It's not who you know, it's who you kill.
The setting is London's Soho in the 1970s, and Gangster (Paul Bettany) comes to work for Freddie Mays (David Thewlis), The Butcher of Mayfair, and he's enjoying the job. He likes the money, the girls, the suits, the power and the violence. He frightens people and he's going to frighten Freddie Mays.
When rival gang boss Lennie Taylor (Jamie Forman) hatches a plot to kill Freddie and take over his territory, Gangster finds out about it and puts together a plan that will take out Lennie and Freddie at the same time. With Lennie dead and Freddie inside, Gangster finds himself alone at the top with only one way to go. The story of a deadly battle of wills played out by a gangland leader and a young man who emulates him to the point of psychosis and beyond.
It is brutal, savage, compelling and utterly unmissable.
Special Agent Matti
Richard Number Three.
The plot is so similar to William Shakespeare's Richard III that he should be given a credit: pretender to the throne takes out the king in a coup of unparalleled violence, only to become haunted by the crimes he has committed and the ghosts of his victims.
Not that potential plagiarism lawsuits should stop you from seeing Gangster Number One because it's a hard-talking, hard-hitting, hard-bitten crim flick somewhere to the right of, say, A clockwork orange. It has that irreducible British talent for making ultra-violence seem everyday. You will, of course, already be aware that Malcolm played the hoon from hell, Alex Delarge, in that film. Paul picks up exactly where Malcolm left off, bringing you a most awesomely frightening young man with none of those restricting frailties like morals and ethics.
Some very interesting parts of the film are
You want violence? You want gangster chic? You want East End boys? You want crime? You want Lock, stock and two smoking barrels without the happy ending? Here it is.
MA 15+ (High level coarse language, high level violence)
96 minutes (1:36 hours)
DVD rental: 1 August 2001