Entertaining and most likely a major award contender, Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," explores new depths of great American screw-ups spanning our modern history from Vietnam to Civil Rights to corrupt cops to the projects.
There is nothing "feel good" about this 1970s-era drug drama, except its two phenomenal performances from Denzel Washington ("Inside Man") as heroine drug lord Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe ("3:10 to Yuma") as the not-to-be bought cop, Richie Roberts.
Although the two are not perfect foils for one another, their characters spark both intrigue and insight into America social order. Not often do we see uneducated, yet intelligent, sophisticated, very successful Black drug dealers or "businessmen" in major motion pictures.
Frank Lucas, as true to life as he is portrayed to be, and as influential as he was throughout the projects all over the five New York borough and Newark, has not been a household name like other famous American gangsters like Al Capone or John Gotti, until now.
Much is to be said about the experience of seeing this film with a racially mixed audience. With many racial slurs throughout, much visual commentary on race issues in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, it is clear that paragons of success and heroism have become distorted.
What if Frank Lucas invented a computer operating system? Could he have done so then? Could he do so now? He most certainly had the capacity, but clearly not the resources. Does being honest like Richie Roberts get you anything besides a measly salary and night school?
At the surface, this movie is just another drug movie. On second look, it is a complex unraveling of race in America. Lucas even compares his mentor, Bumpie Johnson, a Harlem drug lord, to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This complex look at race from what will most likely be an Oscar contender is somewhat refreshing after movies such as "Crash" that slapped you in the face and called you a racist every time a character turned the corner. "American Gangster" lets you soak in it a bit and really feel the pressure from both sides.
We begin following Lucas, when Bumpie has a heart attack and dies. Lucas quickly finds a way to take over his reign of the neighborhood. He overhears a news report that American soldiers in Vietnam are developing drug addictions and, along with a relative serving in Vietnam he devises perhaps the most embarrassing drug trafficking scheme in American history, hiding 200 kilos of pure, uncut heroin in the coffins of fallen American soldiers.
Frank's nemesis is Roberts, a Jewish cop in Newark. After his partner becomes corrupt and addicted to the heroin Lucas is flooding into New York and New Jersey, he is hired to head up a team to go straight to the head of the drug problem.
Although neither of these characters' back stories adds too much to the action -- in fact every time we see Richie's ex-wife, played by Carla Gugino ("Night at the Museum), the movie really slows -- the two brilliantly represent the America that we wish didn't exist.
Crowe does a great Jersey accent and makes us feel the pain of what it feels like to be a good cop who always follows the rules and never gets anything for it except a measly 20k a year.
Washington, in usual Denzel fashion, seamlessly illustrates a strong, capable black man, who just so happens to sell drugs. He is riveting on screen.
As Roberts and his crew gain speed on the Lucas camp, the impending feeling of "I think I've seen this movie before," looms. In the end, the film is quite predictable, but what can you expect from a gangster drug movie - there's not much left to do in this arena. But, Scott and writer Steven Zaillian clearly have made a film meant to be a realistic journey into a great American blunder.
