Ridley Scott Knocks One Out of the Park

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2007)

Director Ridley Scott has surprised me: he's finally made a movie I liked. Since the last one was "Alien" back in 1979, I'd pretty much given up on him.
"American Gangster" is a kinetic, dazzlingly entertaining crime film. It features two strong performances from Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, but this wasn't a movie that left me remembering the performances. Rather, it's the great writing and assured directing that left me most impressed.
Washington plays Frank Lucas, a drug dealer in 1960s Harlem who applies the principal of the American dream and capitalism to his drug trade: make something better and sell it for less, and pretty soon your product will be the one to beat. Crowe plays perhaps the only honest cop in New York City, who's appointed the leader of a narcotics unit whose mission is to bring an end (or at least curb) New York's rampant drug market. All of this is based on a true story, but who knows how accurate it all is. And frankly, with a movie as entertaining as this, who cares? The film only slows down toward the end, when Washington and Crowe finally meet, and the screenplay decides it must tidy things up in a "here's-the-moral-of-the-story" kind of way. The rest is energetic and highly accomplished. The film doesn't join the ranks of "The Godfather" as one of the best American films about organized crime, but I'm not sure it tries to, and that's one of its best qualities.
A host of other actors appear in supporting roles, including Cuba Gooding, Jr., Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ruby Dee (memorable as Washington's mother), Ted Levine (who I'll never be able to see as anyone other than Buffalo Bill from "The Silence of the Lambs"), Josh Brolin (who has now officially appeared in every movie released this year) and, chewing the scenery, Armand Assante doing his best Marlon Brando impersonation.
Like him or not, there's no denying that Scott does know his way around a movie set, and with "American Gangster" he's given us one of the best and one of the most entertaining films of the year.
Grade: A