Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
What does the film 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' (Ritchie, 1998) tell us about male identity in Britain, in the 1990s?
The film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is about the criminal underworld in London. The film shows different gangs of males that are all after the same things, money and power.
The males in this film are represented as violent, ruthless and unemotional.
Guy Ritchie has a lot to do with the making of this film, he believes that "men should be more powerful than this". Magazines such as FHM and Loaded also believed that this view was correct. In 2000 a writer for "The Sunday Times" said that this film was 'sexist' and 'fascist', he also thought that the film influenced the people of Britain with the amount of violence that happens in this film. He believed that Guy Ritchie had 'polluted the British film industry' and created a stereotype of men in Britain.
As Lock Stock is based on gangsters in the 90's I feel that the male gaze has much to do with this film. The male gaze tells us that there is never a female protagonist in films and that it is always a man or men. In this film I have found that this is exactly what happens. There is a few ladies in this film but rather than actually being characters in the film they come across more as objects rather than actual roles in the film. Although this film is trying to portray that men are tough and violent there is a scene in this film where another gang in their own home is attacking the four men, after fighting for a while suddenly a woman appears with a rifle and shoots the intruders. The men are shocked at her actions but don't complain as she just got them out of trouble. The woman has saved them with a gun, although she did not say a word. She would still count as a character in the film but this isn't a main role, as we do not get to know her and she does not speak. This shows that the males feel their identity should top the women's identity and it is more important. There is another scene in this film, which involves a woman but no words from her; she is a lap dancer in a club where the men are having a meeting. She is in the background of the shot dancing making it hard to focus on the men, as she is a distraction whilst they are trying to have a serious conversation.
Adorno and Fiske’s theories fit into context also with this film. Adorno stated that because we were all watching the same things and learning nothing new we would gradually all become the same people. In the film Lock Stock it is portrayed that all men are violent and unemotional so Adorno would argue that this is what we will learn, that young boys will watch this film and grow up thinking that this is how they should act, Fiske argues that although this is what the public are viewing media is always updating itself with new cultures and ways of life. He says that we won't all be the same and we aren't all learning the same things as people would always have a different opinion on the film, therefore they would not all act in the same way after seeing this film. In this case I agree with Fiske as after watching this film and learning about when it was made and how London's culture was back then I could see that now there has been a change, stories like Lock Stock may still happen behind the scenes but its not as obvious as it was when the film was made, also nowadays with the way we have to take care and listen to health and safety none of what happened in this film would be allowed, the only way this would still be happening would be if it was all happening illegally. Many theorists agree that whether it be true or not, the film makes a comment about masculinity.
I have decided this film is gangster light as it is a violent film but the violence has been turned into humor. There is no real violence in this film, there are fights, gun attacks and stabbing but we don't see any of this in detail. There is a part of the film where a man is getting beaten up and his head is hanging out of a car door, one of the male protagonists is beating him, we don't actually see his head in the door or any blood. We just hear him being beaten up. I feel that this has been created like this as the film is trying to show that although the male identity is meant to be above everyone else (in this film) that even though the male protagonist is beating up another male his identity is still the same, even though he is not beating a woman.
There is a debate about this film affecting male identity as it can only be an opinion and does not actually have a correct answer. I don't this film affected male identity greatly as the violence is made humorous rather than serious. I noticed that in this film no one gets arrested for the crimes they are committing. Therefore people are believing that it is okay to behave in this manner and think that it is fine to do so.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is mainly a male cast with only a few female characters of which none are protagonist. I think this film is a great way of showing how male identity is portrayed as the whole film is based on gangs of men who all want the same thing - money. It shows how there is still rivalry between men of the same age, who are from the same place and who all want one thing. Their identities are all different but they work together to succeed in what they are trying to achieve.
