Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
Ridley Scott
Cast :
Denzel Washington……….Frank Lucas
Russell Crowe……….Detective Richie Roberts
Cuba Gooding Jr………..Nicky Barnes
Josh Brolin……….Det. Trupo
RZA……….Jones
John Ortiz……….Javy Rivera
Ted Levine……….Toback
Yul Vazquez……….Detective Alphonse Abruzzo
Martin Scorsese for years tried to give the Academy a picture that would earn him an Oscar as Best Director after his classics Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Taxi Driver all lost to other films that have since been deemed less deserving. When The Departed won a deserved Oscar for Scorsese, it gave a blueprint to all of the great directors remaining who have yet to blessed with their own little golden man. All one has to do is sit down and make a great movie as opposed to trying to pander to the notoriously fickle Academy. Ridley Scott, a legend on par with Scorsese, seemingly took this blueprint and crafted a crime thriller that rivals The Departed in both star power and quality with the best film of 2007 in American Gangster.
Based in part on a New York Magazine article entitled “The Return of Superfly,” American Gangster is about the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and his notorious “Country Boys.” Lucas would become infamous as being the man behind the heroin epidemic in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s, bringing his purer and cheaper “Blue Magic” onto the streets straight from Vietnam and Cambodia. Smuggled via a cousin of his over fighting in the war, Lucas would make (and eventually lose) over $250 million selling drugs illegally before being brought down and sent to prison by New Jersey Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe).
The film follows Lucas’s rise and fall from being the driver of one of Harlem’s most notorious gangsters in Bumpy Johnson to succeeding him following Bumpy’s sudden and unexpected death. As he takes over Bumpy’s business with a viciousness the former “Robin Hood of Harlem” never had, Lucas brings his family up from North Carolina to be part of his crew to replace those who he had grown to distrust. On the surface level it’s a relatively standard crime thriller, as it’s one part police procedural and another part character study. But what makes American Gangster a special is how it looks at both parts of the equation.
We’re presented with two similar men in Roberts and Lucas. Roberts is a by the book police officer, giving up $1 million in drug money that a city of corrupt cops would’ve stolen for themselves. As an officer his life is clean, as a man his predilections towards woman and wine have left him a divorced womanizer who rarely sees his child. He’s a good man who lets his vices get in the way of his better judgment. Lucas, on the other hand, values honesty and trust in a business that generally has none. On the surface he seems like an honorable man in a dishonorable profession, but he’s as vicious a killer as it gets when needed. But the interesting part is how well written both characters are in one of the best scripts of the year.
This is a terrific story and plot to begin with, as the film is less of a “cat and mouse” type police procedural than a great crime film like Heat is. It’s more of two main plots crossing that exist independent of one another for most of the film’s two and a half hour running time that converge at the logical ending point. Both men exist independently of each other for the most part, as we follow both their paths until they meet up. Roberts for the most part goes from thinking the crime wave is from the traditional sources and it takes him a while to figure out where the drugs are coming from and their new source. This is a case of good old-fashioned police work meeting good old-fashioned drug deal empire making, so to speak, as Roberts and his hand-picked crew of men (including rapper/actor RZA) are to go after big shipments and big players in the drug game.
What makes the film engrossing are the performances of Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Both men are on the short list of men considered to be the best actor in the world and in this case the film works as a clinic for them. Crowe brings a lot of sympathy and grittiness to what could’ve been a rather thankless role. Roberts doesn’t have the great lines in the film, but it’s his job to carry the intensity. It’s interesting to see Crowe in this sort of role so shortly removed from another top turn in 3:10 to Yuma, playing the charismatic rogue to Christian Bale. Washington brings in another in what is becoming an expanding list of great performances. Surrounded by many of the better black actors of this period, Washington sets the pace and brings out the best performances of the actors assembled to be his crew. Denzel’s presence alone brings out the best in most of the cast; this is the type of role that’s out of his wheelhouse ala Training Day. He’s being charismatic and is likeable on occasion, Washington will never stop doing that, but Lucas is a vicious guy that can’t be a hero and Washington makes us want to see him brought down. He’s not a good man by any means. Early in the film Frank talks about integrity and honor, giving a speech to his brothers on how to do things in life, then midway through leaves to shoot someone in the head that owes him money. He comes back to finish his meal as if nothing has happened, cool as the other side of the pillow so to speak. It’s a chilling performance that ranks with his best work.
In the hands of a novice director, this is the sort of film that could fall into the “great cast, good movie” category, but Ridley Scott has helmed enough epic films to know how to set a deliberate and tight pace to the proceeding. For a director who has helmed some of the best films of the last 50 years, Scott is the sort of hand needed for a film like this. His camerawork and editing are crisp and solid; he doesn’t add in irrelevant side-plots and ends on the perfect note.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
