There are too many movies being filmed in New York. Every single movie seems like it's a postcard to go to NYC. Don't get me wrong, New York is a beautiful place that looks like the movie Blade Runner, but what happened to the old New York? The real New York filled with all of the filth that made the city dangerous. The ugly, decrepit, not-safe-to-walk-around-past-dusk New York.
American Gangster captures that side of New York. That's the sexy New York I'm talking about. Harlem during the Vietnam War years.
When I'm talking about American Gangster, I'm talking about the newest movie with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, not the new music album by Jay-Z. Whereas there have been too-many-to-count movies about the Italian and Russian Mob, there have been hardly any movies about the African American mob.
Denzel takes us through the life of the notorious living legend Frank Lucas, the New York drug lord. He shows us how he bribed the US Army during the Vietnam War to smuggle heroin in all of the deceased soldier's coffins. He lets us see how he made a lucrative business while turning Harlem in the 1970s into a hellhole filled with overdosed moms and their crying children in every high rise project.
Washington does this with finesse.
He shows us how Lucas wanted his entire life to look like it was scripted. He maintains a perfect facade as living the black Norman Rockwell dream, wearing the best clothes, flashing the perfect smile, eating at the good old corner diner, marrying the trophy wife, and always having the photogenic Thanksgiving dinner.
Denzel is not the villain he played in Training Day. He was the Devil in Training Day, corrupting an innocent soul to do his bidding. In American Gangster, even though he plays the villain, he acts like Black Jesus in a bespoke suit.
At times throughout the movie, you're not even rooting for the protagonist. The good guy in Gangster is a womanizer. He's too honest for his own good. He's a workaholic and doesn't care about his wife, his child, or preserving his friendships and family. He's not rich and nobody knows who he is. He's from Jersey. Every cop in New York looks down on a cop from Jersey.
Usually the good guys in movies are the most boring character in the film, but Russell Crowe who plays the detective Richie Roberts, who brings Frank Lucas to justice, is one of the most layered, conflicted, and complicated movie heroes to date. All he wants to do is find and capture Frank Lucas, even if it means being hated by his own police department, his own partner, the police in New York, and his entire circle of trust. Crowe ranks right up there with Eastwood, Pacino, De Niro, and Tommy Lee Jones.
It's hard to choose who to root for or who does the better acting job. Russell Crowe shined in the dud Virtuosity, the last movie he co-starred in with Washington, and he shines in Gangster too.
Ridley Scott films this New York movie with as much tender, love, and care as would Spike Lee or Martin Scorsese. He trusts his starring alpha males and his hip-hop ensemble cast to bring the rise and fall of Frank Lucas to life.
American Gangster brings back the raw cop and mob period piece thrill ride. My parents had the opportunity to see movies like The French Connection, Serpico, and the Godfather in theaters, I'm very proud to say that I've had the chance to see American Gangster on the silver screen.
I give American Gangster ***** out of 5 Roses.
