Guy Ritchie Wrote His First Movie in The Most Guy Ritchie Way Possible

The Big Picture

• Guy Ritchie’s unique approach to writing
  Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
  set the stage for his distinct filmmaking style.
• The film’s non-linear narrative and authentic, slang-filled dialogue helped it become a classic among crime movie buffs.
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
  laid the foundation for Ritchie’s successful career, influencing his subsequent crime films like
  Snatch.

The surprising career trajectory of Guy Ritchie continues to grow more impressive as the idiosyncratic writer/director adds more impressive projects to his resume. After helming a series of expensive blockbusters that included the Sherlock Holmes franchise and the spy movie The Man From U.N.C.L.E.Ritchie fired off several mid-budget crime movies and the hit television series The Gentlemen within the last few years. Ritchie’s upward momentum is unsurprising, as he has one of the most distinguishable filmmaking styles of any working director. However, Ritchie’s current success can be attributed to his breakout crime film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The 1990s saw a resurgence in low budget crime movies that attempted to replicate the style of hit independent features like Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspectsbut Ritchie took a new spin on the genre with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The use of freeze frames, slow motion, cheeky voiceovers, jokes within the subtitles, and brief instances of shocking violence manage to straddle the fungible lines between mystery, action, satire, and slapstick. While it developed recurring hallmarks that he would use throughout his career, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was written in an unusual way by Ritchie.

Guy Ritchie Created His Style While Writing ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’

While he had proven his talents as a filmmaker with his short film “The Hard Case,” Ritchie initially had significant trepidation about developing a feature-length screenplay. Admitting that he had “spectacular dyslexia” while in school, Ritchie often found sitting down to type out a screenplay to be an imposing task. Ritchie joked that since his spelling skills showed no signs of improvement, he wasn’t concerned about producing a polished screenplay that followed the industry standard format. Ritchie wrote Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on a series of napkinsinitially jotting down notes about characters and segments of dialogue. After developing the concept further, Ritchie wrote it in “one of those sort of maths books” so that he could present it to fellow collaborators.

Some screenwriters might frown on this unusual approach, as scripts tend to follow a fairly strict three-act structure. However, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels broke from traditional narrative conceits by telling its story in a non-linear way. The film begins by showing a series of seemingly unconnected escapades within the life of the London gangsters Eddie (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemying), Soap (Dexter Fletcher), and Bacon (Jason Statham); while initially this feels like an absurd “slice of life” story about Britain’s criminal underworld, the stakes begin to escalate when Eddie ends up owing a serious debt to the powerful crime lord Harry (P. H. Moriarty). Since the story gets more focused as it goes along, it makes sense that Ritchie first developed his ideas in a rudimentary manner.

A series of cryptic notes would have made it hard to sell the script to a studio interested in funding it, but Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels succeeded because Ritchie had complete control of the creative process. As a filmmaker, he was able to translate the napkin-penned ideas into a narrative that was more coherent; the initial notes may not have been legible to an outsider, but they served as the best way for Ritchie to line out his ideas. The ingenuity that he showed is a significant reason why Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is cited as one of the 1990s’ most significant independent crime movies.

‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ Needed Guy Ritchie’s Personal Touch

One thing Ritchie’s films can never be accused of lacking is personality, as even his most derided projects contain snappy dialogue and unusual filmmaking idiosyncrasies. Ritchie’s peculiar writing method for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels helped develop his cheeky sense of humor. The film feels like an extended inside joke, as there is an authenticity to the way that the characters interact and trade inside jokes; this may have been inherited from Ritchie’s impulse to jot down as many ideas as he could. While a more straightforward writing process may have cut some of these tangential elements, their inclusion in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels gives the film a “hangout” quality.

Although he has joked about his improper spelling, Ritchie’s films succeed thanks to the incorporation of slang and filthy language. The conversations between characters feel very naturalistic, as they seem to have inherited the free-from style of discourse that Ritchie may have used in real life. The authenticity of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has made it a classic among crime movie buffs, as each scene is layered with in-jokes that may only be recognizable upon subsequent viewings.

‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ Was the Foundation of Ritchie’s Career

While some directors are still developing their style within their first feature, Ritchie showed an impressive amount of confidence in his directorial debut. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels led to the success of Ritchie’s subsequent crime films; his follow-up gangster film Snatch utilized a similar non-linear narrative structure, complete with even more odd tangents, goofy side characters, and nontraditional editing choices. Snatch took the template that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels solidified and escalated its idiosyncrasies to extreme levels.

While he would eventually go on to helm bigger blockbusters, Ritchie is at his best when working under constraints. His work on the live-action Disney film Aladdin and the medieval epic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword may have failed because they lacked the grimy, snarky style that was so evident in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Thankfully, Ritchie’s recent efforts suggest he has centered his focus on mid-budget gangster stories for the time being.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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