RojoAmerican Gangster
Well it’s been a while coming, six years and four movies later, Ridley Scott pulls a god damn kick ass film out of the hat.
American Gangster invoked the feeling I got when I first watched ‘The Departed‘, a film that, from the outset I knew I was watching something good, I knew this movie would pay off, but I didn’t know that it would probably go into my top five for the year.
Denzel Washington is electrifying as Frank Lucus, a mobster that came up form the streets having first come from the country. Having been brought up with an old school philosophy of gangsterism, an almost courteous gangster, a gangster that shows respect for the game, not flashy, ostensibly un-intimidating, until, he is. When this happen we see that Frank Lucus is not a man to trifle with. Don’t argue, debate, and please for the sake of you’re life pay Frank Lucus a lot of respect and the money you owe, because if you don’t look the fuck out.
I never really liked Denzel until Training Day, I got to be honest with you. After Training Day I felt that it was time I should pay him his dues he is a damn fine actor, and it is Denzel that begins to make American Gangster the impressive film that it is. He plays Lucus as he played Alonzo but he is less intense, he is reserved in a way. Alonzo he brought with belligerence, Lucus he brings with benevolence, he is the Denzel Washington we usually see with the roles he takes, but here he gives a different type of performance, a performance that suggests to me the he has stepped up a level (an amazing development as the man has already won an Oscar*), he is realising there is more in him and he proves it by giving less. His presence does the talking as he is magnetic throughout the film, if Denzel was Chuck Norris he wouldn’t walk into a room the room would move to him.
Russell Crowe….I like.
There’s some thing about old rusty that strikes a cord with me, he’s solid (though I refuse to watch that other movie, you know the one). Though Denzel was shining Rusty was there and you couldn’t miss him. Now I’ve never been to the Bronx. I have however auditioned for roles and have been asked to do it with an accent. I find it rather hard, I have to talk in the accent throughout the days leading up to the audition much to the dismay of my workmate Mike, but he’s cool and he likes films. But I feel like I can never get the accent to sound real, rather to me I feel like I sound mocking and stereotypical.
Now I know actors have coaches on these things, but still, its hard. Crowe from Australia, (his passport says New Zealand and he supports the All Blacks, but he is an Aussie) pulls what sounds to me an authentically Brox accent, again I stress I have never been to the area of the world but he sounds like the actors in the talkies that play parts set in the Bronx so I figure that’s how they all sound, and he sound like one of them. Perfectly.
The story. Well it’s a story, I mean there is nothing spectacular about the plot, gangsters rise and fall, ala Scarface, Goodfellas, King of New York, insert gangster movie here, but it’s the telling of the story that separates the good and the bad, in this genre, as it does all movies. Scott’s telling of this film is solid. To me it’s not incredibly inventive, it doesn’t reach out from the screen and bitch slap you, instead in draws you in by remaining consistently solid, even, and captivating, Scott lets the story tell itself, and he lets his cast take care of that.
Breaking down this film it appears to be safe (though there’s no safe film). It has a near prosaic plot, you’re standard proven director, two bankable stars, I find often that films that amaze me have a totally original edge to them, and American Gangster seems void of this. However this film may in time, be held in the esteem of the of the great gangster films. If I had to use to two words to describe American Gangster they would be…..
“Straight Dope”
9/10
*Though I respect his performance in Training Day, and having never seen Monsters Ball but having reports that Halle Berry was incredible, it was watching a Oscar awards with a American traveller, the year that Theron won we talked of Oscars previous he professed that he thought both awards were given purely for political reasons. While I don’t totally agree with him, as Denzel’s performance was certainly worthy of awards, his argument tainted my approval of his win. (I can’t remember his complete argument it was due to something happening in the US at time, but he punctuated his argument by pointing out the Sidney Poitier had also been given the life time Oscar.)
Always Eighteen