Snatch Illegal boxing, pikeys and gangsters – this may all sound confusing, but after watching this movie it will all make perfect sense. Snatch is a fast-paced action movie, directed by Guy Ritchie, which first of all deals with the robbery of a huge diamond, which everyone is of course interested in getting their hands on. All of the movies characters desire this diamond, perhaps except Mickey – the so-called pikey, who just wants a new caravan for his mom.Mickey is dragged into the illegal boxing matches by Turkish and his partner Tommy, who is setting up matches for Brick Top - the gangster, who thinks feeding people to pigs, is the easiest way to get rid of obstacles in his way for money. Mickey has to lose the game, but he eventually ends up knocking every last one of his opponents out, and tricks everyone in the movie.
Turkish and Tommy, who just fixes the boxing matches, actually do not have much to do with the retrieving of the diamond, but in the end they get the diamond by accident, when they find the dog that swallowed it.Turkish and Tommy then contact Avi, who in the first place wanted to buy the diamond, with the purpose of selling it. The movie consists of two plots, which intertwine during the movie. First there is the retrieving of the diamond, and second there are the boxing matches.
At first it may be hard to see what the two separate stories has to do with each other, but in the end the two boxing promoters get the diamond, and the two stories meet. It can be hard to keep up with the story, since there are two plots, and the viewer is introduced to so many different characters.Besides the many characters the viewer is introduced to a lot of communities with different cultures, which makes it all the more confusing but intriguing as well. Snatch is definitely not a movie you can watch with just one eye open and still keep up with. The character who is the least like the others must be Mickey.
Mickey is a so-called pikey, which refers to the community he lives in. A pikey is an Irish traveler. They live very close in caravans, and they have their own little family. They travel a lot, and they settle down where they can and where it is permitted.The pikeys have their own distinguished language, which can be very hard to comprehend. In real life these pikeys also exist and they are called travelers – they live all over Britain, and they are very similar to the ones portrayed in Snatch.
This people have their very own lifestyle, and it is not necessarily condoned by the average person. However you must respect them for standing up so strongly for their beliefs, and their ability to live like they do no matter what people think of them or how often they are dismissed by the police from the area where they live in their caravans.Mickey is an incomprehensible and somewhat small guy. He is fit, but he is not big like the typical boxer, but he definitely proves to be quite the fighter.
He has a lot of tattoos – you could call him a bad-boy in some ways. At first he seems a little on the slower side, as if he does not pick things up very quick, but it proves to be all an act. When Brick Top sets fire to his mother’s caravan and she dies he figures that he must get revenge. This is what pushes him over the edge, and in the end he out-smarts everyone and quickly leaves with Brick Top’s money.
The pikeys is portrayed as being the lowest link in the social hierarchy and this makes it all the more surprising, that it is a pikey who has got it all figured out. The main theme of the movie is money. Everyone desires the diamond and/or money and money is what drives them in their lives. The message could be that there cannot be any kind of action without a counter reaction.
This is evident in every aspect of the movie, but of course mainly through Mickey’s reaction to Brick Top killing his mother.He takes matters in his own hands diametrically to everyone’s expectations and comes with a counter reaction. The movie is set in the criminal underground of London and the city is very well portrayed with all of its different cultures and types of people. Though the characters in the movie definitely does not portray the people you would meet on a weekend trip to London, it is not hard to imagine, that these are the types that emerges if you dig a little deeper into the criminal environment in London or perhaps any big city in the world.
