American Gangster (2007)
Many directors would be lucky to have a picture like American Gangster under their belt. The film is, as typical with Ridley Scott, masterfully shot and orchestrated. This is a big, sprawling, satisfying tough guy movie. American Gangster is a cool flick, entertaining, and it’s a testament to the film that I already want to watch it again; particularly any moments with scene stealer Josh Brolin as Det. Trupo, a laughably obvious, corrupt glutton who hasn’t been fired yet because it would probably entail too much paper pushing.
That said, American Gangster, also like much of Scott’s work, feels distant. Scott has a background in advertising and photography and you feel that. Empathy doesn’t seem to be the man’s strong suit. Alien and Blade Runner are both considerable achievements, but they feel like a professor’s doctorate on the mechanics of their genres, not impassioned films that their creator HAD to make. American Gangster feels like Scott said, “Yeah, I haven’t made a gangster movie yet. Recreating 1970s Manhattan might be fun.”
And as impressive as that recreation may be, it has the subtlety of a wax museum exhibit. Scott’s 1970s inner city America, like many directors’ take on the decade, feels fetishy and not entirely authentic. The TVs play nothing but Vietnam updates, the streets are grimy, but PERFECTLY grimy. The detectives and the hoods look good, but too good, like the Mod Squad as re-envisioned by a certified Oscar nominated genius filmmaker. You may find yourself following suit and reacting in a similarly detached way: oh, that was a powerful scene, oh Washington exhibits quite a bit of menace here, etc. American Gangster doesn’t get under your skin and a film about a man smuggling heroin in the caskets of dead American soldiers should get under your skin.
Brian DePalma’s Scarface is too often mistaken for a great movie, but there’s no denying that it has a certain bugfuck gotta do it now or never insanity that’s impossible to forget. American Gangster, based on a fascinating true story, essentially has no point of view at all. I’m not really buying the point of view that has troubled some: that Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian are championing Frank Lucas’s (Washington) actions simply because he’s black and it represents a certain ironic affirmative action in a very lethal profession. The film has plenty of evidence that could be used in favor of that theory, but I don’t sense that Scott gives a damn one way or the other. He’s making Scarface without the fevered bloodlust, Heat without the existential despair, or Serpico without the impassioned outrage. Scott, as usual, is interested in a thoroughly researched, emotionally mute, time travel piece.
There are moments though, and the thing is phenemonally entertaining. Just as Scott is Scott, Washington and Crowe are Washington and Crowe. I would’ve liked a few more surprises from them, but they deliver “cool”, authoratative work that I’ll appeciate even more after a few beers while watching it the fifth time on TBS and boring my friends with a long winded something about what rarities Washington and Crowe truly are. One scene does stick though, Denzel, after lecturing his gang about the need to lie low, dares, once, to wear a gaudy coat as a gesture to his clueless wife, who bought it for him. This is the gesture, this one slip, that signals Denzel’s demise. For once, Scott briefly tunes into the human cost of long, protracted, merciless warfare.
★★★
November 14th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I know all the cool kids are loving the hell out of this movie, but the few reviews I’ve read, even the positive ones, touch on things that tell me I’m just not going to like it. At all. I’m sure there are great things about it, but I fear the negatives are going to bug me enough to outweigh the positives. I don’t know.
I’ve still got some new releases to catch up on so I don’t know when I’ll get to it, but I’ll get to it. I’m not exactly looking forward to it though.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I think I understand what you mean, Craig. I really didn’t take the film seriously enough to be offended by it, I took it as another of Scott’s brawny tough guy movies with mild aspirations to be something else that never really materialize. Remember how everyone mistook Gladiator for a real movie? It’s a similar case here, take it for what it is and you should be fine. Dress it up as something else and things can get irritating.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Nice review, Chas. This cements it for me: I’ll see American Gangster if it’s close and convenient, and with the holiday season looming, that doesn’t seem likely. Perhaps I’ll be lucky enough to catch it with you on tbs one day.