American Gangster
Like “The Godfather” and “GoodFellas” before it, “American Gangster” is ultimately a story about achieving the “American Dream” through criminal means. Their main characters don’t think anything of it because, that’s the world they were raised in. Right and wrong, at least in terms of the greater society in concerned, is skewered. But part of the fascination with all of these worlds is that some level of morality and a level of responsibility to the code of their world does exist. Vito Corleone disapproving of drugs as a vice that can hurt people, unlike say, prostitution and gambling. Henry Hill and his friends realizing the hot water they would find themselves in for beating a made guy to death, while not thinking one thing about insurance fraud and gun running. And Frank Lucas, the focus of “Gangster,” shooting a gangster in cold blood for charging people 20% of their take for protection when his predecessor (and Lucas’ mentor) charged less, while not thinking twice of smuggling heroin into the States in the coffins of fallen soldiers from Vietnam, a practice that made him more powerful than even the mafia in the drug business in the early ’70s. Of course it couldn’t last- Lucas and his operation got busted by a task force led by Richie Roberts, whose investigation not only led to Lucas’ conviction but that of 3/4s of New York’s drug enforcement officers who were on the take.
Ridley Scott’s film- one of his best- also has another thing in common with those classics by Coppola and Scorsese (which it doesn’t measure up to in artistry, but does in entertainment level)- it’s main character is a seductive villain. Who doesn’t identify with the Corleone’s in “The Godfather,” and who didn’t take it personally when their enemies gunned down Vito and Sonny? Who didn’t enjoy hanging out with Henry, Jimmy and Tommy in “GoodFellas”- and who didn’t love seeing them succeed? Lucas is cut from the same mold, as written in Steven Zallian’s fascinating screenplay (based on a New Yorker interview with Lucas in 2000). He loves his family (he cuts his brothers and cousins in on the action, and buys a mansion for his mother (Ruby Dee, who makes you want her as your mother as well)), he loves his community, and treats them right (a lesson he learned from his mentor Bumpy Johnson, seen in the beginning as played by Clarence Williams III), and he’s good to the people who he sees as allies (including Armand Assante as Italian mob boss Dominic Cattano). Don’t get on his bad side though, as Nicky Barnes (a triumph after so many misses for Cuba Gooding Jr.) and a corrupt detective (Josh Brolin, three for three in great sleeze this year between his work in this, “Planet Terror,” and “No Country for Old Men”) find out the hard way.
Of course, it also helps that Lucas is played by Denzel Washington, who’s impossible not to like and at the top of his game in “Gangster,” which is one of his best performances. Proof positive that when Washington plays good (“Philadelphia,” “Inside Man,” “Glory,” “Malcolm X”), he’s good, but when he’s bad (remember his corrupt cop in “Training Day?”), he’s still very, very good. That we like Lucas despite his cold-blooded business sense is the tricky balancing act of any actor playing a gangster, and the best will always pull it off (and Washington is one of the best ever, belonging in company with Cagney, Bogart, DeNiro, and Brando).
But here’s the trick to Washington’s performance- we like him, but still want him to get caught. The reasoning isn’t hard to figure; not only what he’s doing crosses a moral boundary, but how he’s doing it, using the coffins of fallen soldiers to smuggle his dope in. He may not have an issue with that (nor does anyone in his employ), but we do.
That’s where Richie Roberts comes in. Originally this part was to be played by Benicio Del Toro in an earlier version of the film to be directed by Washington’s “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua (Denzel was slated for Lucas in Fuqua’s version as well, and because of his deal got paid for both the failed earlier version and Scott’s final product- he earns every penny). And while Del Toro would have no doubt been great in the role, Washington’s presence requires a major star for Roberts in order to not shift the audience’s allegance entirely toward’s Lucas.
Enter Scott’s “Gladiator” star Russell Crowe (let’s just sort of forget “A Good Year,” shall we? I’m sure they have…), who- like Washington- is a major star who can disappear into any character, and have the audience follow. Just look at his diverse performances in “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gladiator,” “L.A. Confidential,” “The Insider,” and “Cinderella Man” for proof. His Roberts fits right into that gallary of versatility. In the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife (who doesn’t see Roberts’ life as one fit to raise a child, including his association with known criminals and infidelity), Roberts is nonetheless a straight-arrow cop, much to the chagrine of not just the force but his partner. (A story gets around throughout the film of Roberts and his partner finding a million dollars in a trunk, and turning it into evidence.) It makes him perfect to head up a newly-formed task force to put an end to drugs in New York, and gives Crowe a chance to be another type of hero than he was in “Gladiator,” and another type of cop than he was in “L.A. Confidential.” He’s as sensational at playing the character’s street savvy qualities as much as he is world-weary frustration with what life throws at him. (And the fact that Richie passes the bar exam seems thrown away, but plays in beautifully to the irony of the story’s conclusion.)
Of course, as Lucas is quick to point out when he faces off with Richie in prison (a sequence with the same type of hype around it as Pacino and DeNiro’s in “Heat”- like that one, it’s worth the wait), the drug trade is bigger than one man, but once Richie pinpoints on Lucas as the man to target, Scott works the tension with a master’s touch, with assists from the cinematography by Harris Savides (scoring another period triumph after his earlier work on “Zodiac”) and scoring by Marc Streitenfeld (whose music is among my favorites this year). True, the film starts to sag along the way under the weight of its’ 157 minute running time, but you can’t get enough of the everyday struggles these two honorable men in different dens of thieves go through in living by codes they’ve sworn to uphold. It’s just a shame you have to figure that one of them has to lose- both are a little too easy to admire for doing so, even if they are on different sides of the law.
