Product Description

"Fascinating" (The Hollywood Reporter) and "sensational" (Los Angeles Times), this bold, innovative thriller chronicles the bloody, single-minded climb of a barbarous crime lord to power. Starring Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), David Thewlis (Naked) and Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Gangster No. 1 enters the psyche of an unrepentant mobster and reveals the madman within. Bettany gives "a brilliantly eerie, star-making performance" (American Film Institute) as a ruthless mobster who slugs, claws and kills his way to the top. But when he learns that the former mentor (Thewlis) he put in prison is about to get out, this self-made monster must not only face a man whose life he ruined but the twisted remnants of his own demented conscience as well.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36502 in DVD
• Brand: MCDOWELL,MALCOM
• Released on: 2002-10-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com
This glinting, scalding gangland phantasmagoria offers a sort of funhouse-mirror refraction of the life and career of a British hooligan so elemental in his right villainy that he's merely identified as "Gangster." The action begins in 1999, with Malcolm McDowell brutishly savoring his eminence as a crime lord; but more of the film is taken up with an extended flashback to 1968, when his youthful self--played by Paul Bettany (but voiced by McDowell during private reveries)--got his start. Bettany's patron is Freddie Mays, "the Butcher of Mayfair" (David Thewlis), a comparatively suave rotter whom "Young Gangster" more or less simultaneously worships, emulates, and craves to see destroyed. Director Paul McGuigan layers the eras and personalities in a kaleidoscope of jagged stylization (occasionally the image shatters like glass, then hellishly reconstitutes itself). The effect is less to tell a proper story than to suspend us in a state of mind--and a homage to McDowell's landmark role in A Clockwork Orange. But it does exert an unclean fascination. --Richard T. Jameson

From The New Yorker
This is an unexpected treat-a gangster-as-sociopath movie that doesn't try to coddle its antihero. The movie is set, for the most part, in sixties London, and it's built around a magnificent, ice-cold performance by Paul Bettany as a thug who covets his boss's power. (The boss is played by David Thewlis, in a performance inspired by Pete Townshend and Cliff Richard.) There's an unspoken erotic charge to Bettany and Thewlis's scenes together; they're wound so tightly that when the movie erupts into violence it has the visceral impact of some of Scorsese's best work. The bulk of the story is told via flashback (Malcolm McDowell, as the aged version of Bettany's gangster, bookends the film), and the director Paul McGuigan gets the details right. His London underworld is filled with nattily dressed teddy boys, sunken living rooms, and beautiful women with their hair piled high. It's the gangster flick as over-the-top Greek tragedy. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

A british crime drama, with a kick!
The first time I heard of "Gangster No. 1" was in the Globe And Mail. The one thing that intrigued me to find it upon it's DVD release, was the front quote.

"It's not who you know. It's who you kill."

Thus, my trip to Future Shop was to be a grand day on taking chances on films! Let me tell you, THIS MOVIE IS SUPERB. It does for gangster films in the same way Akira Kurosawa does for humanistic films, with a kick of style! For the first time, you don't get constant gore & language, unlike Scorsese's mafia flicks.

The year: 1968.

It brings forth a man known by the name of Gangster, who is extremely arrogant in his own way, to have a meeting with "The Butcher Of Mayfair," Freddie Mays. Mays has just won a case against the city, in a matter of him killing a cop. An extremely well known man with the mafia who has just reached the top for whacking this crooked copper. But Mays is still having problems it seems. The problem? Lennie Taylor, another rival gang boss who plans to take out Freddie and capture his territory. But when Gangster hears of this (being as arrogant as he is), he pulls together a plan to take both of them out, leaving the rest for himself at the top. With an ending that'll make you watch the movie over and over again, "Gangster No. 1" is quite effectively THE crime drama of 2001, no doubt about it!

Not what you may think,.....
The other reviewer on this page who called this film a "character study" nailed it. The two lead gangsters Freddy Mays and (soon to be) gangster#1 could just as easily have been corporate execs., or two proball players, or....get the idea. This is a story about one mans driving, overwelming ambition to be #1, and what in the end is he left with when confronted with the man who was #1 but had it all stolen. More or less in a nut shell.
This is why any comparison to Goodfellas,et al is silly. The gangster life is window dressing, making the film more entertaining, yes ( if you like violence thats mostly implied, but implied well) but essential to the main theme. Gangsters are used here the same way Ann Rice uses vampires, to comment about the human condition.
Paul McGuigan directs well, using intresting camara techniques, and great lighting to show the lead characters descent into ambitious maddness. He uses music to its full effectiveness ( Reservoir Dogs ) with a rather happy "Because I Love You" adding to the evil menace of a murder scene which is the set piece of the film.
Needless ( I believe )to say the acting is primo.
This DVD edition has an informative featurette, and intresting if a little dry director commentary. I highly recommend for those who like serious character study ( but dont whine about the violence and language), as well as those who enjoy a fun little gangster flick. Its enough of both.

B4 the Swan Dive
Director Paul McGuigan directed Paul Bettany in "The Reckoning" which was a stylish medieval thriller. He also directed "Wicker Park" whose soundtrack CD far exceeded the merits of the confusingly edited film. "Gangster No. 1" is a decent crime drama that paints an unsympathetic look at Gangster 55 played by Paul Bettany in younger years and Malcolm McDowell in older years. Bettany, whose recent romantic comedy "Wimbledon" was delightful and shows great range, is pretty scary here as a guy who has a great talent for hurting people. He gets picked up in Freddie Mays' mob and apparently becomes jealous when Mays falls in love with the gorgeous Saffron Burrows. David Thewlis who played Paul Verlaine to Leonardo DiCaprio's Rimbaud in "Total Eclipse" and also starred with Brad Pitt in "7 Years in Tibet" and most recently in "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" does a nice job of being the randy high roller in youth and then the older and reformed ex-con 25 years later. Saffron Burrows who narrated the most recent Peter Pan movie and also played in "Troy" does a nice job as Karen who falls in love and then gets the ultimate sore throat. Malcolm McDowell whose career was launched with "A Clockwork Orange" and most recently was the billionaire tycoon in "In Good Company" brings a great intensity to the role before his final swan dive. Although this film is a bit bloody, it still was an interesting and entertaining crime genre film. The pacing is a tightly controlled rampage. I particularly enjoyed the lad running through the parking structure before Bettany's careening car. The film is more visceral than thoughtful, but still interesting cinema. Enjoy!