Gangster No. 1
Encyclopedia
Gangster No. 1 is a 2000 British crime film. It stars Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...

, David Thewlis
David Thewlis
David Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...

 and Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...

 and was directed by Paul McGuigan
Paul McGuigan (filmmaker)
Paul McGuigan is a film director, best known for directing films such as Lucky Number Slevin and Push. He has also directed episodes of Sherlock and Monroe.-Filmography:-Awards:...

.

Cast

  • Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...

     as Gangster 55
  • David Thewlis
    David Thewlis
    David Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...

     as Freddie Mays
  • Paul Bettany
    Paul Bettany
    Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...

     as Young Gangster
  • Saffron Burrows
    Saffron Burrows
    Saffron Dominique Burrows is an English actress and former fashion model, who starred as Det. Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal.-Early life:...

     as Karen
  • Kenneth Cranham
    Kenneth Cranham
    Kenneth Cranham is a film, television and stage actor. He starred in the title role in the popular 1980s comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon. He also appeared in Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1, Rome, Oliver! and many other films. He is probably best known to horror genre fans as the deranged Dr...

     as Tommy
  • Jamie Foreman
    Jamie Foreman
    Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...

     as Lennie Taylor
  • Eddie Marsan
    Eddie Marsan
    Edward Maurice C. "Eddie" Marsan is an English actor.-Early life:Marsan was born in Stepney, London to a working class family; his father was a lorry driver and his mother a school dinner lady and teacher's assistant...

     as Eddie Miller
  • Andrew Lincoln
    Andrew Lincoln
    Andrew Lincoln is an English actor, known for his roles in the TV series This Life, Teachers and Afterlife, and the films Love Actually and Heartbreaker...

     as Maxie King

Plot

The film opens with an unnamed, veteran British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 gangster (McDowell) attending a boxing match. Upon hearing the name of Freddie Mays in the conversation, he becomes upset and leaves without a word. He then enters a toilet and sets his glass of champagne on the floor near the urinal. As he urinates, some of his urine splashes into the glass. He picks it up and stops just as he's about to drink from it, looks to the camera and says, "What do you take me for, a cunt
Cunt
Cunt is a vulgarism, primarily referring to the female genitalia, specifically the vulva, and including the cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the 1972 Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropecunt Lane...

?"

The film then flashes back to the 1960s, with a younger Gangster (Bettany). He comes to the attention of a very influential London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 gangster, Freddie Mays (Thewlis), who recruits him to be an enforcer for his gang. The Gangster is eager to please, and proves his loyalty to Mays by enthusiastically dropping a car onto a mechanic's head after the mechanic attempts to stab Mays.

The Gangster quickly becomes obsessed with Mays' glamorous lifestyle and success, ogling his expensive suits, his watch, and in particular his tie-pin. The Gangster's obsession becomes more intense, to the point of wanting to be Mays, even picturing himself sitting in Mays' place.

The Gangster soon discovers that Mays' main rival, Lenny Taylor (Jamie Foreman
Jamie Foreman
Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...

), is planning on killing Mays. Instead of warning his boss, the Gangster decides to let the attack take place, even killing a member of his own gang who was set on going straight to Mays. The attack goes on as planned, and the Gangster sits in a car nearby to watch as the assassins gun Mays down and cut his fiancée Karen's (Saffron Burrows
Saffron Burrows
Saffron Dominique Burrows is an English actress and former fashion model, who starred as Det. Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal.-Early life:...

) neck.

That same night, the Gangster shoots Lenny in the leg, and then calmly turns up the Hi-Fi to drown the resulting screams and removes his suit to avoid any ill effects of what he's about to do. The Gangster torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

s Lenny with a wine bottle, an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...

, an ice pick, a machete and a fruit bowl, all amid a constant stream of kicks and verbal abuse. He finally kills Taylor by ramming his head through a pane of glass fronting a drinks cabinet, then smokes a cigarette in his blood-stained underwear while continuing to curse at his victim's corpse. Most of the scene is shown from Taylor's point-of-view, with images and sounds fading in and out as the victim moves in and out of consciousness and slowly dies.

To the Gangster's surprise, Mays and Karen do not die in the attack. However, Mays is unjustly convicted of Taylor's murder and sent to prison for 30 years, with a minimum of 25.

With Mays locked up and out of the way, the Gangster consolidates his power over the city's underworld. In the intervening years, he organizes a bank heist, runs a casino, fixes horse races, and builds his gang to 300 men strong. At this point, the film returns to 1999, with the Gangster once again portrayed by McDowell.

Mays comes out of prison a changed man, holding a bachelor of arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree. The Gangster is ready for a battle, but Mays seemingly has no fight left in him, wanting only to marry Karen and retire in peace. He tells the Gangster that he is welcome to the London underworld and will not stand in his way. The Gangster is infuriated that Mays is seemingly happier with nothing than the Gangster is with everything, and threatens Mays with a gun. He then gives Mays the gun and begs him to kill him, but Mays merely smirks and leaves, saying "Who'd wanna be Freddie Mays?".

In the face of his former rival's sneering indifference, the Gangster loses his mind and ends the film standing on top of a tall block of flats in his underwear, throwing money in the air and laughing maniacally. He finally leaps off the building to his death, declaring, "I'm number one".

Critical reception

The film was met with a generally positive critical reception and currently holds a "Certified Fresh" score of 73% at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 based on 51 reviews. Critics disliked the violence present throughout the movie but praised the performances and style.

Real life references

  • Freddy Mays is based on real-life mobster Frankie Fraser
    Frankie Fraser
    Francis Davidson Fraser is a former British criminal and gang member who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences.-Early life:...

    .
  • Jamie Foreman
    Jamie Foreman
    Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...

     is the son of real-life gangster Freddie Foreman
    Freddie Foreman
    Frederick Foreman is a convicted British criminal involved in the disposal of the body Jack “the Hat” McVitie and for which he served 16 years in prison....

    .

External links

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