Contradictions abound in Ridley Scott’s 'American Gangster'

Friday, November 2, 2007

By titling his new epic look at the late 60s/early 70s heroin trade in New York City “American Gangster,” director Ridley Scott is already asking us to consider what it is that makes the story of rags-to-riches drug peddler Frank Lucas and uncorrupted cop Richie Roberts so uniquely American. But its the even-handedness of his storytelling that makes that question so hard to answer.

Denzel Washington stars as Lucas, a man who swims in a messy moral cesspool. When his beloved mobster mentor Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III) keels over in a department store after a speech about how corporate slimeballs do nothing for the local community, Lucas decides he must take matters into his own hands. His version of the American Dream involves bringing the rest of his poor, Southern-raised family to Manhattan and turning them into criminals. Lucas believes that if he keeps a low profile, he will continue to get rich without getting caught. Based on a story almost to absurd to be true, his racket involves smuggling the strongest pure heroin on the streets through the soldiers overseas in the Vietnam War.

Roberts, on the other hand, is straight as an arrow when it comes to policework, returning a million dollars of recovered drug money without funneling it through any of the many cops in the NYC force who are on the take. Played by a paunchy Russell Crowe (in another chameleon-like portrayal), Roberts is also a cheating husband and an absentee Dad. It is inevitable that these two men meet when one of them is taken down.

Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian know we have seen the rise-and-fall tale a million times, so they focus their attention on what’s behind the curtain; the place where the reality of the situation seperates itself from the myth. The American Dream is a tall tale, something that isn’t quite tangible. Al Pacino best exemplifies the violent, romanticized version in Brian De Palma’s overrated and overheated “Scarface,” but Washington’s Frank Lucas is a more composed gangster who directs his anger in strategically sound places. That’s not to say, of course, that he won’t shoot a man down in broad daylight on a crowded street and then pop back into a diner like nothing happened.

American Gangster

*** 1/2

So perhaps Ridley Scott's much-anticipated mobster epic doesn't have an original idea in its head, with its unshakable shades of "Scarface" and "Serpico" and "Superfly." And maybe it's a half-hour too long. But it's exceptionally crafted and superbly acted by the irresistible on-screen combo of Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

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Scott presents the mob leader as a beaten-down minority who finally gets his due, but not without a serious look at the consequences. The respect Lucas commands once he’s cornered the market on drugs (and half the addicts are turn up dead because of its uncommon strength) is enough to make any moviegoer cheer for the underdog. But while Scott shows us the Lucas family having a fancy dinner, he intercuts the scene with disturbing shots of blood leaking from open holes in junkies’ arms, and dead bodies from the very neighboorhood Lucas’ boss once claimed to love and protect.

Washington is such an engaging presence that even when Lucas is doing something truly terrible, he’s still likable, especially when he tries to temper the dress and mannerisms of his brothers who willingly flaunt their money and dress like pimps. Crowe’s Richie Roberts screams decency, but every time you turn around, Roberts is with another woman. In their own respective fields, both men make enemies and alienate their peers in equal measure.

Drawing a parallel between these figures adds a different kind of drama to the mix than the average gangster flick. Scott uses the television backdrop of the civil rights and anti-war movements for perspective and the art direction is very convincing, always reminding the viewer of the film’s huge scope. In a bizarre twist of events that Tony Montana would be proud of, the button-down cop ends up fighting for the black gangster’s right to be recognized as the powerful man he was by a racist government agent who ridicules the very thought.

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Contradictions abound in Ridley Scott’s 'American Gangster'

American Gangster

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