A Very British Gangster (Echo Bridge DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C     Documentary: B

 

 

In a twist from the usual documentary about the life of criminal gangsters, Donal Macintyre’s A Very British Gangster (2008) gives us a portrait of The Noonans, run by the powerful and smart Dominic Noonan, who runs the great city of Manchester, England at night and does what he can in the day when not being observed and followed by British authorities who want to end his long, outstanding, successful criminal career by incarceration.  Sadly, there is a social gap he is able to exploit to survive in the community where authorities seem unable to fix things and this work (at 102 minutes) covers three years of Dominic Noonan’s reign.

 

There is the shocking revelation that he is a self-admitted gay man, despite his children and is now exclusively so, but you would not know that with the way he carries himself.  He is one tough customer and has the most interesting of moral centers that explains his survival, including a love of his family, but how long can he keep business and personal separate before something goes wrong?  This is a fine documentary anyone who likes the subjects of crime and gangsters will consider a must-see unless they are too inundated by the pop culture side of the subject.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little soft throughout, but is well edited and always compelling, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is simple stereo at best, lower in volume than it should be at times and location audio sometimes needs to be subtitled.  At least it is authentic.  Deleted Scenes are the only extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo