Hmm, my most vivid memory of Uzis in TV and film is the 1989 TV movie Brotherhood Of The Rose, in which the agents (of various spy agencies including the CIA and Mossad) pursuing the heroes uniformly use Uzis.
It strikes me as odd that we don't have a page for that movie; I may get around to making one, if I can ever dig up my taped copy of it.
edited 6th Apr '11 9:23:50 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Uzi's are a SMG and thus more accurately used than an assault rifle like the AK-47* while being so in a way that makes sense (concealability) even if only subconsciously. There's also the "not a rifle" component that makes it somewhat exotic. It's also a gun that has a very easy look for holding in a Guns Akimbo style because of how short it is, where as a rifle will look like it's drooping.
Fight smart, not fair.Largely Rule of Cool. It looks both nasty and distinctive. It's easy to carry and relatively easy to conceal.
There also is (or was, at least, pre-9/11) a certain cultural difference at work. European law enforcement is often a bit more "paramilitary" than typical American law enforcement. Seeing, e.g., Italian caribinieri armed with SM Gs was a bit surprising and unnerving to many American tourists. It's unusual to see American cops with anything bigger than a pistol (and in the '80s, or earlier, that would usually mean a .38 revolver) under routine circumstances.
Jet-a-Reeno!A late contribution on why Uzis might be associated with criminals - the Metropolitan Police, according to the "Evening Standard", reports that last year it seized 530 guns from London gangs last year, including 16 sub-machine guns, most of which were "Uzi-style machine pistols". The context was a report about the sentencing of two gang members in East London who fired an Agram 2000 submachine gun into a fried chicken restaurant and killed a young woman.
This post was not brought to you courtesy of the England and Wales Tourist Board...
"Well, it's a lifestyle"*checks wikipedia*
For some reason I was thinking of the 74U which uses a smaller round and is a carbine, but not an smg. I'm not sure why I thought that it was a smg...
Fight smart, not fair.Because Modern Warfare calls it one? And the AK-74 and AKS-74u fire the same round (5.45x39mm)
"Yup. That tasted purple."

Now, maybe my premise is mistaken, I'm thinking mostly of Die Hard and the use of Uzis by the thieves in those films and I'm fairly certain it appears much elesewhere but maybe I'm wrong: I think that the Uzi ends up being associated with the criminal class and terrorist a lot. It's film role is somewhere between the Thompson and the AK-47.
I suppose some may argue that it is the look and the capability that makes it seem very suited for this role. The Micro-Uzi can be treated like a pistol in action poses and the Uzi has a smaller profile than a rifle and seems like something that could be carried about yet I have my own pet theory (just for the sake of eccentricity): The Secret Service used to use Uzis. There's a famous picture from the attempt on Reagan's life
◊ where one guy is looking over the scene, covering everybody with an uzi. That sort of image happens at notable events that impress themselves onto a cultural psyche. Secret Service agents don't look like any other sort of cop or military, they are the ultimate in Badass Suit in real life and when a guy is standing there after having pulled an UZI out of a briefcase, he probably looks more like Hollywood badass criminal or bank robber than anything else.