Hello everyone and here I am with a new throwback review! This time I actually wanted to review a movie that I saw fairly recently out of curiosity, and interest one day and thanks to the release of a film starring the same lead actor I thought this was an appropriate, and neat opportunity to give it some attention. That lead actor is the one, and only Denzel Washington who is of course an incredibly well known, and critically lauded celebrity who always manages to give a great performance in whatever movie he is in and with his latest starring vehicle, The Little Things, releasing in theaters, and streaming on HBO Max for the first 31 days of release I decided to take a look at one of his movies and I chose American Gangster for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that despite the fact that it was well received by critics, and audiences at the time and it’s actually his highest grossing film worldwide at $266 million, I don’t really hear a lot of people talk about it nowadays and it’s a bit overlooked when compared to some of his other films. It’s weird as in my opinion I found it to be really great and had a lot to offer. Now without further ado let’s travel all the way back to the 70s to experience the story of one of the most infamous crime lords in history.
Chronicling the rise of one Frank Lucas, and the attempt to take him down, the film starts out with Lucas as the loyal right hand man of Harlem mob boss, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson. Shortly after Bumpy dies of a heart attack Lucas himself decides to get involved in the business of the heroin trade, smuggling heroin from Thailand directly with the aid of servicemen in the Vietnam War. He sells this under the name of “Blue magic” and it becomes hugely popular with thanks to it’s affordability, and quality and with that he becomes a powerful drug kingpin who’ll make a lot of friends, and a lot of enemies, and turns this into the family business. Meanwhile we also follow Richie Roberts, a Newark detective/aspiring lawyer who is going through divorce battles with his wife. He gets put in charge of a special task force that is responsible for apprehending big drug suppliers after his partner died from overdosing on “Blue Magic” and soon it becomes his goal to take Lucas, and his empire down for good. But that’s just one of the problems Frank has to deal with as he tries as hard as he can to maintain his empire and he’ll do anything even kill a few people to make it happen.
When it comes to movies that are based off of real people or events it’s always a tricky thing in telling the audience a compelling story without feeling like a cliff notes version of the event or person in question or something you could read off of Wikipedia. Thankfully American Gangster does not fall into that trap as screenwriter, Steven Zaillian, is able to craft an investing story that digs deep into the lives of this smart, and powerful individual as well as the also intelligent, and honest detective whose tracking him down. He’s able to give each of these two storylines the attention, and development that is needed for us to care about these characters and while I’m not sure how historically accurate this all is (judging from what I’ve read on this, there were plenty of creative liberties taken) but that still doesn’t make the events, and moments any less effective. The story also does a very good job of setting up who Lucas, and Richie are, their personalities, what drives them, and their flaws as well and it does it effectively, and efficiently and the movie is able to build a lot of tension throughout like with how Lucas is facing troubles with other gangs, the mafia and corrupt detectives who he is forced to bribe, and especially in the climax where things get intense as Richie is on a race against time to prove Lucas is guilty. It’s consistently engaging from beginning to end and it’s impressive how the writers were able to make us care, and sympathize with a drug kingpin (though never condoning his actions), and the detective after him which makes it interesting to see what will happen to them both. If there is one problem I do have with the story is that there are times where it’s 2 and a half hour runtime do show, and it does drag a bit in a couple of places but thankfully there wasn’t anything that I thought was unnecessary or didn’t need to be there it’s just that the length was noticeable at times. Still though this a is a very well constructed crime story that presents a fascinating portrayal of these two opposite sides of the law.
