Denzel Washington is repellent

Rating: 1/10 (3 May 2009)

There is something inherently wrong with this movie, something that does not make sense and is quite contradictory. One thing for sure, Denzel Washington's depiction of Frank Lucas is terribly disturbing. There is an obvious contrast between the personal history and character of Denzel Washington (as Lucas) and the violent, greedy, selfish actions he commits. One wonders constantly throughout the movie how Washington's (Lucas) conscience had led him to do what he does--the movie never tells us. What the movie does say is that Frank Lucas is the opposite of what he does: He is noble, literate, and--something so blatantly deceptive and dishonest--a fighter for the working man, for the middleman. I don't suppose that the movie wants Lucas, and his mentor, to be perceived as a noble figure--after all, he did commit murder, right?--but why is there no sense to his actions? Why is he a thoroughly chilling mystery-man? Why is someone who possesses such obvious criminal motives, depicted as a hazy and aloof personality? My only thought is that Denzel Washington believed that only a man of such mystery can control and dominate others the way Lucas has. But this is something that could not make sense in this context, after all he did shoot people (does anyone shoot people in public and walk through the streets as if he has just saved the world from its evil destroyer? This was what it seemed like when Washington has done it). It merely makes the movie contradict reality--a man like that would NOT walk through the streets feeling noble, and certainly nobody would think him as such. This alone make the movie repellent and unreal. It avoids the real circumstance of a criminal and no less a gangster like Lucas. (I don't think the movie deserves a 1 rating, but its present abnormal high-rating makes it a fair balance).