Over Fragmenten.blog

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Welkom op Fragmenten uit het Schemerland, mijn persoonlijke website en content-verzameling. Je vindt hier veel artikelen over films en series in de FilmDungeon. Ook vind je op deze site mijn achtergrondverhaal, een selectie van mijn professionele werk, en een groeiende collectie blogs – fragmenten genaamd – over uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Veel leesplezier en bedankt voor het bezoeken van mijn blog!

— Jeppe Kleijngeld

PS: Bezoek ook eens mijn andere website over bewustzijn en mijn visie op de ware aard van het universum:

18. Donnie Brasco (1997)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Mike Newell
Writers: Paul Attanasio (screenplay), Joseph D. Pistone (book), Richard Woodley (book)
Stars: Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Donnie Brasco opens with New York wiseguy Lefty (Pacino) meeting Don the Jeweller (Depp) in a bar. He wants him to sell a diamond on his behalf, but Donnie turns him down because the stone is a fugazi, a fake, an artificial specimen. We soon learn that Donnie is a fugazi himself. He is an undercover FBI agent acting like a potential Mafia associate.

Lefty likes him a lot and introduces him to his dangerous crew that is part of the Bonanno crime family. Now Donnie is in and he’s assigned to take down Lefty’s boss Sonny Black (Madsen) and his whole crew with him if possible. Pretty soon tension for Donnie reaches a boiling point both in the mob and in his private life with his estranged wife and children.

Donnie Brasco is based on the incredible true story of FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone told in the 1988 book ‘Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Maffia’. You must admire the balls it takes to infiltrate this gang of sociopathic murderers.

The casting agency who did this movie deserves an Oscar. The mob world it takes place in feels 100% authentic and the lead cast is sensational. It is especially enjoyable to watch Pacino, normally a boss in mob movies, play an uncertain, low level, nickel and dime foot soldier.

In the undercover cop genre, Donnie Brasco is up there with the very best, like State of Grace and The Departed. It’s an excellent movie with some very powerful scenes, such as Donnie being forced to help cut up the bodies of slain enemies.

It is also the number one guide to learn how to behave as a wiseguy. There is a whole scene explaining how to use the term fuhgeddaboudit which is both hilarious and unforgettable.

“Forget about it is, like, if you agree with someone, you know, like ‘Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass. Forget about it!’ But then, if you disagree, like ‘A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!’ You know? But then, it’s also like if something’s the greatest thing in the world, like, ‘Minghia! Those peppers! Forget about it!’ But it’s also like saying ‘Go to hell!’ too. Like, you know, like ‘Hey Paulie, you got a one-inch pecker?’ and Paulie says ‘Forget about it!’ Sometimes it just means ‘Forget about it’.”

19. The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Writers: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Talia Shire

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

16 years after the outstanding second installment, director Francis Ford Coppola completed the series with this memorable, though not flawless film.

Part III was not nearly as well received as the first two movies. While it is true that Coppola slipped up once with the casting of his daughter Sofia in the crucial role of Michael’s daughter Mary Corleone, there is still no mistake about it: This is a Godfather movie. And it has plenty going for it.

The main focus of the film is on Michael trying to come to grips with his past, and finding some absolution before fate deals him one final blow. Coppola wanted to call it The Death of Michael Corleone, but the commercially thinking studio wouldn’t let him.

In 2020 they made it up to him and Coppola got to release a slightly altered version of the film called Mario Puzu’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. It is a slightly better version with a more suitable beginning and ending.

Michael is off even worse in this cut that, according to Coppola, is closer to the original vision he and Puzo had for the ending.

Whatever version you pick, it definitely feels like the conclusion of the Corleone family saga. After the dramatic and powerful final act at the Opera House, there can be no doubt about it.

20. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Guy Ritchie’s low-budget 1998 feature debut is a supremely entertaining reinvention of the British gangster genre, establishing his signature style: sharp humor, crackling Cockney dialogue, stylized violence, and a deceptively simple plot that spirals into chaos through a parade of memorable characters.

Add to that Ritchie’s trademark music video style camera and editing tricks, paired with a killer soundtrack of soul, funk, and rock classics, and you’ve got a true cult masterpiece on your hands.

In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, four lifelong friends pool together 100,000 pounds so their poker prodigy Eddy can enter a high-stakes game hosted by Harry Lonsdale – porn king and ruthless crime boss. The plan backfires spectacularly when Harry cheats, leaving them on the hook for 500,000 quid. With just a week to pay up, or else face the wrath of Harry’s enforcers, Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) and Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean), the clock is ticking.

Desperate for a solution, the boys stumble upon an opportunity when they discover their next-door neighbors are a crew of thieves planning to rob a lucrative London cannabis farm. Throw in a subplot involving two antique rifles, and the result is a whirlwind of schemes, double-crosses, and dark comedy, all tangled in the gritty underbelly of London. In this world, everyone’s stealing from someone and no one’s hands stay clean.

Harry Lonsdale is played by P.H. Moriarty, a veteran of The Long Good Friday (1980) – the British gangster classic that inspired Ritchie’s vision. While much of the cast was relatively unknown at the time (save for Sting as Eddy’s father), the film served as a star-making vehicle for the likes of Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones, whose performances still resonate today.

Ritchie’s film is endlessly rewatchable – the kind of movie where you can recite every line, anticipate every quip, and still be thrilled at every sped-up camera move or perfectly timed musical cue. The Italian Job-style ending is the perfect conclusion to a film that has rightfully earned its place as a classic of the British gangster canon.

21. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Arthur Penn
Writers: David Newman, Robert Benton, Robert Towne
Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Few films have shaped the image of the outlaw couple as decisively as Bonnie and Clyde.

Set during the Great Depression, the film follows Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow as they drift from petty crime into full-blown notoriety, becoming folk legends in the process. Their crimes unfold against a backdrop of economic despair, where violence and celebrity blur into something dangerously seductive.

What sets Bonnie and Clyde apart from earlier gangster films is its tone. Rather than moralizing from a distance, the film pulls the audience uncomfortably close to its characters, inviting fascination even as their actions grow more brutal. The glamour of youth, style, and rebellion collides with sudden, shocking violence, redefining what a crime film could look and feel like in American cinema.

The film was controversial upon release, largely due to its unflinching depiction of bloodshed. Its climactic ambush remains one of the most influential endings in film history, helping usher in a new era of graphic realism that later gangster films would build upon.

Over time, outrage turned into admiration, and Bonnie and Clyde came to be recognized as a defining entry in the genre. It’s a movie that didn’t just depict crime, but changed how Hollywood portrayed it. Today, it stands as a cornerstone of the classic gangster film: stylish, violent, morally ambiguous, and endlessly influential.