American Gangster

Directed by the legendary Ridley Scott, “American Gangster”, featuring the dynamic duo of powerhouse lead actors Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, is a blistering biopic that creates a celebratory filth in allusion to crime, capitalism and the corruptible spirit of the crooked consciousness. The ruthless storytelling method behind this gritty crime actioner is quite appealing in its slick and stylized excessive excess but the film vacillate s on occasionally being bloated in search for its consistent hedonistic pulse. Nevertheless, the rambling “American Gangster” wears its badge of wickedness and struts caustically as a dynamic drug-dealing situation from which extrication is very difficult, for little-minded lost souls looking for that big score. To suggest that, Scott endlessly indulges his love of visual textures and layers, placing his actors half in darkness, shooting through frosted glass or metal grilles, and filling backgrounds with crowds and foregrounds with smoke.

Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian, with skill and careful attention to detail, have conceived the thrilling theatrics by nostalgically turning the regional ribaldry of The Big Apple into a personal playground for the perverse and the privileged. In a nutshell, that would describe the ambitious agenda of real-life “black Godfather” Frank Lucas, an anarchistic businessman that made his unspeakable fortune out of catering his overseas Vietnamese-grown junk and peddling his lecherous stash to his Harlem hometown in the seventies. Lucas’s empire, built on the backs of the city’s irresolute and avaricious, is an astounding testament to the vulnerable condition of the indestructible human sense of decency and dignity.

Masterfully, The film provides an astute and sharp commentary on the dubious scope of the “American Dream” where seizing the moment translates into stepping on the toes of the desperate and devious in order to succeed in a so-called prosperous country that’s bombarded by a false sense of conviction and entitlement. It is basically to control how you selectively walk in life or be walked on as a permanent faceless casualty and, as a result, “American Gangster” may probably be viewed as the epitome of the sharp-minded influences of mobster/drug-induced ditties from yesteryear.

As a crime kingpin Bumpy Johnson Bumpy’s (Clarence Williams III) protégé, personal driver, and bodyguard, for 15 years up until his death, Lucas takes advantage of his inside know-how soon after his boss died and comes into prominence in the late 60’s. Lucas, resembling Machiavelli, goes right to the source and deals with his suppliers without getting stuck in the middle man mode. In this case, the unscrupulous and cunning Lucas makes contact with an astute Vietnamese contact that instructs him how to smuggle his “product” into the States thus providing a “natural high” for his corrosive clientele, and completely monopolizes the Heroin business. This routine helps Lucas accomplish what the mafia couldn’t do in a hundred years and eventually makes him the envy of all his cocky competitors as he rises from the ranks of Bumpy Johnson’s shadow to become the multi-millionaire of the Harlem drug “trade”.

Lucas, low-key and soft-spoken, further takes his cue from hiding his high risk activities from the authorities and bases his behind-the-scenes operation in the form of using his family as a smoke screen. This inspiration is indispensable for how it provided the Italian mob to construct their morally ignoble affairs by investing in the surrounding of relatives as a misleading front. Lucas’s “family” circle consisted of a glowingly pretty Miss Puerto Rico trophy wife Julie (Lymari Nadal), a mother he worships unconditionally (Ruby Dee) and his kid brother (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

In contrast to Lucas’ brush with fortune and a spirited family, praiseworthy and righteous cop Ritchie Roberts (Crowe) is good at what he does professionally but, ironically, gets a very bad reputation in the department as a slovenly character and a loose canon. He finds $1 million in drug money, but instead of sharing it with the boys, he turns it in. Personally, his domestic life, on the contrary, is in shambles because his ex-wife (Carla Gugino) is giving him a mess of trouble regarding their son and other related strife concerning their split, so his personal life, by comparison, seems to be less together than the hyper-organized Lucas. Although he has to deal with an assorted bunch of on-the-take police officers that see his nobility as a liability to them, the only thing that drives Roberts is his initiative, courage, and common sense to bust the polished pusher Lucas and link him to the city’s rapid-fire drug infestation. He’s honest as the day is long, and incorruptible. He’s a real bulldog when it comes to his pursuit of the target, which is why his superior makes him the man in charge of the task force appointed to get the goods on Lucas and destroy his cash cow.

