The problem is the character and this aspect of the plot. There's nothing wrong with Crowe's acting. It's odd to find such a volatile and forceful actor as Russell Crowe stuck in a low-key performance. Unfortunately, Richie is rather dull and the segments featuring his story aren't nearly as interesting. But there are times when he snaps and his dark side shows - as in a scene when he brutally eliminates a rival in broad daylight in the middle of a crowd. He loves his wife (Lymari Nadal) and his mother (Ruby Dee). For the most part, he is gentlemanly and courteous. (For example, all the women cutting and packaging the drugs in Frank's "workshop" do so in the nude so they can't steal any to take home.) Frank is a fascinating and charismatic character, in the best tradition of screen mobsters. We are treated to a lot of little details about the drug trade that recall the behind-the-scenes look at gambling offered by Martin Scorsese in Casino. His ex-wife (Carla Gugino) is suing him for custody of his son, he is not well respected by his peers, and his New York City equivalent, Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin), is on the take.įrank's portion of the story is energetic and intense. But Richie has problems, both professional and personal. Their goal - take down the highest placed drug lord they can get evidence against, and their sights are eventually trained on Frank. He is transferred to a newly formed narcotics squad and gets to pick his own men. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Richie has become a pariah for turning in $1 million in unmarked drug money which was designated for cop payoffs. It doesn't take long before Mafioso Dominic Cattano (Armand Assante) is working for him. Suddenly, Frank has the purest heroin on the streets of New York and he can sell it cheaper than any of his competitors. In order to transport the drugs into the United States, he uses the army, which is constantly ferrying men and equipment to Vietnam. To make his position unassailable, Frank executes a bold move - he travels to Bangkok to set up a direct deal with the drug producers, cutting out the middle men. But his circumstances are fragile, with other black mobsters and the Mafia threatening to squeeze him out. When a heart attack fells Bumpy, Frank uses his contacts and knowledge to carve out a niche in the Harlem drug market. (Example: Would an arresting officer be allowed to try the arrested individual as his first case after passing the bar, especially when it's a major drug case?)įor many years, Frank has been the driver for mobster Bumpy Johnson. Some of these are effective but others create head-scratching contrivances that are hard to swallow even for someone who easily suspends disbelief. The framework of American Gangster bears the "based on a true story" moniker and Lucas (now in his 70s) was one of the film's advisors, but numerous liberties have been taken with the historical record. The time period is the early 1970s with drug use escalating on the streets of New York even as the interminable war in Vietnam drags on. The cast is headlined by two Oscar winners: Denzel Washington as Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as North Jersey drug cop Richie Roberts. Ridley Scott rarely creates an uninteresting motion picture, and this is no exception, but American Gangster will not go down as one of the respected director's best efforts. While the story is rarely dull and there's plenty of material to fill up the more than 2 1/2 hour running time, there's an overall absence of dramatic tension. The problem with American Gangster may be that it tries to hard to provide balance between the protagonist and the antagonist but never really achieves it. American Gangster is compelling in the same way that many mob-related motion pictures are compelling, but it fails to achieve the greatness that the best of them attain.
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