Gangster Squad is a punchy, noir-ish action film, set in 1949, very loosely based on the real life crime boss, Mickey Cohen and the Los Angles Police Department’s efforts to bring him down.
Will Beall, a writer for the TV show Castle, adapted Gangster Squad for the screen from a book by Paul Lieberman. The script floated around Hollywood for a few years, despite strong interest, before finally being put in front of Ruben Fleischer, best known for the surprisingly entertaining apocalyptic comedy, Zombieland. Once made, Gangster Squad was shelved while a crucial scene, a shootout in a cinema, was re-written after the 2012 Aurora shooting.
Sean Penn plays the aforementioned villain, Mickey Cohen with such magnetic force, and malevolent charm, it makes you wonder why he hasn’t been cast in one of the recent comic book franchises. Emma Stone plays Cohen’s moll, part-time manners instructor and full-time live-in lover, Grace Faraday. Stone does a lot with what is essentially a paper-thin character, little more than a real life Jessica Rabbit. She is all soft curves and strong suggestion, especially in her early scenes with the phlegmatic playboy, Sergeant Jerry Wooters, played by Ryan Gosling.
But, the fulcrum of the story is the straight talking, hard punching WWII veteran, Sergeant John O’Mara, played with unwavering resolve by Josh Brolin. He is enlisted by Nick Nolte’s Police Chief Bill Parker to create a covert task force to take down Cohen and his organisation. O’Mara then rounds up a posse consisting of local cop Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Robert Patrick as a Texan gun-slinger called Max Kennard (Bryan Cranston was originally cast for the role), Kennard’s Mexican sidekick called Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña) and Giovanni Ribisi as technical wizard Conway Keeler. The reluctant, Sergeant Wooters (Gosling), at first declines the offer to join the gang, only to be converted when he witnesses first hand the ruthless violence of Cohen’s henchmen.
Reviewers have not been kind to Gangster squad. Many have compared it to the 1997 hit L.A. Confidential, which is obvious but a little unfair. L.A. Confidential is a crime action film, and perhaps the best recent embodiment of the film noir style, but at it’s a thriller, with a mystery at the core of it’s story and a depth of character development that comes from original novel, penned by James Ellroy, one of the best crime writers of our times.
By contrast, Gangster Squad is a much more straightforward crime action film, adapted not from a novel, but from a non-fiction account of the LAPD officers involved in trying to take Cohen down in the 40s & 50s.
We might do better by comparing Gangster Squad to the gritty, earthy and ultimately disappointing Public Enemies, directed by Michael Mann in 2009. Public Enemies was an attempt to retell a classic gangster story in a thoroughly modern, realistic way.
Gangster Squad is also an attempt to resurrect history, but with a slight twist. Instead of just trying to tell an old story in a new way, Gangster Squad gives us an old style of movie-making, delivered with all the tricks of modern cinema.
Despite the crisp, contemporary look (it has to be said the costume and set design is flawless) and the subtle but excellent use of CGI & modern cinematography, this film has an old heart, a throughly retro soul.
And, while the classic film noir elements are there, the good cop pushed to take extreme measures, the reluctant hero who falls for the bad guy’s squeeze, Gangster Squad isn’t exactly a noir film. It’s much more in the mould of the 40s gangster films released by Warner, the best and most famous of which is White Heat, starring James Cagney.
That’s not to say Gangster Squad is without fault, because there are a few things that don’t work so well. Were it not for some great, sharp and steely performances, especially from Brolin, Stone and Penn, the characters might have been so lightweight as to float into space on the crest of Gosling’s helium-inflected cadences.
Moreover, the shoot (or punch) first & ask questions later action sequences are probably too long, too frequent and perhaps too predictable for what is really quite a short and uncomplicated script.
Gangster Squad is not a morally complex film. The good guys really want to be good (even when they’re being bad) and the bad guys have no interest in even trying to look good.
The joys of this film are simple, they rest in a strong cast, a clear narrative, a wonderful visual style and a trio of great performances. I’m not going to call Gangster Squad a classic and I doubt it will be anywhere near my list of the best films of 2013. But, I do believe that somewhere down the line critics will reassess this film and wonder why it got so many negative reviews.
