One of the country's leading crime investigators launched a withering attack on British "gangster flicks" yesterday, saying films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels made heroes of people who were "leeches on our society".
John Abbott, director general of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), said movies which portrayed villains as "colourful personalities and cheeky chappies" showed no sense of social responsibility. "This is something that I find disappointing and irritating."
Although Mr Abbott admitted there was no proven link between the genre and rising crime, he pointed to a disturbing use of violence by minor figures in the underworld in the last two years, particularly from drug dealers trying to recover small debts.
The agency, which gathers intelligence on underworld figures and identifies the latest crime trends and trafficking routes, has also been alarmed at the number of murders linked to low-level criminality.
Mr Abbott's remarks won immediate support from the National Crime Squad, which works closely with NCIS.
"These types of films are not new," said a spokesman. "They come in and out of fashion and currently they are the vogue. What filmgoers must realise is that the type of people our detectives deal with are vicious and very unpleasant.
"There is a huge gulf between fiction and reality. We can't stop people seeing these films, so we must have confidence the audience knows the difference."
Mr Abbott criticised three films: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - starring the pop singer Sting, the former footballer Vinnie Jones and the bareknuckle fighter Lenny Maclean - Snatch, which features Hollywood star Brad Pitt, and Gangster No 1
During a speech to launch the agency's second annual report, Mr Abbott also condemned the media coverage of the release of the London gangster, Reggie Kray, saying people were looking back at his murderous reign in 1960s east London through "rose-tinted spectacles."
"I have been keen to illustrate the human misery caused by organised crime," said Mr Abbott. "A graphic example was the dead bodies found in the back of an airtight lorry in Dover.
"But far more often, the image of organised crime is a darkly glamorous one. "From [photographer] David Bailey's portrait of the Kray brothers, the exotic exile of Ronnie Biggs to the current genre of major feature films...there is a concerted attempt to show organised crime as 'a bit of a laugh'."
"Such an image is far from the truth. Violence is associated with many aspects of serious and organised crime. The threat of force is an essential component.
"In this ruthless and very real world, people get threatened and killed. It is not glamorous."
Mr Abbott said film-makers had forgotten their sense of social responsibility in their desire to make money.
"People involved in organised crime are leeches on our society, exploiting local communities for their own selfish ends."
Freuds, the PR agency which is promoting Snatch, refused to comment. But a spokeswoman said the film, which opened just over a week ago, was breaking British box-office records for a 18-rated movie, despite moderate reviews. "It's doing fantastically."
Privately, film-makers say they are an easy target for the police when crime rates rise.
"This always happens," said one, who asked not to be identified. "When the comedy horror film Scream came out, it was blamed for a rise in stabbing.When a violent film comes out, it gets blamed for violence in society. Film-makers are always the scapegoats when things go wrong.
"The British gangster films do not glamorise violence. They are more like black comedies or spoofs."
Adrian Wootton, director of the London Film Festival, said Mr Abbott's frustration was "completely understandable'.
"The gangster genre has been with us for the entire history of cinema. People are entertained and interested in watching gangster films. I am not sure directors are consciously ratcheting up violence."
Mr Ritchie, who produced Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has said the 1998 film, which made £50m worldwide and £11m in the UK, was "meant to make the man on the street chuckle."
Asked why the film had been such a roaring success, he added: "Because it's not up it's own ass...I see myself as a guerrilla film-maker."
The Metropolitan police also intends to write to Penguin Books to complain about an advert which, it claims, glamorises gun violence. The advert features two young men dressed in hip-hop type clothing. One is tucking a gun into a holster un derneath his jacket. Penguin says the campaign underlines that "books remain the only true conduit to different worlds, different cultures, different emotional experiences."
Commander Mike Fuller, who heads Operation Trident, which targets "black on black" crime in London, told Police Review magazine: "Among some young people the gun is revered as a way of gaining respect. What we don't want is the American gangster ethos developing and spreading within our urban centres."
•Crime pays... at the box office
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Released 1998
Stars Vinnie Jones, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran
Four cockney wide boys are tricked into owing £500,000 to the local gangland boss and porn king. With the threat of finger amputation looming, they come up with a plan to steal money from their neighbours - a gang of drug dealers. It all goes wrong and guns, knives and a high body count feature in the ensuing chaos.
Gangster No1
Released 2000
Stars David Thewlis, Malcolm McDowell, Paul Bettany, Saffron Burrows
An ageing mobster hears that an old business associate is to be released from prison after serving a 30-year stretch. This leads to a long flashback depicting their early days in the gangland of 60s London. The past, however, catches up with him and a violent turf war begins. The film chronicles the rise and fall of a prominent and particularly ruthless gangster.
Snatch
Released 2000
Stars Brad Pitt, Vinnie Jones, Mike Reid
A large diamond is stolen from a merchant's office in Antwerp by four thieves disguised as Hasidic Jews. The theft draws together a variety of racially stereotyped low-life murderers: Jewish jewellers, cockney hardmen, Russian mafiosi, yardies and a group of Irish travellers. Many are involved in illegal bare-knuckle boxing. Lots of guns. Violence is omnipresent.
