Gangster No. 1

A crime film set in London. The narrative opens in the present. An old man hears a piece of news: someone who spent a long time in prison is coming out. His face changes. Then we go back to the 1960s. A young man is taken into a gang. He has no name; it is never spoken in the film. Freddie Mays runs the gang; elegant, calm, respected. The young man admires him. But the admiration turns quickly into something else: he wants to be like him, then he wants to take his place. From there the film is about a rise. The man observes, waits, watches for an opening and prepares without telling anyone. One of the violent scenes is the most argued-over passage. The camera settles into the victim's eyes and what is done is not shown directly; it is given through sound and reaction. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but emptiness: the man takes everything he wanted and is left with nothing. When we return to thirty years later, that is plain. Paul Bettany plays him young and Malcolm McDowell plays him old; two actors carrying one person is the film's central idea. David Thewlis plays Freddie and Saffron Burrows is in the cast. Paul McGuigan directed. The source is a stage play. Who it is for: anyone who likes British gangster films and dark character studies. Who it is not for: anyone sensitive to violence; the film is very hard about it and builds no sympathy for its character anywhere.