American Gangster

Continuing America's long fascination with outlaws, American Gangster dramatizes the story of Frank Lucas, a drug kingpin who operated in Harlem during the 1960's and '70s. Director Ridley Scott's story incorporates many of the memes found in The Godfather series. Frank Lucas (played wonderfully by Denzel Washington) is a calm, businesslike criminal who is capable of brutal violence, but who cares deeply about his own family. Added into this familiar (but still satisfying) formula is a foil. Russell Crowe's character Richie Roberts - apparently the only honest cop in New York City - counterbalances Lucas' character beautifully.

While Lucas kills and enslaves with his heroin named 'blue magic', he hands out frozen turkeys on Thanksgiving from the back of a truck to the cheering black masses of 1970's Harlem. In contrast, Crowe's honest cop becomes a pariah when he and his partner find one million dollars in the trunk of a car and decide to do the unthinkable. They turn in the money against his partner's warning, "Ritchie, a cop who'll turn in a million bucks will turn in a dirty cop. Cops kill cops they don't trust!"

Lucas is a family man, using his family members from North Carolina to manage his growing drug cartel. Again, in contrast, Roberts' is fighting a custody battle with his ex-wife over their son.  He dresses conservatively for the time in a simple business suit - no purple-furred pimp hats and velvet suits. Denzel plays Lucas as very straight, very focused, very corporate - very different from Roberts, who dresses for most of the movie in grotesque Hawaiian shirts! About the only time Roberts wears a suit is when he takes enters court as Lucas' prosecuting attorney. Crowe's Roberts is uncomfortable in a suit, whereas Frank Lucas wears his simple suits as comfortable camouflage.

For much of the movie Roberts and Lucas don't interact because Lucas is not your typical gangster. Instead of a tête-à-tête between our lead actors, the director opts to make their eventual encounter feel inexorable, like the pull of two anti-particles swirling around each other.

'American Gangster' succeeds on many levels - the story itself is fascinating - both lead actors perform admirably. The set direction transports the audience back to a very authentic-feeling late 60's to mid-70's New York City, complete with television broadcasts of Vietnam War footage. It feels like the '70s without feeling like 'That '70's Show' because it nails the slimy, crime-ridden New York City of that time complete with all the trimmings; criminals, street walkers, and cops more crooked than the criminals.

My only real complaint with 'American Gangster' is in its moral message. Lucas is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light; we are given the sense that under different circumstances his entrepenuerial strengths could have been directed into a less destructive industry. At the film's end we're not sure exactly how we should feel. Yes, he's murderous and his drug empire led to the deaths of thousands, and great misery, but he's also very charming.

That's how America's like her rogues.