One of things I was actually unaware of before I saw this movie was that Ridley Scott (of course known for such classics such as Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, etc.) was the director and as always he crafts a very well made movie that immerses us into the time period very well. What I like most about how he shoots things here is how he’s able to show a lot in regards to the characters, or a given situation very efficiently and while this isn’t an action film by any means when there is action Scott handles it very well and creates some very intense sequences that do leave the audience invested in what’s going to happen next which is most apparent in a climactic raid sequence in a building. That and the movie does a great job in, like I said, immersing the audience into it’s 1970’s setting very well with the production team, and the costume designers really giving it their all in terms of capturing the feel of that era nicely. Same goes for the soundtrack which is full of songs of the funk, and soul genres to reflect the time period and they fit in the movie well while Marc Streitenfeld’s score also gets the job done. It’s a slickly made production on the whole one that has a nice attention to detail in regards to it’s setting.
For me Denzel Washington is one of those actors who I feel always gives it his all in whatever movie he’s in good or bad and this one is no exception. He does a fantastic job of portraying Frank Lucas as a ruthless yet smart, and calculating individual with his own set of values but one who still worries for his family, and just wants to help make their lives better while also doing all of these shady things that even he knows is wrong at times. This gives him a lot more depth than if he was just a ruthless crime lord and adds many layers to him as he can go from being calm, and charismatic in one scene to beating someone up (even his own family) for messing up in the other and Washington makes it convincing, and seamless as he usually does. The film also does a great job of making his actions show who he is instead of just explaining everything to us which is always a great thing in my eyes. As for the co lead, well once again Russell Crowe is great giving another strong performance as Richie Roberts playing him with a calm, yet determined demeanor and the character himself has a lot of layers as well as he just wants to be a good cop and doesn’t get into any of the corrupt dealings many of his peers are involved with (as shown by an early situation involving a million dollars) yet is also not entirely perfect all the same. The only thing I felt could’ve been developed more was the subplot involving his legal battle with his wife (played well by Carla Gugino) which had an interesting pay off yet didn’t have enough time spent on it in order for it to have left the greatest impact that it could’ve made. Still at the very least Lucas’s romantic plotline involving Puerto Rican beauty queen, Eva, (also played well by Lymari Nadal) does get more attention and is okay for the most part even if it’s a very familiar “wife concerned about what her husbands doing” type of thing but it’s still done well for the most part. But again this is the Washington, and Russel show through and through and they make for some very compelling leads with interesting things about each (funny enough the two don’t even interact with each other till the end and I like the way in which they help each other). However they aren’t the only ones here as just like how I didn’t know Ridley Scott directed this I had no idea the cast was this stacked and full of familiar faces. Like Josh Brolin is in this and he’s great as the corrupt Detective Trumbo who makes his living taking bribes from drug dealers, keeping them around as a cash cow instead of arresting them and he makes for an appropriate foil to both Lucas, and Roberts, Ted Levine serves as a sort of mentor to Richie as Chief Lou Toback, Ruby Dee gets some effective scenes as Mama Lucas, while John Ortiz does well in his small role as Roberts’s doomed partner. There are plenty of other recognizable faces throughout such as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding Jr., Idris Elba, RZA, Armond Assante, Common, and more that whether their playing members of the Lucas family, allies of him, foes of him, or allies of Roberts, it’s neat seeing them all together in this movie and everyone does solid work with what they’re given.
In the end I find American Gangster to be a very interesting, and compelling biopic/crime drama that doesn’t fall into many of the traps that can plague biopics of this nature. It’s consistently engaging from start to finish, it’s very well constructed, it does some interesting things with it’s characters, it’s slickly made, it captures it’s setting nicely, and it’s well acted across the board with two phenomenal actors anchoring the whole thing. While it can drag in some places, and there were certain aspects that could’ve used a little more development I still highly recommend this one as it is another very solid, and engaging Denzel Washington vehicle that I don’t see talked about much nowadays. It’s a worthy entry in both Washinton’s, and Crowe’s filmography and I would love to see the two reunite for another project one day. Anyway I look forward to checking out the Little Things eventually and I hope to review more Denzel Washington in the future as the man has a lot of quality films up his sleeve that it would be fun to talk about (if you have any particular suggestions then please sound off in the comments).
Rating: A-
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