American Gangster
“American Gangster” is pretty good big-screen mainstream entertainment. The film is part crime drama/corruption expose (think Serpico) and part drug-lord bio. American Ganster details in equal parts the rise and fall of 1970’s Heroin King-Pin Frank Lucas and his bring-down by detective Richie Roberts. The big players are Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts. Frank Lucas was a southern boy who morphed into the infamous Bumpy Johnson’s (Clarence Williams 3rd) Driver. He does more than drive though-in the opening frame he establishes himself as a killer. When Bumpy passes away, Frank takes over.
Meanwhile Richie Roberts is an undercover cop who is too damn honest. He insists on turning in a million dollars cash. This earns him a seriously bad reputation on the force-honest cops are snitches for not honest ones, and in this movie, Richie Roberts is just about the only honest cop there is.
Once Frank takes over, he does the same things Bumpy does-he treats his employees with respect, he passes out turkeys at thanksgiving, and he keeps a low profile. We realize rather quickly that both Lucas and Roberts are, in a way, honorable men. But Lucas one ups Bumpy, he figures out a way to corner the market on heroin by buying direct from Vietnam. He is an excellent business man. His respectfulness to the art of laissez faire is contrasted with the elitism of the Mafia and the showboating of Nickey Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr. not giving me much).
While Frank has a problem with killing people, Richie has a problem with his family. The movie is a little confusing on this point; is he consumed by his job, unfaithful, or both? And why is he either? I’m not convinced.
Frank Lucas is a family man, so when he gets rich he brings his whole family to live in New York, including the always-a-pleasure actress Ruby Dee playing his mother. This is a wholesome move-who can deny family and a smart one because family is loyal.
Richie assembles a rag-tag undercover force. We get a minute of the other fellows’ personalities and understand that they too are clean cops (big ups RZA!) so now there are four clean cops. No five, because their boss is clean too.
And so on and so on “American Gangster” goes back and forth, breezing thru an interesting narrative and touching on a number of interesting ideas, but never stopping to fulfill the promise of so many interesting premises. Funny how it couldn’t stop either because it is two hours and forty minutes long. Yes it looks good, and the music is good (but the score is pedestrian) and it tells its story well, but, afterwards…well…blah.
“American Gangster” is an interesting film, a decent film, an exciting film, but ultimately not an enduring film. Who is Frank Lucas? Where did he come from in the south? What made him move to New York? How did he first meet Bumpy? How did he become a killer? Frank Lucas as corporate America is an intriguing notion. The racism that leads the (incredibly corrupt) cops to believe that a black man could never rise above the Italians is an interesting notion. However, after seeing the film I feel like I know no more about these notions than I did from seeing the preview.
This film needs to take more risks. It needs more thrust, more style, more of an angle, because there are so many of them that start but don’t finish. But it’s a good first edit Mr. Scott.
Story: B The rise and fall of Frank Lucas, roped in by Richie Roberts.
Acting: B -Nice enough but sometimes Denzel reminds me of Denzel.
Visuals: B - Nice enough but not living up to such a title.
Originality/Innovation: C - This is where we are lacking.
Enjoyability Grade: B But I enjoyed it a bit, I won’t lie.
Overall Grade: B - This is the kind of crime epic Scorcese would be ashamed of.
|
