American Gangster opens with Denzel Washington’s character, 1970s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas, setting a man on fire and then shooting him point-blank multiple times. This is director Ridley Scott practically daring his audience to hate the smiling, charismatic Washington. Naturally, that’s impossible, but the actor’s complete un-hate-ability works to his advantage, just as it did in his other villainous performance (for which he won an Oscar), in 2001’s Training Day. Lucas has as much magnetism as Denzel Washington, we soon learn, and that’s one reason why he was able to amass such an extensive and loyal support system for his illegal activities.
Clearly Scott’s bid for Godfather territory, Gangster switches back and forth between Lucas’ empire-building and New Jersey narcotics cop Richie Roberts’ efforts to take him down. It’s a sweeping period epic, based on a true story, and Washington and Russell Crowe (as Roberts) bring the requisite heft to lift the film to grand heights. Beginning with the death of Lucas’ mentor, the previous drug lord of Harlem, Scott meticulously charts the former bodyguard’s rise to prominence, built as much on shrewd business practices as it is on the brutality shown in the opening moments.
In fact, despite the several cold-blooded murders that Lucas commits, along with his dehumanizing business practices (he forces female workers to process drugs in the nude allegedly so they can’t hide anything on themselves), Gangster fairly lionizes him, showing how well he treats his family (all his brothers come to work for him, and his mother gets a nice mansion in the country) and how he stands up to the corrupt cops who keep trying to shake him down. Josh Brolin’s sniveling detective is much more clearly evil than Lucas ever is, and as is common in crime movies, Roberts comes to respect his prey as he gets closer to taking him down.
The contradiction between Lucas’ sense of honor and his startling cruelty makes for a complex character, and Washington does a good job of bringing out the nuances. Crowe’s Roberts is more straightforward, a stubbornly honest cop who stands in such contrast to Brolin’s sleazeball that half the time you wonder if he ought to be wearing a halo. Even Roberts’ soon-to-be-ex-wife is divorcing him because he just cares too damn much about his integrity at work (and then apologizes to her and lets her take their son, all in the middle of a courtroom!). It’s only Crowe’s convincing schlubiness that makes Roberts seem less than saintly.
With the pieces in place, Scott moves them expertly toward their inevitable collision; when Washington and Crowe finally share a scene toward the end of the film, it’s well worth the wait. Scott and cinematographer Harris Savides give the movie a gritty, grimy look to go along with the rawness of the New York streets at the time, and only on a few occasions does the director indulge in his trademark slo-mo action shots. This is a tense, involving and very well-crafted film, one that covers a large span of time (both in its story and in its length) but never feels less than immediate and even intimate. Like Michael Mann, Scott here explores a hypermasculine world that explicitly excludes women, and at times his supporting characters feel a little underdeveloped. But American Gangster succeeds in the epic crime-movie tradition it firmly places itself in; if it’s not Scott’s Godfather, it’s certainly as close as he’s ever going to get.
American Gangster
***1/2
Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rated R
Opens Friday