Gangster, but not quite Gangs

Something’s missing from this film

Romer Bautista, Staff

With two Academy Award-winning leading men, a director whose resumé includes Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, and with a story along the lines of Scarface, The Godfather, and Goodfellas, it was difficult not to expect anything less than an instant-classic from Ridley Scott’s American Gangster. Instead, the film turned out to be like a two-hour-and-37-minute lap dance — incredibly entertaining, but still leaving you wanting something more.

Based on a true story and set in New York in the ’70s, the film revolves around the lives of two men: Frank Lucas (Washington), a ruthless drug lord that runs the streets of Harlem, and Richie Roberts (Crowe), a hardworking cop who can’t seem to catch a break, even when he is doing the right thing.

The movie begins with the death of gangster Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III). With his passing, there is a vacancy left in the drug underworld. More than willing to fill that void is Lucas, Johnson’s personal driver of 15 years. He is intent on carrying on his boss’s legacy while at the same time making a name for himself. In Lucas’s own words: “See, ya are what ya are in this world. That’s either one of two things: either you’re somebody or you ain’t nobody.”

Not only does Lucas fill the void left by his mentor, he does it in an impressive manner. He masterminds a scheme to sell the purest heroin the streets have ever seen by cutting out the annoying middlemen buying the drugs directly from Southeast Asia — a military connection during the Vietnam War.

Lucas is a badass, no doubt about it. He’s the type of guy that can shoot a rival gangster dead in broad daylight and walk across the street as if nothing happened. Lucas’s softer side, however, humanizes him to the viewer. Lucas shows it when he moves his entire family out to live in his hilltop mansion, and it is especially prevalent in the way he treats the two women in his life — his mother (Ruby Dee) and his wife, Eva (Lymari Nadal).

In contrast to Lucas, who is bringing his family together, Roberts’ family is falling apart. In spite of his ongoing personal problems, Roberts remains a persistently honest cop. Unfortunately for him, it’s during a time when being an honest cop means being in the minority.

Roberts can’t seem to catch a break. He works hard to make a living for his family, and his wife despises him for not being around enough; he even turns in a million dollars that he found on the job; and his peers turn their backs on him.

Roberts’ honesty catches the eye of the feds. He is asked to head up his own crew to investigate the evergrowing heroin problem that’s flooded the streets of New York.

It is this cat-and-mouse chase that dominates the film, with Lucas eluding Roberts by staying under-the-radar, carefully restraining himself from the lures of the high life.

But in a cruel twist of fate, Lucas catches the attention of Roberts when, in an attempt to keep his wife totally satisfied, Lucas goes against his own will and decides to wear an extravagant chinchilla coat that Eva buys for him for the Ali boxing match, where anyone who is anyone will be in attendance.

After piecing Lucas’s scheme together and tearing apart his drug factory in a hail of bullets, Roberts finally meets eye-to-eye with New York’s heroin kingpin. Washington and Crowe flex their acting chops in this dramatic interrogation scene that arguably steals the show.

Individually, the two stars were great. Washington, especially, was amazing. He was like a cross of two of his prior roles: the cold-hearted Alonzo from Training Day and the loving father, John Quincy Archibald, from John Q.

But the interrogation room scene is the type of scene that makes you wonder how great it would have been if these two terrific actors had more prominent interactions throughout the rest of the movie.

While an entertaining film, one that is in the running for film of the year, it leaves me with the feeling that it could have been so much more.