MovieChat Forums > Performance (1970) Discussion > one of the best british gangster flicks

one of the best british gangster flicks

posted 11 years ago by moviedump
2 replies | jump to latest

An art movie, a drug movie, a Mick Jagger acting debut, Nicolas Roeg’s directing debut, a late, post-swinging 60′s bohemian manifesto, but underpinning all that one of the best British gangster flicks around.

It features a foulmouthed thuggish headkicking turn by the erstwhile toffee nosed James Fox. Besuited bovver boy Chas, played by Fox, comes in for some heavy deconstruction when, finding himself on the run, he chooses the dark cave of a retired rock-star recluse (Jagger, in cahoots with Anita Pallenberg) to lay low in. Not an atom of machismo survives. Add mushrooms and flip genre. Tasty.

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[–] milstar 10 years ago

I can't really put word "gangster" in it since it only belongs first 1/3 of the movie, but one of british best surely. Or at least that I saw.
Ultra-stylish, with rock music, psychedelic atmosphere and intercutting which is kinda awesome (though generally I dislike that in Roeg's films, this is the only one I very much like).

[–] DaveBowman2001 (520) 7 years ago

This movie must have inspired Guy Ritchie a bit. The boss reminded me of a campy Brick top (Snatch), the spiritual/esoteric element was slightly reminiscent of (Revolver). Busting up a Bookie shop, also in Snatch.