Divided in parallel storylines, “American Gangster” works hard to balance its two stories, shifting in and out of each while also exploring broader themes of race, urban decay, the drug trade, black capitalism and police corruption against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. While Lucas’s brothers are called up from North Carolina and trained in the new family business, Roberts recruits a team to open one of the early federal drug agency offices in New York and when Lucas marries a beautiful beauty queen from Puerto Rico, Roberts is mired in a custody case following his divorce. Lucas is refined and fits in easily in an attractive mansion he purchases while Roberts is a street smart cop. Some may miss the point of the film when they pinpoint that the side trips into the personal lives of Roberts and Lucas are more distracting than interesting because they fail see that “American Gangster” is one of those juxtaposition exercises, in which we note the irony of the reversal of traditional roles. Regarded as a whole, the comparable difference between Lucas and Roberts is uncanny and parallel in forethought as Scott implies that these men, one troubled saint, one textured sinner, may be on the same page when all is said and done from clearing out the heavy-handed anguish. While Lucas enjoys the fruit of his success and grabs the gusto at the expense of societal weaklings willing to sell their empty psyches to make his pockets burst at the seams, Roberts has the pious platitudes to cure the deteriorating world around him though can’t muster up the same enthusiasm for saving his personal universe for familial bliss.

Ingeniously, Scott has rounded up two of the cinema’s finest leading men in the Oscar-winning pair of Crowe and Washington because both actors are adrenalizing in tense conflict and contempt and elevate this crime-ridden harebrained escapade beyond its authentic, intense boundaries.

Washington portrays Lucas, a cutthroat criminal who nevertheless lives by a usually strict moral code. As an overachiever and a smooth operator, affable and smooth on the outside, yet ruthless enough to set an enemy on fire, he demands discipline, both from himself and from those who work for him, almost exclusively family members from his childhood home in North Carolina. It’s easy to see how natural it was for this high-priced hoodlum to amass such a wealthy existence over the likes of the unsuspecting wounded, mainly his own perishing people. Washington in particular, continues, in an artistic manner, to shine as one of America’s finest performers in terms of his adventurous take on characterizations which leaves audiences spellbound, proving that being charismatic and creepy at the same time is an effortless gesture. He gives a concrete form to the dapper and distinguished Frank Lucas with an indescribable sophistication that’s very scary underneath the surface. Washington’s Lucas is so charming for the ladies and compelling to the guys you never really see how sinister his characterization is behind the Fortune 500 façade.

As for Crowe, he eases into the role like fish to water, underplaying his part in just the right amounts, chewing up much scenery in comparison and you do feel for how ragged he is based on his own percolating predicament. He gets into the skin of the character and will surely get applauded for it. Crowe, obviously no slouch as an actor, brings a ’70s-era shabbiness to Roberts. He’s too cool to be desperate, but he’s smart enough to know that he needs to get his life together. Roberts, is a cop who, while on the job, is the straightest arrow imaginable. He’s even working his way through law school. When off the clock, he is not such the straight arrow, eying for the ladies, which explains the ugly divorce he’s going through. The one man in a corrupt system that has more enemies than allies on both sides of the law, he is not to be messed with and can not be bought. He is a straight cop that has a passion for what his job is supposed to be - justice. Needless to say, a man of such passion has a terrible family life.

The two leads mesh and complement each other and Lucas is as dynamic and dominant as Roberts. Crowe seems a little bit more contained, restricted, as a character, which is probably how Scott wanted him to be. Washington has more room to move as a character and he has more screen time because he’s the focus of the story and the one who propels the action. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top. Washington and Crowe don’t meet for most of the movie and their parallel tales are told separately but eventually the two come face-to-face, sitting down in an office outside a courtroom, where Lucas tests Roberts’ mettle in a way no one else could, or would. Roberts, meanwhile, gives as good as he gets. There is a further ironic dimension. Once Richie places Lucas under arrest, they realize they like each other. Apparently, they are two sides of the same coin, only on different sides of the law. After Roberts becomes a defense attorney, he becomes Lucas’s lawyer. Because of Frank’s cooperation, and his naming names in a corrupt police force, he gets off relatively light and is out of prison today and lives in New York. He is in his seventies.

The screen also burns with talent here and many of the supporting performances are so well-written and impressive. With a powerful supporting cast that includes the aforementioned Dee (she shares a scene with Washington that’s authentic and memorable), Ejiofor, Nadal, Gooding Jr., and Brolin the story is padded decently with off-kilter personalities that made up the wasted worlds of Lucas and Roberts. Armand Assante is on board as the main “token” Italian mafioso to contrast with Washington’s GQ mean-tempered Lucas.