Tag Archives: Jack Brazil

Movement in the Films of Guy Ritchie – A Video Essay by Jack Brazil

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Video Essay: 

Creator’s Statement:

For almost 25 years, Guy Ritchie has been directing stylish feature films. Best known for his British gangster films, such as: Lock, Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), Rock n’ Rolla (2008) and The Gentlemen (2019) as well as the Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey Junior.

Ritchie is often criticised for his gonzo entertainment filmmaking and his inconsistent performance at the box office. His films have received – at best — a mixed critical reception across his careeer. As a result, Ritchie is not taken very seriously as a filmmaker.

The aim of this video essay is to demonstrate that Ritchie is very much under-appreciated as a director and has a unique style worth studying.

Richie’s stylish editing can be boiled down to the concept of a ‘fast & slow’ framework using a range of experimental formal elements (speed ramps, freeze frames, slow motion, intercutting, parallel action, and superimposition) to control the temporality of his sequences. It is Ritchie’s action scenes that best showcase this use of the framework, with careful consideration for shot length and manipulation of time through the use of editing & experimental formal elements.

Ritchie employs his framework to manipulate the passage of time in his scenes, creating pauses in action that encourage contemplation. To achieve this effect, he balances the use of a faster-than-average cutting rate with moments of stillness, seamlessly transitioning between the two speeds of cutting from one moment to the next. By leveraging this framework in tandem with his experimental formal elements, Ritchie generates a singular sense of motion and movement on screen. His meticulous attention to shot selection and average shot length (ASL) yields striking moments of spectacle and action that demonstrate his playful manipulation of film form.

 

In recent years, Ritchie has shied away from the style of action that put him on the map substituting fast and slow action for a greater focus on narrative cadence and control, with elements of action implemented throughout his films. I would like to see Ritchie return to his style of old and see more action films using the tried and tested fast and slow framework.

 

— Jack Brazil

Filmography

Lock, Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrels (1998), Dir. Guy Ritchie,Ska Films

Snatch (2000), Dir. Guy Ritchie,Ska Films, Columbia Pictures

Swept Away (2002), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Searchlight Pictures, Sony Pictures

Revolver (2005), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Lionsgate UK

Rock n’ Roller (2008), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros. Pictures

Sherlock Holmes (2009), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros. Pictures

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros. Pictures

The Man from U.N.C.L.E (2015), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros. Pictures

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros. Pictures

Aladdin (2019), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Walt Disney Pictures

The Gentlemen (2019), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Miramax

Wrath of Man (2021), Dir. Guy Ritchie, Miramax

300 (2006), Dir. Zack Snyder, Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures

Watchmen (2009), Dir. Zack Snyder, Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures

Fight Club (1999), Dir. David Fincher, Fox 2000 Pictures, 20th Century Fox

Transformers (2007), Dir. Michael Bay, Paramount Pictures

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), Dir. Matthew Vaughn, Marv Films, 20th Century Fox

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), Dir. Matthew Vaughn, Marv Films, 20th Century Fox

 

Music Videos

Hundred Mile High City, Ocean Colour Scene. 1997 Universal Island Records. Dir. Guy Ritchie

 

The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind), The Bucketheads. 1995 Henry Street Music. Dir. Guy Ritchie

 

Deep, Marusha. Low Spirit Recordings 1995. Dir. Guy Ritchie

A Real Love, CB Milton. 1996 Cloud 9 Music. Dir. Guy Ritchie

Rave Can Can, DJ Jacques O. 1996 Kontor New Media Music.  Dir. Guy Ritchie

Upside Down, Joelle. 1995 Hansa. Dir. Guy Ritchie

 

Music

The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind), The Bucketheads. 1995 Henry Street Music.

I Wanna Be Your Dog, The Stooges. 1969 Elektra/Asylum Records.

Diamond, Klint. 2000. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Payback, James Brown. 1973 Polydor Records.

Fuckin’ in the Bushes, Oasis. 2000 Big Brother Recordings Ltd.

Che vuole questa musica stasera, Peppino Gadliardi. UMG (on behalf of Decca (UMO) Classics (CAM)); ASCAP, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc.

