Over Fragmenten.blog

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Welkom op Fragmenten uit het Schemerland, mijn persoonlijke website en content-verzameling. Je vindt hier veel artikelen over films en series in de FilmDungeon. Ook vind je op deze site mijn achtergrondverhaal, een selectie van mijn professionele werk, en een groeiende collectie blogs – fragmenten genaamd – over uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Veel leesplezier en bedankt voor het bezoeken van mijn blog!

— Jeppe Kleijngeld

PS: Bezoek ook eens mijn andere website over bewustzijn en mijn visie op de ware aard van het universum:

20. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Guy Ritchie’s low-budget 1998 feature debut is a supremely entertaining reinvention of the British gangster genre, establishing his signature style: sharp humor, crackling Cockney dialogue, stylized violence, and a deceptively simple plot that spirals into chaos through a parade of memorable characters.

Add to that Ritchie’s trademark music video style camera and editing tricks, paired with a killer soundtrack of soul, funk, and rock classics, and you’ve got a true cult masterpiece on your hands.

In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, four lifelong friends pool together 100,000 pounds so their poker prodigy Eddy can enter a high-stakes game hosted by Harry Lonsdale – porn king and ruthless crime boss. The plan backfires spectacularly when Harry cheats, leaving them on the hook for 500,000 quid. With just a week to pay up, or else face the wrath of Harry’s enforcers, Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) and Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean), the clock is ticking.

Desperate for a solution, the boys stumble upon an opportunity when they discover their next-door neighbors are a crew of thieves planning to rob a lucrative London cannabis farm. Throw in a subplot involving two antique rifles, and the result is a whirlwind of schemes, double-crosses, and dark comedy, all tangled in the gritty underbelly of London. In this world, everyone’s stealing from someone and no one’s hands stay clean.

Harry Lonsdale is played by P.H. Moriarty, a veteran of The Long Good Friday (1980) – the British gangster classic that inspired Ritchie’s vision. While much of the cast was relatively unknown at the time (save for Sting as Eddy’s father), the film served as a star-making vehicle for the likes of Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones, whose performances still resonate today.

Ritchie’s film is endlessly rewatchable – the kind of movie where you can recite every line, anticipate every quip, and still be thrilled at every sped-up camera move or perfectly timed musical cue. The Italian Job-style ending is the perfect conclusion to a film that has rightfully earned its place as a classic of the British gangster canon.

21. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Arthur Penn
Writers: David Newman, Robert Benton, Robert Towne
Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Few films have shaped the image of the outlaw couple as decisively as Bonnie and Clyde.

Set during the Great Depression, the film follows Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow as they drift from petty crime into full-blown notoriety, becoming folk legends in the process. Their crimes unfold against a backdrop of economic despair, where violence and celebrity blur into something dangerously seductive.

What sets Bonnie and Clyde apart from earlier gangster films is its tone. Rather than moralizing from a distance, the film pulls the audience uncomfortably close to its characters, inviting fascination even as their actions grow more brutal. The glamour of youth, style, and rebellion collides with sudden, shocking violence, redefining what a crime film could look and feel like in American cinema.

The film was controversial upon release, largely due to its unflinching depiction of bloodshed. Its climactic ambush remains one of the most influential endings in film history, helping usher in a new era of graphic realism that later gangster films would build upon.

Over time, outrage turned into admiration, and Bonnie and Clyde came to be recognized as a defining entry in the genre. It’s a movie that didn’t just depict crime, but changed how Hollywood portrayed it. Today, it stands as a cornerstone of the classic gangster film: stylish, violent, morally ambiguous, and endlessly influential.

22. The Irishman (2019)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Charles Brandt (book)
Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

This 3,5 hours epic marks the welcome return of the master Scorsese to the genre he does best. And with two of his favorite actors, the magnificent Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Throw in legend Al Pacino and you have an irresistible team on your hands.

The Irishman takes some getting into; this is a different beast than GoodFellas and Casino. Slower, more contemplative, but nevertheless featuring Scorsese’s trademark moments of humor and violence. It is the perfect retirement feature for this legendary cast, who are made young again with de-aging technology and get to live through several decades of mob history.

The story revolves around WW2 veteran Frank Sheeran (De Niro) who becomes a killer for the very controlled mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci in a role that is the polar opposite of his explosive GoodFellas and Casino characters). Sheeran later becomes bodyguard and enforcer for Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) who becomes his best friend.

Although the story is not very spectacular nor surprising (we already know what will happen to Hoffa for example) its direction is nearly flawless. Every wonderful frame and edit is brimming with meaning, even if we usually have to work out what that meaning is for ourselves.

One of the main themes is looking back at one’s life and regretting certain actions. In the case of Sheeran a major betrayal. And if you’re one of the few mobsters to actually survive (every mob character gets a title card detailing how he eventually got whacked) you might end up as a very sad old man in prison.

It is fitting for Scorsese (75 at the time of shooting) to approach the gangster life from this angle this time around. But unlike Sheeran, he ain’t got nothing to be embarrassed about. The Irishman is one for the ages.

23. Point Blank (1967)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: John Boorman
Writers: Alexander Jacobs (screenplay), David Newhouse (screenplay), Rafe Newhouse (screenplay), Donald E. Westlake (novel ‘The Hunter’) (as Richard Stark)
Stars: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Is it a dream or is it really happening? Walker (a brutal and gritty Lee Marvin) is shot and left for dead in an abandoned Alcatraz by his criminal partner Mal Reese and his wife Lynne after a job.

He survives and goes after Reese who used the money to buy his way back into the Organisation, a crime syndicate. The rest of the film is a revenge trip in which Walker chews his way through the Organisation’s operators to get his money back. Walker is helped by Chris (Angie Dickinson), the sister of his wife who killed herself after Walker returned.

The script is based on the novel ‘The Hunter’ by Richard Stark, which was also adapted in 1999 as Payback which starred Mel Gibson. That movie was good, but this is the superior film.

Boorman departs from genre conventions and adds surrealism and avant-garde stylistics, which makes this appear as a European style crime thriller. Viewers and critics have often questioned whether or not the film is really a dream – or perhaps Walker is actually dead and the film is the perspective of his angry ghost seeking bitter vengeance from beyond the grave?

Another interpretation by director Boorman is that the film is about Lee Marvin’s brutalizing experiences in World War II, which dehumanized him and left him searching desperately for a sense of self.

Marvin is effective in his gorilla-like manners, but a bit clunky at times. Jane Dickinson is very good in the crucial role of Chris.

At the time of its release, Point Blank was considered shockingly violent, though its impact has softened in an era accustomed to more explicit depictions of brutality. Still, its psychological depth and atmospheric tension remain undiminished ensuring the film’s status as a cult classic.