Chad Froomkin

October 21, 1999

Group 7

The movie I chose to analyze was Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It was probably one of the best-made and funniest movies of nineteen ninety-eight. It received rave reviews from film critics everywhere. That’s even a greater accomplishment considering that it is a British film. It is one of the best films to recently come out of Great Britain, to go along with Trainspotting and The Full Monty. To top it all off it was filmmaker, Guy Ritchie’s, first film. It is comparable to a Quinten Tarantino movie, in the respect that it is a crime/comedy genre. In no way though is it a Tarantino copycat. It is original in its own way and uses many different variations of comedy techniques.

One technique that is used throughout the film is absurdity. The character Big Chris is the first one who uses it. He is a debt collector, and he has to do anything possible to get information out of people, usually beating them to a pulp works sufficiently. The absurd thing about this is he takes his son with him on all of these jobs. The son even helps sometimes. The topper to this is during one of these jobs the guy being questioned by Big Chris swears. Big Chris becomes all upset, because he does not allow swearing in front of his ten-year-old boy. He does not mind having his son see him beating the crap out of people, and in one instance to death, but gets horrifically upset if someone says “piss” in front of his son.

Another absurd thing happens during a story being told by Tom to Bacon and Soap. They need a way to get half a million pounds in six days or them and their friend Nick will die. They were put onto this situation, because Nick lost a card game to Hatchet Harry, who besides running a porno business is basically the head mafia type of guy in their town. Tom’s idea for getting the money is very absurd. He says they should make ads in gay magazines for the latest “anal-intruding” dildos, and call the business “The Ass Tickler’s Faggot Fan Club.” They would be twenty-five pounds apiece and the checks would be made out to a company with a less offensive name. Then when they start getting checks back, Tom’s plan was to send everyone a cashier check back for that same amount and say that something was wrong with the stock and they were unable to get the dildos. The catch is they would send the check for twenty-five pounds under “The Ass Tickler’s Faggot Fan Club” name, knowing no one would cash the check. Yet very absurd, this sounds like a good idea, but Tom then points out that they will definitely get the money then, but just not for another four weeks. Being that they only have six days to get the money, the situation is reversed and the absurd plan had to be scratched.

A good use of underplaying happened when Tom, Soap, and Bacon had to go over to a neighboring bar while Nick played cards with Hatchet Harry. They weren’t aloud to go with Nick into the building where they were playing cards. Before walking into this bar, the door flies open, and out comes a man running and screaming, because he is on fire. Each guy watches the man on fire for a couple seconds and then proceeds to go into the bar as if nothing happened. Also while in the bar a joke type of situation proceeds. Bacon orders a drink from the bar by saying, “give me your most refreshing drink.” He is expecting to get maybe a big stein of some nice cold beer or something. Instead what the waiter brings out is a huge drink with umbrellas and what looks like leaves on the side. Bacon looks at the bartender and says, “I wanted a refreshing drink, not a fucking rain forest.” The bartender just shrugs and Bacon proceeds to have the drink.

In this movie there are two references to other movies that the filmmaker may not have intended to make reference to. The first one though is obvious. Big Chris is interviewing a Black English guy about another Black English guy who is a drug dealer. The drug dealer is named Rory Beaker. The black man then proceeds to tell a story about how psychotic Rory is and uses some slang when he talks or as it used to be called, jive. Since a normal person, let alone a black guy, would have no idea what he’s talking about, they proceed to insert subtitles when the guy is talking. This is directly related to a scene in the movie Airplane, where two black guys are talking to each other in jive, and they use subtitles to let the audience know what they are saying.

Another scene where I think there is a reference to another movie, even though the filmmaker might not even intended it to be, is when Nick, Tom, Bacon, and Soap finally come up with a plan to get the money that they need. Tom bought two antique guns to use for the stealing of the money, but Soap had a better idea. He opened up his jacket and out came a thing full of different knifes. Nick thought he was crazy, but Soap insisted that having a knife makes you more of a man. Jokingly, Nick said to Soap, “Do you have anything bigger.” He said this because the knifes were awfully big already. The topper to this is Soap proceeds to pull out a very large machete. This can be referenced in the movie Crocodile Dundee, where Dundee says, “That’s not a knife, this is a knife.” It might not have been the director’s intention to relate it to this, but it reminded me very much of this scene.

All of these comedy techniques were used in a subtle way, and not in a “right in your face” type of funny. Sometimes the subtle ways make the funny even funnier. A comedy technique could be used in a movie, but since you might not laugh or think it’s funny, you are not going to notice that technique. Filmmakers usually know how to use these techniques, that is why some make very successful comedies. If a filmmaker wants to make the audience laugh, and the audience does laugh, and they laugh through the whole movie, then that filmmaker knows that he did a good job with his techniques and has a sure-fire hit.