Familiar but well told story

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2008)

Gangster movies usually bore me witless ("The Godfather" and "The Sopranos" apart), but Ridley Scott is an interesting director and the story here is derived from real events. The style of the film is busy  there is often far more going on the tightly edited scenes than the viewer can take in at once - but as it progresses things fall into place and the two parallel stories of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas and incorruptible New Jersey detective Richie Roberts eventually merge. As Lucas, Denzil Washington puts in his usual solid performance, and Russell Crowe, with a rather less interesting character- the only thing unusual about him is that he is an honest copper- fits the role perfectly. What is more, he speaks every line audibly, an object lesson to some of today's fashionable actors who all seem to think they are Brando. The gang members here, though, just about need sub-titles, and there are so many it is difficult to keep track of who's who.
Much of the story  set in the period 1968 to 1974  is familiar to those of us around at the time  US army personnel smuggling pure heroin from SE Asia back to the US of A in coffins, police corrupted by the vast amounts of money involved, the rise of black crime bosses. The movie doesn't dig too far into motivation  greed is accepted as sufficient. Frank Lucas's gang operates as a family business, with five brothers and numerous cousins in the organization but he keeps almost all the money for himself, resenting paying even $10,000 a month to bent coppers while amassing $250 million in offshore bank accounts. His boldest ploy was to cut out the middleman and buy pure heroin direct from a surprisingly urbane ex-Kuomintang general hiding in a remote South-East Asian jungle (probably Burma). His customers got Frank's "Double Blue" heroin at twice the strength for half the price. This of course killed more people, but Frank never seems to be short of customers.
Without giving the game away it can be said that Richie is fairly successful in his efforts against the heroin trade, but others, some selling other drugs, sprang up to take Frank's place. Ridley Scott doesn't go into the issue, but this story clearly shows the futility of treating drug abuse as a criminal law rather than a public health problem. Unfortunately the puritanical origins of the United States are still reflected in public attitudes towards addiction. The addict is a sinner and must suffer to be redeemed. Punishment is more important than rehabilitation, and drug dealers are beyond the pale altogether (actually I would go along with the last bit as long as it included tobacco company executives). Anyway, as I said, Ridley Scott stays clear of the issue. He gives us a familiar story, cleverly framed and well presented.