REVIEW: American Gangster [2007]

Rating: R | Runtime: 157 minutes
Release Date: November 2nd, 2007 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Ridley Scott
Writer(s): Steven Zaillian / Mark Jacobson (New York magazine article “The Return of Superfly”)

My man.

I’ve heard American Gangster is a run-of-the-mill cop vs. robber flick—another example of Ridley Scott’s growing mediocrity. But I love the cast and know what the director has in him, so I was all for seeing it anyway. After all, a generic gangster film with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe should still be better than most. What’s interesting, though, is that I didn’t see it as a crime film at all. Instead it proved to be one of my least favorite genres: the biopic.

We’re shown Frank Lucas ascend from driver of Harlem’s big shot to king of the drug world while Richie Roberts goes from beat cop/law student to lead drug investigator/prosecuting lawyer. Rather than give us all conflict, we get sequence after sequence of how these two got where they do. Not only that, but I couldn’t tell you at the end who was good or bad. Both men are glorified and shown to have enemies they vault over. Both beat the odds. Honestly, I liked Denzel’s Lucas as a person much more than Crowe’s Roberts.

There’s just too much going on. How many times must we see Robert’s boy scout mentality and Lucas’ calm demeanor and non-flashy appearance? Both men do what they should to be successful, but Crowe is continuously punished for it in life (not career) while Washington gets richer. Who should we strive to emulate? Like the young man with a 95 mph fastball who gives up his gravy train says, “I want to be like you Uncle Frank.” You don’t see Robert’s son looking up to dad. He barely exists to the boy.

I don’t want to slight the story too much, though. The premise is intriguing insofar as showing how a black man subverts the middleman (in this case local electronic stores) to buy drugs from their source in Bangkok. This no name does what the Italians never could by selling a superior product for half the price all while staying under the radar. Whether his wife’s expensive chinchilla coat truly was the cause of putting Lucas on his enemies’ radar or not (it is a bit convenient(, it was bound to happen.

That being said, keeping a low profile and staying conservative is a novel idea that you’d think more criminals would want to adopt. The Frank Lucas Story therefore works. I just think it would succeed better as its own tale. But just show us his life or even just his heyday as a ruthless criminal rather than depicting him as a kid from the streets who works hard to run his city. Glorifying crime should not be what Hollywood wants to do.

While the Lucas part is good, the Roberts part is great. The Richie Roberts Story is something I would definitely watch. Here’s a guy that’s married to his job and estranged from his wife and kid. Someone who finds a million dollars of drug money and doesn’t take a penny. He won’t cover for his partner or friends if they do something illegal and won’t stop for anything to actually put bad men away.

He doesn’t just take down the most dangerous criminal in New York either. He prosecutes him in court and gets him to cooperate in taking down corrupt cops. The craziest revelation, however, is that he later becomes Lucas’ defense attorney and gets his term shortened by fifty years. It’s too bad that we get a bloated three hour parallel tale of the two rather one two-hour film about each guy separately. My main investment was finally seeing these actors on-screen together.

In that regard, Washington and Crowe deliver the goods like usual. The supporting cast is great too. I can’t believe how many big names they got for bit parts. Ejiofor, Hawkes, Brolin, Gugino, Common, Ortiz, Gooding Jr., Assante, and more push the story to a higher level via their professionalism. RZA even delivers a nice turn, but did we need the money shot of his tattooed name on his shoulder? Cover that up. It was stupid. I really hope John Ortiz continues to rise because he always steals scenes (see Miami Vice).

As with most biopics, this one just shows too much. It lulled me into a sense of cruise control wherein I was just watching and waiting for something to happen. There are moments (like the final shootout and a nice exchange between Lucas and his mother), but they are few and far between. Only in America can a man without a conscience rat on a few corrupt cops and skate free from jail to roam the streets again.

I understand the utilitarianism of it all and that he might be a marked man as a result, but he turned in police officers rather than gang leaders. Who’s putting a hit on his head then? He’ll be able to retire with no problem. Not to mention that there probably weren’t any ramifications experienced by the military from their involvement in the smuggling of contraband into the country. Some go to jail, some get a slap on the wrist, and most get away with it.