Gentlemanly warfare: Guy Ritchie's gangster etiquette in 8 films and 2 TV shows

In Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels we meet Big Chris, played by Vinnie Jones in his big-screen debut. It’s his job to settle debts for his boss, “Hatchet” Harry Lonsdale (P. H. Moriarty), and he takes it very seriously. “The only thing he cares more about than settling debts,” we’re told, “is his son and heir, Little Chris.” Big Chris brings the lad along on his jobs and into places where no child should be, but the one thing he won’t tolerate is swearing (not even from Little Chris himself). His perspective as a father comes in handy when he pays a visit to former-gangster-turned-bar-owner J.D. (played by Sting), and offers him a chance to settle his own kid’s debt by giving up his bar. It also proves to be a liability when a small-time thief takes Little Chris hostage, but getting in between a father and his son turns out to be the last mistake he’ll ever make.

It seems counter-intuitive for a film in which a pair of antique guns plays such a central role that they’re mentioned in the title to offer some tidy advice against relying on firepower, but maybe that’s the point. In Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels, Soap (Dexter Fletcher) advocates for the use of knives—“big, fuck-off shiny ones”—as he and his three mates plan to rob their criminal neighbors after they return from a heist. Since they don’t make any noise, he argues, they’re more likely to use them. They ultimately end up going in with the guns, but things might have been easier if they’d gone with Soap’s advice.

It’s good life advice in general to stay in your lane, but specifically in relation to Lock, Stock, this rule amounts to “don’t try to sell stolen weed back to the drug dealer who grew it.” Nick “The Greek” (Stephen Marcus) is just a small-time fence based in London’s East End. He knows the big players in local crime circles, but not well enough to know that the cannabis he’s trying to unload on kingpin Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood) is the gangster’s own crop. Rory can tell that Nick is clueless, but uses his awkward position to extract intel about the perpetrators under the threat of death. And as the audience knows from hearing a story about a violent encounter in a pub earlier in the film, Rory is a cold and brutal adversary you do not want to offend.

There’s a certain amount of back-and-forth violence to be expected in the criminal world. When you upset a boss, it’s understood that there will be repercussions. And when those consequences catch up with you, you face them like a man. If you happen to survive and walk away, you’ll earn respect and be all the tougher for it. Those are the rules of the game. But settling scores through innocent family members crosses a line. That’s ultimately what proves to be the downfall of powerful crime lord Brick Top (Alan Ford) in Snatch. Angered by the refusal of bare-knuckle boxer Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) to return to the ring for a fixed fight, he takes it out on Mickey’s dear mother, setting her caravan on fire while she’s still inside it. Being somewhat of a sociopath, Brick Top has no idea what his heinous act has just set in motion, or the righteous fury that’s coming for him.

Bringing a knife to a gunfight is bad, but bringing a fake gun to a gunfight is so much worse. In Snatch, small-time crooks Sol (Lennie James), Vinny (Robbie Gee), and Tyrone (Ade) are hired by a Russian arms dealer (Rade Šerbedžija) to rob a jewel thief (Benicio del Toro) who has come to London to sell a cache of stolen diamonds. The job goes hilariously wrong, as they often do in Guy Ritchie movies, and the trio winds up in pursuit of a single, precious 86-carat gem from the stash in an effort to bargain for their lives. That means going up against Bullet-Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones), a guy so tough he survived getting shot six times and had the bullets made into teeth. Attempting to hold up a guy like that is poor form to begin with, but doing it with easily identifiable replica guns is an idiotic blunder. Fortunately for the would-be thieves, Tony isn’t easily shaken, so he lets them off with a string of profane insults and a polite, “fuck off.” What happens next, well, they brought it upon themselves.

Did you know that The Gentlemen isn’t the first spinoff series inspired by a Guy Ritchie movie? Back in 2000 (the same year Snatch was released) he made Lock, Stock… for Channel 4 in the UK, a seven-episode series inspired by the film. It never aired in the US, but as of this writing, you can still purchase the series on iTunes or watch some of the episodes for free on YouTube. Each episode follows the four new main characters, Moon (Daniel Caltagirone), Jamie (Scott Maslen), Badon (Shaun Parkes), and Lee (Del Synnott), as they chase various side hustles while also running a pub called The Lock. Apart from a couple of guest appearances by a pre-The Office Martin Freeman in a recurring guest role, the show is mostly forgettable. It does have one important lesson to impart, not based on anything that happens in the show but on its very existence—It’s better to take your winnings, go home, and move on while you’re still up than to risk staying too long at the table.

Guy Ritchie’s most esoteric film by far, Revolver reunited the director with one of his most frequent collaborators, Jason Statham. Audiences who went in expecting another Lock, Stock, or Snatch didn’t quite know what to make of a film more invested in philosophical discourse than tough guys being tough. It may not be as smart as it thinks it is, but it does have some interesting lessons to impart, and not just the set of rules known as “The Formula” that guarantees a win in any game or con. These rules, like “You can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent,” are ultimately just a plot device to get to the real point Ritchie is trying to make—that it’s the ego that gets in the way of success in life. Statham’s character may have been physically released from prison, but he’s not mentally free until he overcomes his own ego. No matter which ending you watch (the US and UK versions were different), the film’s message is the same.

It’s Tom Wilkinson’s character, mob boss Lenny Cole, who utters the quote that constitutes this rule, but it’s a pretty good summary of the thesis of RocknRolla. Reflecting Ritchie’s feelings about the changing landscape and demographics of his beloved London in 2008, the film pits home-grown British lowlifes against a powerful Russian oligarch, who symbolizes the influx of foreign money and international crime syndicates crowding out the locals. The term “old school” doesn’t necessarily mean old in the chronological sense, but the spirit of the underworld as Ritchie depicted it in his early films. Among a gifted ensemble that includes Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, and Tom Hardy, the standout character is surprisingly Toby Kebbell’s wannabe rock-star drug-addict Johnny Quid. He may be a fuck-up but he’s the one who respects the old ways, and he’ll be the one to carry on tradition as “a real rocknrolla” in the future.

