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Gangster Number One (Gangster #1; Gangster No. 1) - Paul Bettany, Davis Thewlis, Malcolm McDowell, Paul McGuigan

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

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.

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film UK crime gang lord boss territory violence power seventies

Persons of interest

Malcolm McDowell .... Gangster 55
David Thewlis .... Freddie Mays
Paul Bettany .... Young Gangster
Saffron Burrows .... Karen
Kenneth Cranham .... Tommy
Jamie Foreman .... Lennie Taylor
Eddie Marsan .... Eddie Miller
Andrew Lincoln .... Maxie King
Doug Allen .... Mad John
Razaaq Adoti .... Roland
Cavan Clerkin .... Billy
David Kennedy .... Fat Charlie
Johnny Harris .... Derek
Anton Valensi .... Trevor
Louis Mellis .... Playwright
David Scinto .... Playwright
Johnny Ferguson .... Screenwriter
Paul McGuigan .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Awards and film festivals:

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2006: Focus on British film (2000-2005)
Los Angeles Film Festival 2000: Vision award in cinematography

Studios and distributors:

Sony Pictures Releasing

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

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

the lists: reciting words like sparks from memory, building up to an inferno of irresistible mayhem - the attack on Lennie Forman is chilling and thrilling;
the 1970s: not only are the times reproduced on screen, but some of the tricks and styles are, too. Split screens, broken images, low-quality film stock, stark lighting - it's cool;
the blood: it's orange.

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.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Audio: Dolby 5.1
Disc: single side, single layer
Picture: Widescreen (1.85:1/16:9 enhanced)
Languages: English, Spanish, Russian
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Greek, French, Polish, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Hindi, Hebrew, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Arabic, Portuguese
Behind-the-scenes featurette
Original movie trailers
TV spots
Bonus movie trailers
Picture disc