Top Dog follows the impact and consequences of decisions taken by gang-leader Billy Evans (Leo Gregory) to protect the local pub where he and his cohorts meet. Billy's gang are relatively small-time, influential in a limited geigraphic way, settling for deliberately causing conflict at various football matches and providing all the beer-swilling fellowship of one long football campaign mixed with the beer intake of a bachelor party.
But when the drinking establishment run by Billy's aunt (played by Susan Penhaligon) comes into the purview of a prominent gangster's protection racket, Billy and his crew decide to scare them off. The pub, they declare, is now under their protection. The problem is that said boss - Mickey (Ricci Harnett) - and more importantly his shadowy backers don't take kindly to the new see-saw balance of tit-for-tat actions that quickly turn the territorial pissing contest into something more dangerous.
It isn't long before the stakes get raised and both sides start to take on casualties. Can Billy rise above the conflict or is it too late to exstinguish the fuse to a particularly nasty powder-keg of reprisals?
There is certainly a case to be made that the gangster genre was mined so exhaustively by the likes of Guy Ritchie and his somewhat rose-tinted view of misunderstood cheeky-chappie wide boys, that there's little more to say that hasn't already been delivered at the end of a wink, smile and a knuckle-duster. Top Dog, though much more sombre, treads familiar territory and your enjoyment may well pivot on either your innate like for the typically British genre itself or whether you consider hooligans and would-be gangsters are merely thugs waiting in line for karma to provide them a suitable kicking.
That being said, while this is a film with no real 'heroes' per se (merely victims of their own pride) long-established actor but relatively new director Martin Kemp delivers a solid adaptation of Dougie Brimson's original novel from behind the camera - one that tends to steer away from the tempting one-liners and goes instead for the personal greek tragedy angle in a world full of grey areas and people handled with black and white solutions.
" I believe that we’ve all got this box inside us that says ‘Evil’. We’re all capable of it but we all decide to keep it closed. It is only actors who are allowed to open it up, see what’s inside and then close it again. But that’s why we enjoy watching it… because we’re watching people live out this evil side. I think that’s what attracts us to these films a lot of the time. That’s exactly what we were trying to do as well. I’ve seen SO many films where the most important thing is the fights. Top Dog isn’t that. The most important things in the film, I think, are the performances and what happens when the guys get home and close the door. We see behind that," Kemp tells me when we sit down to chat about the film's journey to the screen. " There’s a bit in the original Gary Oldman film, The Firm, where the baby picks up a knife belonging to Gary’s character and cuts its mouth. I wanted to take that seed and plant that well into Top Dog and say ‘Let’s use that ‘underneath’ a sub-plot that goes on underneath all of Top Dog. That’s really what it becomes about. You kinda see the violence and you see the effect of the violence through (others') eyes.
Kemp's star, Leo Gregory (who has already impressed in he likes of Payback Season, Green Street Hooligans and One in the Chamber) says that in a role like Billy, he looks to play someone who isn't easily defined as 'good' or 'bad' but as someone who has strong loyalties, be they particularly wise ones or not.
“I can honestly say that above typecasting or gangsters or whatever, any character – as you say yourself – who is ‘grey’ is something interesting. My favourite work that I’ve ever done is taking a character that is brutal and disgusting and makes you want to hate them… but then make the audience feel sympathy and empathy and understanding and maybe finds a connection to where they are then questioning themselves to an extent," he notes. " Anti-heroes are a lot more interesting, I think… and to me, much more believable than a hero. No-one’s just good ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Look… politicians, the world… grey is definitely the colour. Nothing is really black and white. At a performance level, that’s what I enjoy and certainly from an audience perspective that’s what I enjoy watching.”
What does Leo think of the gangster-genre himself? If it is possibly limiting why does it continue to be a viable avenue for film-makers, particularly in the British industry. Americans have cowboys and we have a different kind of outlaw?
" I think that and I also think that it’s a very British thing. I think one of our most famous stories from way back when is Robin Hood. Albeit a bit murkier, gangsters – certainly to the people they’re looking after, not the people they’re against – to the people they ARE looking after, would possibly look at them as that kind of figure, y’know. That, in an essence, is why the gangster thing sells so much here, y’know? I think that's why the gangster thing sells so much..." he offers.
The result will be too dark, nihilistic and violent for some, but Top Dog's bark is snappy even if its bite feels like an angry canine straining at the chains. Not a 'Long Good Friday' then, but more of a ' Short and Sweet but Really Pissed off Tuesday', Top Dog is a good example of a director and actor finding material they believe in and suits them and delivering a strong example of their vision. If that vision is familiar and steady rather than boundary-pushing or ground-breaking then it still indicates respective talents that we may want to see more of in more risky and innovative territory.
Top Dog is in cinemas from Friday 23rd May and out to own on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 26th May through Universal Pictures
