Don Vito Corleone nearly got killed for refusing to do drugs

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2008)

Without the slightest intention to turn a movie comment into a moral debate, I can't ignore the reality that drug dealing is often considered the vilest of crimes, even if it's just a movie. With a movie star such a Danzel Washington whom the entire population simply loves on sight playing a kingpin drug dealer, a few fleeting shots of suffering addicts and one or two comments in the dialogue about those sufferings are far from adequate to provide a balance. One of the key things that make Don Vito Corleone so respected (as a movie character) is his steadfast determination to stay out of the drug business.
"American gangster" is a solid, first class gangster movie, set in the 70s against the backdrop of the US's withdrawal from Vietnam. Ridley Scott maintains full control over the development of the parallel stories over the two-and-a-half hours of the movie. With under-acting that approaches minimalism, Russell Crowe plays an almost too-good-to-be-true honest cop outcast by his generally bribe-taking colleagues, frustrated and wasted until handpicked to head up a no-nonsense drug squad. But the winner of the contest, if there is one, would be Denzel Washington, who inhibits the deprived kid that eventually rises to become a black drug dealer that outdo the Italian Mafia.
The thing I like best is the final climatic showdown (and the two didn't meet until then), not a commonplace shoot out but a verbal duel (in an interrogation room) that is ten times more exciting. Particularly brilliant is Washington maneuvering like a slithering snake trying to wriggle out of trouble or at least minimize loss, changing tactics continuously – testing waters, probing, bribery, intimidation, logical reasoning, emotional appeal. That one scene is the true worth of the movie.