling is generally quite a popular idea among those who are broke. Let’s remember, for example, “Lola rent”. Wanting to get everything at once (and roughly this means the title of the film, which is practically an idiom), the guys end up on a large sum, forgetting about the main principle: gambling is for entertainment, not for making money. And if they went to casino where a lot of ways to get around gamstop, and not to an illegal underground club, then nothing would have happened. But then cinema would have lost one of the main masterpieces of the criminal genre.

One of Richie’s findings is several storylines that not only develop in parallel, but also influence other events. Like Tarantino, Richie pays a lot of attention to dialogues, which, although they do not move the story in any way, help to recreate the world of criminal London. The language is given a special role, it is precisely because of the dialects that this movie is so difficult to watch in the original for a foreigner.

Budget problems

The draft of the film was ready in 6 months, after which the creator began to raise funds. At first everything seemed to be going smoothly, but most of the investors withdrew. Therefore, instead of the required seven million, it was possible to collect only $ 800 thousand. To get out of the way, the director invited unknown actors and non-professionals to lead and minor roles. Perhaps it was the lack of a stellar cast that helped attract extremely bright personalities.

Thanks to the film, the audience recognized Jason Statham, at that time an athlete who did not disdain part-time work as a merchant. It is his ability to chatter is demonstrated in the first frames. Bouncers, boxers and footballers were the best suited to the role of gangsters and mafiosi. Most of the cast have ever had real trouble with the law, which is why the film looks as believable as possible. What are only Vinnie Jones and Lenny McLean.

Mood and atmosphere

The wrong side of London is shown very vividly, because the locations were operating bars, outskirts, hot spots, pubs, markets where criminals gather. Thanks to a special director’s vision, the London bottom has received a peculiar aesthetics.

Richie approached the construction of the picture scrupulously. He knew exactly how the movie should look, which episode followed which, from what angle the slums should be filmed. The apparent negligence in reality is carefully thought out, the director presented the viewer with clip aesthetics and living imperfection.

The atmosphere in the picture plays a crucial role, while not at the expense of the production and replicas. The ability to work with light evokes the desired emotion in the viewer. Gloomy retro is conveyed using sepia, in some shots there are lighting from below, for example, in the bar of Sting’s hero.

One of the main loss scenes was shot in close-up from below using the camera attached to the actor. The shaking frame looks as alive as possible and conveys the shock of the hero, who will now have to repay the gangster’s debt.

The dark side of Britain is shown most reliably, but gambling is not necessarily crime and risk. For example, in casino, you can have a pleasant time, experiencing excitement and not owing anyone, since this is basically impossible. You can feel the adrenaline without getting caught up in dangerous troubles. In addition, there is a huge selection of slots on licensed devices, so you can choose entertainment to your taste.