American Gangster (2007)

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Steven Zaillian
Based on article by: Mark Jacobson

Harlem’s a motherfucker. But first…

PRIDE AND GLORY–Edward Norton as a cop who has to investigate his brother (Colin Farrell) who is implicated in the death of four cops. Yep. I’m there. Just about anything with Edward in it has my vote.

WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS–Who told Martin Lawrence to be in another movie? This looks so awful. (James Earl Jones, who did you piss off?) In fact, my first thought after the preview was over was, “No. Why the bloody hell….?” I couldn’t even finish my sarcastic thought. That’s how bad it…

Ok, now on to the new gangster epic.

At one point, Harlem was owned by white people. Sure, black people lived there, but it was run and owned by white people. Ok, maybe not the legit businesses, but the gangsters had to pay white folk for the “privilege” to sell drugs on their own streets.

Around 1969 all that changed. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) single-handedly brought black gangsters into a place of prominence in the American lexicon, for better or worse. Instead of buying drugs from the Italians so that he could sell on his streets, he went straight to the source: Vietnam. He took a few trips over there, made some friends and came back with a lot of connections and ways to get pure heroin over here.

Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) had other plans for him, though. He was one of the few honest cops in New Jersey or New York. His private life was a shambles, but he tried like hell at his job. And when he was made the head of a secret agency to rid Jersey of drugs, he was on it.

I really liked this movie a lot. I think it could be sort of like a Godfather for black gangsters. I’m not putting it on that pedestal, but really what other really good black gangster films are there? (And I’m not talking about gangstas. That’s different.)

Here’s the thing about it, though: it’s over an hour before Richie even knows who the fuck Frank Lucas is. We see every aspect of both of their lives from Frank’s marriage to Eva (the beautiful and talented Lymari Nadal–can’t wait to see her in more stuff) to Richie’s divorce. (And his affairs. “Richie, fuck me like a cop, not a lawyer!”) Maybe it’s a bit much, but I think it works. It makes us know exactly where these guys are coming from and why they do what they do. Richie is going to law school, so he wants to be as law-abiding as possible. Frank comes from a poor South Carolina family, so he wants to give them everything they couldn’t have before. (Ruby Dee is, of course, amazing as Frank’s mother.)

And speaking of Frank’s mom, this movie does something that ALL gangster movies does, but it shows a side that maybe we don’t normally see: Family is number one to these guys. Especially the maternal bond. A wife may not always mean a lot (just look at Sonny Corleone), but a mother is a fucking goddess and should NEVER be crossed. There’s a scene here, though, where Frank almost does. And Ruby puts him in his place. She’s turned a blind eye to things that he’s done, not asking where he got his money. Not because she didn’t want to know. She knew. But she didn’t want him to lie to her. That would be the absolute last straw. It’s one of the best and most telling scenes in the film.

The cast is pretty much perfect all around. Denzel and Russell are their usual brand of amazing. Have either of these guys ever been truly bad? Sure, they’ve been in bad films, but even when it’s apparent that they don’t care too much about the material, they’re still very good. All of the supporting actors are great, too. And there are a LOT of them. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carla Gugino (playing Richie’s wife), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (remember what he did before he started making dog movies? He’s back at it here.), Armand Assante, RZA, Joe Morton, Jon Polito, Ted Levine (“Could you help me get this gangster in my van?”), Josh Brolin (in a very creepy turn as a crooked cop)…it’s hard to name all of them, but they all deserve mention. (Watch for Fab 5 Freddie in Frank’s club, Smalls. And, I SWEAR Garrett Morris was his attorney at the end.

And, for once in his life, the great Ridley Scott has made a movie without a lot of fog in it! I guess he hasn’t really had that problem in a while, but I’m kind of glad it stopped. I love Ridley and this is one of his best films in a while.

I noticed that Nicholas Pileggi was one of the producers on this one. Does this guy ever do anything but gangster movies? I was surprised that he didn’t write the book it was based on. (Actually, it was an article by Mark Jacobson who wrote The Believer, but who’s counting?) The amazing screenplay, by the way, was written by Steve Zaillian, who hasn’t written a great screenplay since Schindler’s List and Searching For Bobby Fischer back in 1993. Good on him.