Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written By: Steven Zaillian, Mark Jacobson
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
An outcast New York City cop is charged with bringing down Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, whose real life inspired this partly biographical film.
Ridley Scott set out to make his own Godfather, but brought along too many other movies, resulting in a great-looking period film that plays closer to the facts than many bio-pics (which is to say still wild with the truth, but less so than average) yet fails to leave an impact.
American Gangster tells the story of the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, an honor-bound family man who pushes heroin, and the womanizing deadbeat dad cop who (in this Hollywood version) brought him down. And what brings this movie down is exactly that trite dichotomy — the honorable lawbreaker, the cop with his life in shambles. I’ve seen Heat, thanks, and now I know Scott couldn’t do a better Heat though I love Scott and love that idea.
So we’re pulling Heat, Godfather and a touch of the Untouchables, and a few Morricone-esque cues to bring Once Upon a Time in America into the fold, into a bio-pic directed by one of my favorite directors (probably because he’s so good at diffusing light through FOG and does so often). I haven’t seen A Good Year, and it doesn’t look Good (waka waka), so it seems right there is where Scott stopped being a WOW director and became middle-ground, solidifying the new status with this almost, but not quite there drama that echoes too strongly of other works from a director who was too good to be wearing influences on his sleeve, until now it seems. His filmography from here is, while not all terrible (The Counsellor, Robin Hood, and some may argue Alien:Covenant) but it is all rather forgettable. The standout is The Martian, a good film I’ve no desire to ever see again, which lacks the stamp of a signature anyway.
Coming back to American Gangster, and that ugly dichotomy that brings it down — Scott works really hard to show you how absolutely vile and destructive heroin is. In a montage we see lives ruined by the drug, down to a lonely, crying baby on a mattress full of filth, abandoned by it’s mother for a needle. Initially it worked on me, emphasizing how evil the effect of drugs can be. Slowly it dawned on me that all this was staged as a contrast to how “clean” the kingpin pushing it was. That he lived a life free from addiction and above its consequences I certainly have no issue with, but, and I always have this issue when it comes up (Donnie Yen in Chasing the Dragon being the most recent in memory), trying to tell me a violent drug dealer is some kind of white knight because of his values, his pride for his family or his nation, whatever, will never tread water for me. Yes, in real life no one is all “evil” all the time, and showing the contradictions in villainous characters can be a brilliant show that challenges the viewers. But this is not that. This is all enslaved to the idea of a movie about a principled man dealing drugs vs an unkempt, unruly punk of a man using the law to stop him. And it’s not interesting.
Which isn’t to say there’s NO interest in this movie. Despite the tiresome heart of its theme, the story actually moves briskly despite a 3 hour runtime (I’ve watched the extended cut because that’s, always the way a Scott film should be watched — for a successful director he seems to have a pathetically hard time getting his films theatrically released the way he likes them. To close this overly long parenthetical with an anecdote, Terry Gilliam, ever the artist and never a businessman, took issue specifically with Scott over this saying if you can’t release the movie you want, you shouldn’t at all.) Now I’ve actually exhausted this paragraph on a tangent so let’s move on.
I mentioned my love of Scott’s skill with diffuse light, and he rocks it here. American Gangster looks wonderful, with a gray-gold palette that made me think of old color photographs. The period is beautifully realized and you will be transported to 1968 and it’s soft lights and warm color temperatures. Set design, costumes, very natural lighting, it’s a very well put-together period piece.
I may have inherent resistance to sympathizing with a drug dealer, no matter how much the writing strives to make him seem noble, but I can’t deny Denzel’s intrinsic nobility, nor his Presence. I watched this for Denzel being directed by Scott, and I’ll say that regardless of all else, I was rewarded. Has Denzel ever let us down?
For Denzel’s performance, for Scott’s excellent direction and period creation, and a story that moves at the right pace, American Gangster is worth a watch. But standing on the shoulders of classics, this film itself is not one. The good-bad guy, bad-good guy contrast gets no new life in Scott’s version, and there’s not enough true complexity to Frank Lucas to make him feel like more than a glorification of a man who destroyed thousands of lives with heroin.
Virtuosity remains the definitive experience for Denzel and Crowe together.
THE EXPERIENCE SO FAR
Continuing my Silent Stars book, adding loads and loads of silent films I want to see in the future. I’m returning to choosing what movies to watch next via a plan, my “On Deck” list, and I’m finding it rewarding and satisfying again.
My son asked me about the movies I watch, and I realized all of them involve fighting. I was hard pressed to think of a movie I’ve seen lately that didn’t involve at least one character death, as well. But I didn’t dwell on it.
NEXT TIME: Wyatt Earp
An Explorer, Not an Expert 