A Very British Gangster

I've always thought of myself as somewhat of an authority, albeit a strictly amateur authority, on the history of the American underworld, and those thugs who have made up its ranks, but I must confess that outside of reading a book or 2 on the late Kray twins, I know next to nothing about the state of organized crime in Britain. I had never heard of this particular documentary, or Dominic Noonan of Manchester, until I read Irishgit's review of it, but his review interested and intrigued me, and so I recently ordered it and sat down for a viewing. It is an amazing film, if only by virtue of the fact that Donal MacIntyre was able to get so "up-close-and-personal" with a thug of enormous menace and those following worshipfully along in his footsteps (including some of his own sons, one of whom is called "Bugsy", and other young relatives). Understandably, MacIntyre is limited in how much access he's allowed to Noonan's actual criminal activities, the financial "Bread and Butter" of his o... Read more

Interesting but somewhat uneven film, although if anything its uneven quality adds to its power of narrative. A camera crew follows the thuggish but somehow charismatic Dominic Noonan and his crew as they talk about their histories, deal with police rousts, and work the mean streets of Manchester. The naivete of many of the younger members of the gang is pathetically evident, and the manipulative power of Noonan is crystal clear. The film also portrays the desolation, and desperate poverty of Manchester, every bit as big a breeding ground for crime as any U.S. ghetto. To Americans, their accents may sound quaint or vaguely amusing, but make no mistake. These are hard and dangerous men, stone criminals, who live on corruption, armed robbery and murder.