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by Jeff Eason |
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Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington
at the top of their game in American Gangster
When a movie is “based on a true story,”
it usually goes one of two ways. That tagline is either
used as an excuse for the filmmakers to present their
movie with a documentary-style drabness, or it allows
them to explore illogical flights of fancy and pass them
off as gospel.
The
big showdown. Oscar winners Denzel Washington
and Russell Crowe square off in one of the final
scenes of American Gangster. |
Denzel
Washington stars as 70s drug lord Frank Lucas
in the new movie American Gangster. |
The new Ridley Scott movie American Gangster is one of
those rare “based on a true story” films that
could truly stand on its own as either a documentary of
true events or as a Hollywood-style action film based
in solid storytelling. Violent, gritty and featuring two
of today’s premiere actors, American Gangster is
Scott’s perverse yet touching love letter to the
urban America of the Vietnam era, a time when a Wild West
mentality beset those criminals trying to dominate the
illegal drug trade.
American Gangster stars Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas,
the driver and bodyguard of Harlem godfather Ellsworth
“Bumpy” Johnson (Clarence Williams III). When
Bumpy dies suddenly in the late sixties, a power vacuum
is created and Lucas takes over, in large part because
of his scheme to buy pure heroin directly from Southeast
Asia and have military transport planes smuggle it into
Fort Bragg and other bases. His heroin is marketed under
the name Blue Magic and is stronger and cheaper than that
of his competition.
Lucas’ quick rise in the drug trade earns the notice
of the established syndicate run by Italian-Americans.
He strikes a distribution deal with them bringing ever
more heroin into the States and earning millions of dollars
in the process. He also sets up his own Mafia-style organization
by bringing his brothers and cousins up from rural North
Carolina to New York City.
A drug enforcement task force headed by Detective Richie
Roberts (Russell Crowe), knows that there is a new leader
in the drug trade but they have trouble finding out who
he is, partly because they are looking mainly at Italians,
and partly because Lucas does an excellent job of keeping
a low profile. When he shows up at the first Muhammad
Ali-Joe Frazier championship bout in a loud chinchilla
coat, Lucas tips off Roberts to his role in the burgeoning
drug trade.
The boxers themselves serve as alter egos for the leads,
with Ali’s slick “rope-a-dope” persona
representing Lucas’ sly self-promotional skills and
Frazier’s bulldog body blows mirrored in Roberts’
determination to do his police work in an honest hardworking
manner.
As a salute to real events, American Gangster is a true
documentary, fudging only peripheral facts like Lucas’
North Carolina hometown (he wasn’t from Greensboro,
he was from LaGrange near Goldsboro). As a character study,
it is an amazing piece of filmmaking, drawing the viewer
into the parallel lives of Lucas and Roberts. Both seek
loyalty and honesty in careers that are filled with “I
want mine” personalities. Both men try to transcend
the prejudice inherent in their organizations—Roberts
is Jewish, a rarity among New Jersey police and Lucas
must constantly face ridicule as an African-American dealing
with the Italian-run drug syndicate.
Both actors take these plum roles and run with them, making
the audience empathize with both sides of the story. They
are so good, in fact, that they tend to the dominate the
scenes involving the supporting cast, overshadowing some
fine performances by Ruby Dee, Carla Gugino, Cuba Gooding
Jr. and others.
The movie, as great as it is, is disappointing on a certain
level. That’s because Washington and Crowe could
easily be considered two of the best actors of their generation
but American Gangster, due its plot, does not feature
them in the same scene until the last 15 minutes of the
film. Call it the Sleepless in Seattle Syndrome if you
will, but when a movie stars two actors of this caliber,
audiences want to see them play off of each before they
get to the ending.
But what an ending it is! When Detective Roberts finally
gets Frank Lucas in the interrogation room, we get to
see both actors at the top of their game. Cop and gangster
discover that they have much more in common that they
would have thought and that they also have many of the
same enemies.
American Gangster is rated R for violence, pervasive drug
content and language, nudity and sexuality. It is currently
playing at Regal Cinema in Boone.
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