American Gangster review
By Eunice Kua
Rating: 7/10
American Gangster starts with a man being set on fire. It’s a jarring image that hopefully sticks in your mind and acts as a talisman against being taken in by Denzel Washington’s Frank Lucas, a self-made man of the kind that Americans love to venerate, even if he is a ruthless S.O.B..
Directed by Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator), much of the film’s two-and-a-half-hours is spent charting Lucas’s life, from his days as a sombre bodyguard to his rise to becoming the most powerful man in Harlem in the early 1970s. With family connections, brutality and business acumen, Lucas audaciously uses market forces and the U.S. military to take control of the New York City drug trade, upsetting a lot of traditional Mafia families and crooked cops in the process. Meanwhile, rough-and-ready detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is an anomaly among the New York policemen of his time—he believes in being honest. He latches on to Lucas relatively late in the game, but once he does, he too gets a shot at success and vindication if he brings him in.
The pace is brisk, and the setting, with its 1970s afros and oily hair, is all-encompassing. Besides Washington and Crowe, there is a stellar collection of rival crime bosses (Cuba Gooding Jr., Armand Assante), sleazy cops (Javier Rivera, Josh Brolin) and a dear old mama (Ruby Dee).
Yet despite the simplistic exploration of that classic tale of a criminal and a cop, American Gangster intrigues due to the charisma of its two leads, plus the fact that it is based on a true story. While Scott clearly doesn’t really want to glorify drug dealers—there are various scenes of pathetic-looking heroin junkies to make the point—Washington’s Lucas is almost irresistible. This is a man whose smile could charm a cobra, and Lucas essentially lives the American dream. His is a rags-to-riches story of a man who leads a relatively rosy life, has a strong work ethic and good family values. It falls to Crowe’s Roberts, also the underdog, to be the counterpoint to Lucas’ illusory world, and his down-to-earth depiction of police work and lawyering is a nice change from the flashy sets of TV favs like CSI and its offspring.
And together, they tell an extraordinary tale. That Scott doesn’t take a stronger stand on Lucas and the drug trade that he represents might serve to be a weakness as much as a strength. For a film about drugs, American Gangster is not really about drugs. But it’s about a host of other things—racism, corruption, unlikely partnerships—that builds towards a bombshell of an ending. Don’t think that this is your average samseng flick. Instead of knives and street fights, think handguns, snazzy suits and warm family dinners. Oh, and men being set on fire.
AMERICAN GANGSTER
Release Date
10 January 2008
Genre
Drama
Director
Ludovic Berthillot, Ridley Scott
Cast
Julie Delpy, Denzel Washington, Mélanie Thierry, Josh Brolin, Eric Valette
Running Time
2 hours 37 mins
Language
English
Classification
U