In 2009, Guy Ritchie turned his attention from criminals to crime solvers for once, with his take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective, Sherlock Holmes. The leap from the criminal underworld in modern London to the city during Victorian times is not as far as you might think, at least based on Ritchie’s depiction of it. This version of Sherlock, as embodied by Robert Downey Jr., is more physical than previous iterations—he can chase down a suspect on foot and hold his own in a boxing match—but he still relies on the same elementary powers of deduction to solve his cases. Ritchie’s best characters have always had a sense of comedy about them, whether they’re in on the joke or not. Sherlock absolutely is in on it, and he cleverly uses humor as a disarming strategy. His sharp wit is the most powerful weapon he possesses, and ultimately what allows him to deconstruct the homicidal plans of the sinister Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong). It seems the quest for power and control never really goes out of style.

Ritchie followed the Sherlock Holmes film with a sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, in which Sherlock faces off against his intellectual equal and dark mirror, criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). Moriarty may lack a moral compass, but as far as manners go, he’s the most gentlemanly character we’ve covered so far. Of course, that outward civility belies an evil, twisted mind. Analyzing Moriarty’s handwriting, Sherlock notes that it indicates a “genius-level intellect” and “highly creative yet meticulous nature,” but also acute narcissism, lack of empathy, and an inclination toward moral insanity. The two of them seem to come to the simultaneous conclusion that they’ve met their match—right before they both state their intentions to destroy each other completely. At least they have the decency to deliver a mutual warning before declaring all-out war.

Ritchie’s most recent return to the criminal milieu, 2019's The Gentleman, starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Pearson, a weed kingpin looking to sell his operation and retire. But his plans are complicated when one of his secret grow houses is raided by a street gang. He suspects that the man behind the theft is Lord George (Tom Wu), who made his fortune in the heroin trade. If it were true, that incursion would violate an unspoken rule in the criminal underworld not to mess with businesses that aren’t in direct competition with yours. There’s more to the story than Mickey realizes, but nevertheless, he seeks out George to deliver a harsh warning and let him know that he will not tolerate any further transgressions. When you’re the master of your own kingdom, never leave that in doubt.

In the world of Guy Ritchie, morality is relative. In The Gentlemen, Colin Farrell’s character Coach is a role model for the disaffected youth in his neighborhood and a respected member of the community. That’s not to say that he always stays on the right side of the law, though. The Coach isn’t above committing low-level crimes like assault, battery, and kidnapping when needs require. He also takes responsibility for his boys, and when he finds out that they took part in the unsolicited heist on the grow house, he goes to see Mickey’s consigliere Ray (Charlie Hunnam) to apologize on their behalf. With his hat literally in his hand and an informant tied up in his boot, he pledges his loyalty and his time until his debt is settled. Because it’s the gentlemanly thing to do.

There were many good examples of proper gangster etiquette in The Gentlemen (the film did partly inspire this piece, after all), but we decided we had to limit it to three or we’d have a pretty unbalanced list. Which brings us to the most well-mannered Gentlemen character of all, Raymond himself. We couldn’t leave him out. He patiently entertains weaselly private detective Fletcher (Hugh Grant) while he narrates a story he already knows, offering him grilled wagyu beef and single-malt scotch. Although there’s an ulterior motive behind his hospitality, you get the feeling Ray would offer the same courtesy to any guest who dropped by for a chin-wag. He’s always looking for the most elegant way out of any situation, and rarely loses his cool, even when things don’t go as planned.

This is basically an extension of Rule #4, but it’s worth reiterating. Let’s just say that all innocent family members should be considered off-limits. Ritchie’s most recent team-up with Jason Statham (their fourth movie together), gives the actor the space to do what he does best—drive, shoot, and look cool. Wrath Of Man also takes advantage of Statham’s reputation (built upon a foundation laid by Ritchie) for playing outlaws with a code. Break that code and you’ll have to face…well, the wrath of Statham. The film is a bit of a departure from Ritchie’s other films in this vein, taking the shape of an action-revenge thriller against a sunny Los Angeles backdrop, rather than the bleaker climate of the British Isles. There’s plenty of grit and violence, though, and the same kind of creative camera work that Ritchie is known for. Despite its non-linear structure, the story is pretty simple, as is its classic Newtonian moral.

As we mentioned previously, Guy Ritchie’s first attempt at a spinoff TV show based on a film was the short-lived Channel 4 series Lock, Stock… Fast-forward 24 years and he’s giving it another go, with the Netflix series The Gentlemen. Despite the confusingly identical title, the new series is only tangentially related to the 2019 film in that it centers on an English manor house sustained by a secret underground cannabis growing operation like the ones Matthew McConaughey’s character relied on to build his empire. Theo James stars as Eddie Halstead, the second son of a Duke who is bequeathed his father’s land and title (the site of the aforementioned cannabis farm). This angers his idiot older brother Freddie (Daniel Ings), who feels it was his birthright. As far as gentlemen go, the two brothers couldn’t be more emblematic of the idea that good manners and good sense don’t always go hand in hand with a noble background. Eddie is a quintessential gentleman, in every sense of the word. The same could be said for longtime groundskeeper Geoff (Vinnie Jones, feeling right at home), who can always be relied on for a nice cup of tea and some friendly advice.