A Solid Crime Drama

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2008)

Ain't no love in the Harlem city...so it goes with American Gangster, a film about the rise and fall of famed drug-lord, Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington and the turmoil of the cop, Detective Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe, assigned to his case. At heart, this is a film about gangsters and is Scott's attempt at making the African-American Goodfellas. While the premise and the performances dialed in are both strong, the film strolls along a little too casually, and slowly begins to wear down the viewer (and not in a good way).
American Gangster is naturally based upon true events, seeing as most films nowadays do require some external inspiration. Nonetheless, the premise and characters presented are not only good on paper but are fairly well executed in the film. The story moves up and down the locales of New York City and delves into criminal themes such as corruption, redemption, and revenge. Frank Lucas was written into the film with such a mystique, that is reminiscent of old gangster mob heads. With that said, the story feels like a rehash at times and the crew has simply changed the names of the characters. There is a certain lack of originality here. The chase against Lucas, led by Detective Richie Roberts, is the important counter story to Frank's. At times, the Roberts sequences can get boring and at times, it felt like the writers did not have enough material for Crowe to work with.
Having said that, both star actors turn in wonderful performances, marred only by their lack of originality. At times, I felt like I was watching Alonso from Training Day. I also felt that at times, I was watching Eliot Ness trying to catch Al Capone. Both actors are great and do what they can with the roles, but the characters have been seen so many times before and have been done so well before, that their performances aren't quite as powerful. There are great supporting performances such as the one by Josh Brolin, portraying the corrupt Detective Trupo. In terms of the cast, Scott and his crew pretty much nailed it with the rapper T.I. even getting some screen time.
The film does however, tend to drag at times. The ending is prolonged and could have been finished a lot faster. It felt like it was being stretched out just for the sake of it. There were some scenes that were just pointless and unnecessary. However, some scenes were brilliant such as the raid on Lucas' drug "plant." The music is a nice blend between urban and hip-hop culture effectively purveying the shifting music culture of New York City in the 70's. In fact, the film does a fairly good job of capturing the whole 70's New York City culture and it is visually and audibly astounding at times. There's not a lot of instrumental work here, which is a shame, but there was a lot to like about the music, anyways.
In the end, Ridley Scott creates a solid film about crime and drugs and the rise of African American drug-lords. The film, however, is not very original and it takes a lot of concepts from previous gangster films. The performances, while great, are similarly branded with this lack of originality and it just felt a little too much like the same rigmarole. To make me truly love this film, Scott had to make it a little more special than he did. As it is, the film is a little too run-of-the-mill. The film is certainly not bad; like I said, the film does a good job dealing with the element of criminality and the police trying to stop it. But there have been too many other gangster and crime dramas that have done better and more importantly, have stood out more as something special.