American Gangster

Joseph Smith | 6 January 2008

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American Gangster
Universal
Rated MA15+

American Gangster is a very gritty, honest and confronting portrayal of how the allure of crime is far more attractive than anything it can ever hope to deliver.

Based on a true story and set in the late 60s and early 70s, American Gangster brings to the screen the life of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem who smuggled the drug from Vietnam into the USA using American service planes returning from the Vietnam War.

Lucas’s story is one of rags to riches to ruin, much like that of Tony Montana’s in the classic gangster film Scarface or Johnny Depp in Blow. Lucas is an African American who grew up penniless in a small Southern town, moved to New York to become right-hand man to a black kingpin, became a leading drug lord himself but ultimately experiencing the just desserts for his criminal ways.

Meanwhile, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is a ‘too honest for his own good’ detective. After finding a car full of bags containing almost one million dollars, he turns the money in to his superiors, against the wishes of his less than honourable partner. However, his partner’s advice is correct. Roberts’s disarming honesty ironically leads to his fellow policemen distrusting him and he soon becomes a pariah.

Roberts is subsequently put on the drug squad after being forced out of his previous role and he now seeks to bring down Lucas’ quickly expanding narcotics empire.

Denzel Washington portrays Lucas with such warmth and humour that much of the time you really want him to succeed. It is so easy to forget that his actions and dealings are absolutely reprehensible, with the drugs he is peddling leading to addiction, crime and death. However, it must be said that the film never glamourises crime. Even as Lucas lives a life of affluence and glamour, the violence he perpetrates and the deaths his heroin causes are unflinchingly portrayed on screen.

Nonetheless, Washington skilfully wins our sympathy for Lucas. He brings out the truth that many criminal figures are often charming figures to meet in person. Even criminals have families who value them, lovers who want to be with them and friends who enjoy their company.

However, Washington also brings out the sociopathic side of Lucas. In one scene, Lucas is having breakfast with his family. He sees another crime boss who crossed him some years back. He calmly excuses himself, confronts his competitor and after the two reach an impasse, Lucas pulls out a gun, shoots him in the head, and calmly returns to the restaurant to continue eating breakfast – all in front of the eyes of his family. Washington’s performance is convincing yet frightening as he effortlessly oscillates between the cold murderer and the calm, collected businessman.

Crowe also reveals Roberts as a less than admirable figure. This is most starkly seen in the way he relates to his ex-wife, in his womanising and in his irresponsible parenting of his young son.

In a court scene, Roberts’s wife rages at him and accuses him of being extremely dishonest. Despite his moral commitment to the law, everything about his personal life is flawed. ‘At least the criminals are honest about the fact that they are dishonest’, is the thrust of his wife’s argument. She pegs Roberts as the worst kind of liar.

While this does not excuse the actions of perpetrators of crime, it does line up with the claim that the Bible makes about humanity.

In 1 John 1:18 it is written, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. Roberts’s wife has recognised in her husband what God sees when he looks at all of humanity. We are all deceitful, greedy and dishonest and to claim a higher moral ground in the eyes of God is to be like the man who focuses on the speck of sawdust in his brother’s eye while neglecting the plank in his own.

If it wasn’t for the fact that American Gangster is based on a true story, I don’t know if I would have regarded half the events in the film as credible. The film is one great ride and even at two and half hours, I thought the pace was blistering. Director Ridley Scott has brought to the screen a masterpiece that rivals Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and it will certainly be in the running for some of the top honours at next year’s Academy Awards ceremony.

If it wasn’t obvious from the review thus far it must be stated that the film contains graphic violence and drug use, consistent coarse language and nudity (the ladies who work in the drug dens are forced to work naked so they can’t steal any of the product). The film pulls no punches in its pursuit of realism, so sensitive viewers – be warned!

American Gangster’s paralleling of Lucas’s life of crime with Roberts’s life of crime-prevention cleverly forces the viewer to compare the two figures and observe how both men fall short of their stated intentions. The lives of both men are a reminder that just as we all fall short of the glory of God no matter how good our intentions, we can all have a great saviour in Jesus.

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