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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 8, No. 45 |
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"AMERICAN GANGSTER" |
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Has Hollywood found its
niche in world cinema?
of TheColumnists.com
After savoring the profound majesty of Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," already a box office smash and a sure contender for Oscar honors, I'm beginning to wonder if Hollywood hasn't finally found its permanent niche in world cinema: The Grand Crime Drama.
Like Elias Kazan's "On the Waterfront" (1954), Francis Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather, Part II" (1974), Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" (2003) and last year's Oscar winning Best Picture, Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," Scott's "American Gangster" transcends the crime genre and reposes in a special category reserved for very important high dramas. The early Greek dramatists would have understood these films. They have "classic drama" written all over them.
"American Gangster" is a complex reality-based drama with a simple premise: A black man named Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) rises to the top of the New York underworld to become the first African-American crime czar. He is brought down by a determined police detective named Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe). But what makes their struggle so powerful is the fact that both men are idealists, strict followers of their own set of behavioral rules, purists of almost fanatical zeal.
Since Lucas is really a "king" in his own world of Harlem gangsterism, "American Gangster" may even qualify under the narrow definition of "tragedy" that some purists claim. To them, it can't be tragedy unless the protagonist falls from a very exalted status, i.e. a king of his domain.
In real life, Frank Lucas became a crime lord by going direct to his own sources for drugs in the Far East, cutting out all the middle men along the way, and smuggling the raw stuff into the U.S. in coffins containing dead servicemen from Vietnam. Rather than challenge the Italian Mafia in New York, he worked with them, but undercut their prices and raked in much more money.
This is an unsavory man, to be sure. Before the opening credits, when he was the right hand man to the previous underworld king of Harlem, Lucas has gasoline poured all over a man who had done his boss wrong and sets him on fire with his cigaret lighter. Later, he confronts another troublesome character on a public street and blows a bullet hole in the man's forehead in front of hundreds of spectators, then goes back to finish his meal in a nearby restaurant.
But the core of Lucas' persona was his calm, stoic presence. He believed you had to earn the respect of your community by sharing the wealth, which he did freely, and by presenting a very respectable image to your public. Always soft-spoken and immacuately dressed, he avoided any show of flashiness, which automatically elevated him way above the pimps and Superfly-types then strutting their way through the black neighborhoods.
In contrast, Richie Roberts is portrayed as a tacky-looking, threadbare police detective whose homelife is a shambles because of his impossible hours and total devotion to his job stirring up the scum in the worst sections of the inner city. His wife (Carla Gugino) is leaving him, taking his only son with her, and he's a pariah among his fellow cops, most of whom are on the take from one mob or another.
Roberts' main claim to stature is his total honesty. He won't take payoffs and he despises cops who do. When his partner and best friend transgresses, he risks his own life to get him out of trouble, then prepares to turn him in as a crooked cop who'd stoop to homicide to cover his graft.
When Roberts accidentally discovers the low-profile Lucas is really the kingpin of drug trafficking in New York and New Jersey, it comes as a surprise to virtually everyone. Dedicated to bringing Lucas down, Roberts finally finds his true calling in life--and sets up a powerful dramatic situation.
"American Gangster" is always entertaining because of the action and the often violent confrontations between criminals and cops, but what makes it so special is its focus on these two mighty antagonists and the high intelligence of the drama director Scott squeezes out of it.
The film's greatest assets are its two lead actors. Denzel Washington, who already has two Academy Awards, continues to grow as an actor. He builds a character so appealing that you want to see him rise to the top of the underworld heap, despite all the evil he does along the way. You immediately understand why this man was so successful for so long because Washington lures you into his world and makes you see things his way. With this film, Washington erases all doubt about who is America's pre-eminent black actor. He has reached the place where only Sidney Poitier has walked before.
Crowe, also an Oscar-winner, keeps dazzling us with his awesome versatility. He so inhabits the Richie Roberts character that you keep asking yourself how this can be the same guy who played a Roman general in "Gladiator" and a 19th century British naval officer in "Master and Commander." Crowe plays Roberts as the rough and tumble guy destined to topple the self-confident Lucas, even though he respects the black gangster in an odd sort of way. (After bringing Lucas down, Roberts actually became the gangster's defense attorney!)
Though Washington and Crowe don't really come face to face to play a scene together until the very end of the film, it's a masterful scene well worth waiting for--with the grinning, self-assured Lucas forcing the crafty Roberts to outline his case against him until Lucas finally begins to realize this rumpled version of a cop has nailed his hide to the wall. Watching these two master actors work off each other is one of the great cinema treats of 2007.
"American Gangster" also is packed with great supporting performances, starting with Josh Brolin as a mean-spirited, crooked cop who's determined to rip off as much cash as he can from the mobsters before somebody else does. Also glowing is the performance of veteran Ruby Dee as Lucas' mother. The scene in which she scolds her powerful son for seeking vengeance on the cops is a simply great sequence that may earn Dee a supporting actress nomination. Also solid is Armand Assante as the Italian Mafia don who bargains with Lucas, Carla Gugino as Roberts' frustrated and unhappy wife and the stunningly beautiful Lymari Nadal as Lucas' Puerto Rican wife, who gradually comes to fear what may happen to her silver-lined world as the cops close in for the kill. (Nadal's character isn't supposed to be especially bright, but the young actress, who has a master's degree in chemistry, certainly is!)
At nearly three hours in length, "American Gangster" is an absorbing drama that takes us once again into that secret world of racketeers and their often strange code of behavior. It's a genre that nobody does better than Hollywood, even though the man in charge of this film, Ridley Scott, is an Englishman who comes to work here.
©2007 by Ron Miller. The "American Gangster" poster is courtesy of Universal Pictures. This column first posted Nov. 12, 2007.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
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