Gangster Squad

While this might be another book inspired film, like several of the others I've reviewed so far, it certainly is a lot different, but I was thinking it was time for a change so here it is. More than anything I would say that Gangster Squad is a modern film noir. It has a similar darkness and feel to an old time gangster movie, and is set in the late 1940's (the era of classic film noir movies), but it's got modern filming techniques, and a level of violence that probably wouldn't be seen in most movies from the 40's . The first thing that came to mind when I started watching the movie, was the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential, which is often regarded as a modern film noir itself.

Gangster Squad tells the story of a gritty 1940's Los Angeles which is being taken over by the vicious mob boss Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). In the midst of this is the good cop John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) recently returned from the war and upset with the state of his town. However, nobody seems interested in doing anything about it. O'Mara may have returned from the war, but for him the fight is still going on, and he decides to go after Cohen. After an initial success in breaking up one of Cohen's businesses, the police chief tells O'Mara that he wants him to get together a squad of men and go after Cohen but not as cops. Instead he wants them to attack Cohen's businesses, drug shipments, and everything else, until he is forced out of the city. O'Mara assembles his force from fellow cops who are unwilling to be bought by Cohen, but are willing to work a little outside the law to defeat him. One of them, Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) had entered into a risky relationship with Cohen's girl, Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) prior to joining the group. This relationship is in turns useful and very dangerous to the mission of the six men to bring down one of the biggest mob threats to L.A.

This film had some incredible acting in it, as well as some fantastic cinematography. Sean Penn executed his role as the merciless Cohen perfectly while Josh Brolin made an outstanding appearance as the determined cop who is still a little bit too much the soldier. Add in Ryan Gosling's somewhat reluctant to get involved character and you have a fine mix. Besides this the cinematography and editing of this movie brought a lot to it as well. While there is plenty of violence in the film (the opening scene is none to pleasant), there are also slow motion scenes, close ups, camera angles, and lighting and help to draw the viewer away from the violence at times. For instance in a intense gun battle there may be a slow motion close up of the empty casings bouncing on the floor, rather than a scene of someone getting shot.

All together Gangster Squad was a very impressive gangster film that should please fans of the genre. It has some great actors in it, and great elements in the filming. Besides all of this it is an interesting story of how six men took on one of the greatest mob bosses the city of angels had ever seen. While I occasionally watch movies of this type I do not watch them on a regular basis, so I was impressed that I enjoyed this particular one even more than I expected to going in. I hope that this helps people decide whether they want to see this film or not, and at very least maybe it provided a nice change from the other things I have been reviewing. Until the next time :)

-Lynx