Sexy Beast

Sexy Beast is a 2000 black comedy<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> crime film directed by Jonathan Glazer (in his feature film directorial debut) and written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. Starring Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, and Ian McShane, it follows Gary "Gal" Dove (Winstone), a retired criminal visited by a sociopathic gangster (Kingsley) who demands that he take part in a bank robbery in London.

Sexy Beast was critically acclaimed, and Kingsley's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Total Film named Sexy Beast the 15th best British film of all time. It was the final film to feature Cavan Kendall, who died of cancer shortly after filming ended.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Plot

British ex-criminal Gary "Gal" Dove is happily retired on the Costa del Sol with his beloved wife DeeDee, his best friend Aitch, and Aitch's wife Jackie. An old criminal associate, the feared sociopath Don Logan, arrives at Gal's villa, intent on enlisting Gal for a bank robbery in London planned by crime lord Teddy Bass. Teddy has learned about the bank vault from Harry, the bank's chairman, whom he met at an orgy. Gal declines, but Don continues to pressure Gal, growing increasingly aggressive and violent.

After Gal suggests that Don's real reason for visiting is his infatuation with Jackie, with whom he had a brief affair, Don grows furious and leaves. On the plane back to England, Don refuses to extinguish his cigarette prior to takeoff, is aggressive to staff and other passengers, and is ejected, but avoids punishment by claiming that a flight attendant sexually assaulted him. He returns to the villa screaming obscenities and attacks Gal with a glass bottle. DeeDee emerges with Gal's hunting shotgun and shoots Don, incapacitating him; the group beats him, shoots him to death, and buries him under the swimming pool.

To avoid raising suspicion among Don's associates, Gal decides to do the job in London. When Teddy questions Gal about Don's whereabouts, Gal lies, claiming that Don returned to London and called him from Heathrow Airport, which arouses suspicion in Teddy. The heist involves using diving gear to drill into the bank vault from a pool in a neighbouring bath house. The pool water muffles the sound of the drilling equipment and also floods the vault and shorts its security system. As Teddy's crew empties the vault's safe deposit boxes, Gal secretly pockets a pair of ruby and diamond earrings.

After the job, Teddy insists on driving Gal to the airport. He stops at Harry's home, where he shoots Harry and demands that Gal tell him where Don is. Gal responds that he is "not into this any more". While dropping Gal off, Teddy indicates that he knows that Gal was involved in something happening to Don, and implies that Gal would be severely punished if Teddy cared at all about Don. He suggests he may visit Gal in Spain and humiliates him by paying him only £10 for the job.

Gal returns to his friends and family in Spain, where DeeDee wears the earrings and life has returned to normal. Gal still hears Don's voice in his head; he responds that Don is dead now and can "shut up".

Cast

• Ray Winstone as Gary 'Gal' Dove, a retired criminal who married DeeDee and moved to Spain to start a new life
• Ben Kingsley as Don Logan, a violent sociopath and recruiter for the London underworld
• Ian McShane as Teddy Bass, a London crime boss
• Amanda Redman as DeeDee Dove, Gal's beloved wife and a former porn star
• James Fox as Harry, a banker who shows Bass the vault
• Cavan Kendall as Aitch, Gal's best friend
• Julianne White as Jackie, Aitch's wife, who had a fling with Don
• Álvaro Monje as Enrique, a Spanish boy who helps Gal around the house

Production

Sexy Beast was shot in London and Agua Amarga, Spain in the summer of 1999. Ray Winstone travelled to Spain two weeks before filming commenced to get as deep a tan as he could in the time possible and to eat as much as he could to bulk up considerably. He later called this "the best rehearsal time I've ever had in my life".Template:Citation needed Winstone had originally been considered for the role of Don, along with Anthony Hopkins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The producer Jeremy Thomas remembered his experience making the film:<ref name="berlinale">Template:Cite web</ref>

Technical elements of the heist have been compared with those in the 1979 film Sewers of Gold, which also starred McShane in the central role.Template:Citation needed

Reception

The film has an approval rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 143 reviews. The site's critical consensus states, "Sexy Beast rises above other movies in the British gangster genre due to its performances—particularly an electrifying one by Ben Kingsley—and the script's attention to character development."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Metacritic film prose

It received praise from writers at the San Francisco Chronicle,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Entertainment Weekly,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Slate,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rolling Stone<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Los Angeles Times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post was less enthusiastic, highlighting "Ben Kingsley spraying saliva-lubricated variants of the F-word into the atmosphere like anti-aircraft fire for 10 solid minutes" as the film's "one guilty pleasure".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Slant Magazine named Ben Kingsley's role one the "15 Famous Movie Psychopaths".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Box office

Sexy Beast grossed $10.2 million on a budget of $4.3 million, making it a relative box office success.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and honors

Kingsley's performance received a majority of the accolades given to Sexy Beast, winning Best Supporting Actor awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, Florida Film Critics Circle, San Diego Film Critics Society, Southeastern Film Critics Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association. He also was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award (losing to Ian McKellen for his performance in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), a Golden Globe and an Academy Award (losing both to Jim Broadbent for his performance in Iris).

The film also won Best Director and Best Screenplay from the British Independent Film Awards and Special Recognition ("For excellence in film making") from the National Board of Review.

Music

Original music for the film was composed by Spanish composer/saxophonist Roque Baños and English electronic band UNKLE in collaboration with South.Template:Citation needed Dean Martin's version of "Sway" accompanies the film's end credits. The soundtrack also includes "Peaches" by The Stranglers, "Cuba" by The Gibson Brothers, "G-Spot" by Wayne Marshall, "Daddy Rollin' Stone" by Derek Martin, and Henry Mancini's "Lujon".

In popular culture

Brian Sella of The Front Bottoms attributes the band's name to a line spoken by Ben Kingsley in the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another line spoken by Kingsley inspired The Kooks' song "Jackie Big Tits".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ben Kingsley reprised his role as Don Logan in a series of advertisements, also directed by Glazer, promoting the Band Aid 20 single and 2004 DVD issue of the Live Aid concert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Prequel television series

A prequel television series based on the film was in development at Paramount Network, which was being produced by Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content. However, the series was scrapped by Paramount Network. On 15 February 2022, ViacomCBS Networks UK And Australia announced that the series was revived for Paramount+, but would instead be produced by Train a Comin' Productions, Familystyle, Chapter One, Solas Mind, Anonymous Content and Paramount Television International Studios.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The eight-episode series was released on 25 January 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Gangster No. 1
• 44 Inch Chest
• Heist film
• List of hood films

External links

• Sexy Beast at the British Film Institute
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