American Gangster: Uh, Blah?

I had a sneaking suspicion that this would happen. The trailers hadn't impressed me too much and there was something about Ridley Scott's considerable skill being attached to gritty, american gangster flick.

Let me say this right now: American Gangster has nothing on The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Casino, Training Day, Serpico, Prince of the City, King of the City, Hard Eight, or many of the other fantastic crime dramas out there. It especially doesn't even come close to HEAT, that monumental Michael Mann masterpiece that it tries so hard to emulate. In fact, HEAT is so far above American Gangster that it almost shocked me how much better that film is, even 12 years later.

American Gangster is sort of a lame duck with underwritten characters and a Denzel Washington who seems a little disinterested with his role. Its odd, because Washington's performance should be towering and imposing, but it comes off as muted and almost too dialed down. The movie wants him to be a menacing, charismatic Lord of Harlem, and it wants the audience to love him for it. At the the same time, they give us a really strong character in Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) who is all integrity and hard work, who is really the story's best character. You give us two characters, opposite sides of the law (like Heat) and we follow both as they circle one another - the difference being that HEAT's two leads were fascinating, well-matched, and extremely flawed. In American Gangster, you don't get that tension because the stories seem too independent of one another and neither character is so dynamic. It is bizarre. It is a misfire.

I really liked Crowe here, though his performance in 3:10 to Yuma was better. In fact, Crowe in 3:10 is what Denzel in AG should have been. His scene at the end with Washington is good, but not great, and not emotionally satisfying. The scene between Pacino and De Niro in Heat was so strong because both were so well-matched, and they respected each other despite being on opposite sides of the law. You never get that sense of mutual respect because, morally, Crowe is head and shoulders above Washington. There is no mutual insight here.

In Heat, in that famous, pivotal scene, you really get insight into these two characters, and you see how dangerously similar they are, how in another life, they may have been friends. But, the reality is that one will probably have to kill the other. In American Gangster, there is nothing approaching that level of depth.

Overall, AG is not a bad film, but it is nowehere the achievement it could have been. I revisited the original article that the film was based on, and the article was much more exciting and rewarding. I wonder if they had developed a framing device to wrap around the narrative, something playing off of the article, would the film have been stronger?

A few side notes: Cuba Gooding Jr. has about 5 minutes of screen time and is GREAT. It is a nice, small return to form for Gooding Jr. He has one scene - arguably the films best, in which he and Washington square off, and I'll be damned if Gooding doesn't go toe-to-toe for the 2 minutes. I miss Gooding Jr.

You know, movies like this sometimes depend on small, eccentric characters to make the lasting impressions. It is more often than not the sprawling crime epics are defined by their smaller, supporting moments and performances. American Gangster's supporting players are not that memorable. Aside from Gooding Jr. there is one other character who sticks out - Josh Brolin's Det. Trupo. The film goes to considerable lengths to establish him as the film's real antagonist and he is completely hissable. You really want him to be in the movie more because once he shows up, he finally commands some tension, and creates the type of excitement and division in the audience that these movies are supposed to do.

Th flick is entertaining, but in the canon of great crime thrillers, of which there are probably 20, American Gangster is found wanting.