With Oscar Season commencing, and with last year’s The Departed showing that crime does pay (at least in terms of cinema), what better time to see the release of American Gangster, the new big hope for next year’s awards ceremony? Indeed, the film is proving itself to be popular not just with the critics, but also with the public as it (as of writing) is storming the box office and has an astronomical score in IMDB.
Considering the success of The Departed, it’s hard not to see American Gangster, like We Own the Night, as a desperate dash to the Kodak Theatre. And after seeing the film, such suspicions were confirmed as this is a film that will fail to stand the test of time as a classic.
Even in its plot description, American Gangster sounds as generic as its title. It opens with a young man, Frank Lucas, hearing the last wise words of his boss, a gangster, before turning his back on such advice (The Godfather). We see the rise of this man into a reputable gangster through the establishment of an exceptional drugs trade (Scarface, etc), despite facing problems from unreliable family members (The Godfather Pt II). Meanwhile we follow the rise of an idealistic cop, Richie Roberts, as he dodges corruption from fellow police officers (LA Confidential, Serpico) to track down America’s most dangerous gangster. Oh, and it’s based on a true story (Goodfellas).
American Gangster could have been something special, considering its impressive attached names: Denzel Washington as Lucas, and Russell Crowe as Roberts. Washington is disappointingly safe as Lucas, falling into default mode as the smart and strong man with strict ideals, only risking emotion to thump his chest or fling a coffee cup in anger. Crowe has the better role, as the also idealistic man, but his following in the law doesn’t match his morals in life, as he endures a difficult divorce due to his constant womanising, while also struggling to pass the bar in an effort to escape his demanding job. But the vulnerability that such a character is supposed to suggest (he admits he’s terrified of public speech) is quickly cast aside to resolve the plot. The other characters in the film (Lucas’s Puero Rican wife, his dear old mother, Roberts’s estranged wife and child) are pretty much reduced to a single plot point, or there to look pretty.
The true story of Frank Lucas is an interesting one. He had the initiative to utilise America’s presence in Vietnam to smuggle back heroin direct from the source, ensuring a purity not seen in the States before. By undercutting the competition, Lucas quickly became richer and more powerful than any crime organisation in the family. It’s a distorted view on the American Dream. But the real interest is in Lucas being an African-American. It would have been more interesting to see the tension between Lucas and the Italian Gangsters, who no doubt were peeved by being usurped by a man of “inferior†race. But aside from a line or two, this isn’t developed.
Instead, the film attempts to culminate in the meeting of the two great figures. Initially, the scene is electric as the two characters, both more intelligent than anyone else in their field, verbally parry with each other. But it doesn’t last long as the film rushes to its conclusion. While the closing shot is an important one, the information mentioned in on-screen text would have been almost more engaging than the previous 2-and-a-half hours.
Director Ridley Scott was once a visionary, but there’s little in this film to suggest his past genius. American Gangster is by no means a bad film. The films doesn’t feel as long as it is, and there are great moments dotted throughout, such as Lucas’s nephew dropping his baseball ambitions to become just like his uncle, the questioning of Roberts’s “goodness†in terms of his entire life, and the overall irony of Lucas’s actions in the light of his mentor’s dying speech. But, the film is overwhelmed by its lack of originality, with almost every scene having been portrayed before, from The Godfather to New Jack City to The Sopranos. American Gangster is as uninspiring as its title.
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