Glimpse of times behind movie gangland

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2016)

In scope of portrayal and general razzmatazz this has nothing to lose on Scorsese and reminds of something he would do. A rise and fall story centered on a Harlem gangster who rode to the top on heroin shipments from Vietnam. It's that kind of film where we get the full chronicle - humble beginnings, turf wars, crime empire. A good cop is on his trail, seemingly alone in a sea of corrupt law enforcement. We get snappy montages played to marvelous music of the time - the late 60s.
The portrayal is a bit more complex; a man who wanted to do capitalism like everyone else, pursue the dream so he can finally have Thanksgiving dinner in a lavish villa with his family; but addicts dying in filthy rooms pay for it. The point here is a world hopped on greed where appearances are rendered void. The heroin is smuggled on US army planes.
What drew me in - and why I believe it works - is that we are more deeply enmeshed in this world than an action movie or the usual CIA fare. It reminds a bit of what they were doing in the 70s where crime was lived through with its squalor and not just posed for in cool soundbites. It actually shifts back and forth, one foot in Goodfellas movie gangland, the other in street chronicle. We travel derelict atmospheres around New Jersey, junkie apartments and disheveled neighborhoods. Crowe anchors the lived aspect as shabby cop, Washington seethes and glares like a movie gangster.
I would have liked to see less of the chronicle, more of the streets ,more of the human haze. It's a fascinating era anyway - one of those world-formative cornerstones where hopeful change and malaise swirled in the same air. We don't really veer far but we're given the broad outlines of a world in shift - from the North Carolina farm where he grew up to an upscale loft on Ali - Frazier boxing night. This was while soul music of the era was taking the same leap and corporations were consolidating vast empires, including movies. It was in this heady climate that Scorsese got his start incidentally.