Get Down, Nas. 2002 Columbia Records

 

Other Sources

Powerbeats Pro Commercial (2019), Dir. Hiro Murai, Zambezi

Guy Ritchie Interview on Lock Stock with Charlie Rose https://youtu.be/biVd5r4i52A

 

Bibliography

Intensified Continuity Visual Style in Contemporary American Film Author(s): David Bordwell Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Spring 2002), pp. 16-28 Published by: University of California Press

Tasker, Yvonne. The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=7104343.

 

Interpreting Music Video, Popular Music in the Post-MTV Era. Brad Osborn. 2021.

 

Only Entertainment. Richard Dyer. 2002. pp.64-69

 

Jack Brazil on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells (Guy Ritchie, 1998)

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Almost 25 years since the feature directorial debut of Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels not only holds up as an entertaining film but also conveys an energetic pace and cadence that continually excites across the development of his filmography.

 

Lock Stock’s simplistic yet intricate plot pits four young, cocky and naive London boys against a slew of hardened criminals and savage gangsters after they lose a rigged game of cards, having to repay a half-a-million-pound debt with a week to drum up the funds. Through several hyper-violent altercations and a pinch of good luck, the boys manage to walk away unscathed after dipping their toes into the criminal underworld of London. Along the way, Richie introduces us to colourful and larger-than-life stock characters that are entertaining plot devices and memorable in their own right.

The protagonist quartet; Tom (Jason Flemyng) Bacon (Jason Statham) Eddy (Nick Moran) & Soap (Dexter Fletcher) have an undeniably charismatic on-screen presence. The on-screen chemistry of Richie’s characters is a shining example of outstanding casting choices, many of the film’s actors were unknowns at the time and the overnight success of the film made stars like Statham immediately sought after and hot property. The back-and-forth banter combined with abrasively sarcastic and ‘laddy’ personalities is one of the few markers of the film being a product of its era, at the height of British working-class new lad culture. Maliciously charming debt collector Chris (Vinnie Jones) is type cast as a gangster, a parallel to his behaviour on the pitch as a professional footballer, Sting makes a cameo appearance as Eddy’s father and pro boxer Lenny McClean known as ‘the hardest man in Britain’ perfectly cast as monster man Barry the Baptist. London geezers-geezing, north-south divides with toffs and gangster clashes populate the gritty sepia backdrop of Richie’s east London. Richie’s razor-sharp and witty dialogue effortlessly characterises, informs, and entertains all with a sprinkling of dark humor which differentiates the film from others in the genre.

One element of Richie’s work that has defined his career as a director is his control of pace and cadence, few other directors of high profile are able to create kinetic energy on screen that matches. Richie’s command over pacing can be attributed to his experimental editing techniques, as a former music video director, Richie had plentiful experience with producing stylish and impactful content on a lower budget, controlling visuals to match audio, something that continues to be prevalent across his filmography. Richie’s stylish editing can be boiled down to the concept of ‘fast & slow’, in terms of formal elements this consists of; speed-ramps, freeze-frames, slow-motion, intercutting, parallel action and superimposition.

 

 

As his first film, Lock Stock is an example of Richie’s raw ambition on display, the cadence of Richie’s scenes is dictated by his efficient writing style combined with his stylish and temporally playful editing techniques culminating in unique kineticism that has become a staple of the sub-genre.

 

Jack Brazil

Practice Of Criticism Podcast 2022: Episode 1 – Lock Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels with Jack Brazil

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Almost a quarter century after its first release, Lock. Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998) remains immensely stylish and entertaining, a landmark film that drew on the tradition of the British gangster film and succeeded in changing the genre’s direction. Whether Guy Ritchie is underrated is a thread that underpins the podcast. Jack Brazil and José Arroyo also discuss the film’s style; the cadence, pace and editing with which movement and action are constructed and conveyed; we talk about its playful experimental tone; how it succeeds as comedy, and how Ritchie’s eye for casting launched one of the most important careers in the action genre for decades to come: that of Jason Statham, whose first film this is…. all that, and much much more

The podcast may be listened to below:

Jack Brazil & José Arroyo