watching movies one cup at a time

One 50 thousand dollar chinchilla fur coat is all it took to take down the Harlem heroin kingpin. American Gangster is based on the true story of Frank Lucas, the Harlem gangster who cut deals directly with heroin makers in Southeast Asia to make loads of money in the U.S. while maintaining a low profile. What I found most interesting about the character of Frank Lucas is that he was not a flashy “Superfly” bufoonish kind of African-American gangster that you see all too often in movies. He was calm, cool, behind-the-scenes, and respectable. Yet he was a cold-blooded killer, a smart businessman, and a fierce leader. A man to be taken seriously.

Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas magnificently well in another stunning performance from one of the best actors working today. Denzel does not often play bad guys in his movies. It’s rare. And this is a very different character from the loud and shady street hustler Denzel won the Oscar for playing in Training Day. Yet Frank Lucas is far more sinister and capable of much more destruction. This is a character who is ice cold, can shoot a person as easily as we would light a match, can strike a deal with the Italian Mafia as smoothly as we would be ordering a sandwich. And Denzel is so cool, so calm, so serious, he exudes intimidation at the same time as respect. What he says without saying anything carries just as much weight.

Russell Crowe does a good job with Det. Richie Roberts, the task force leader that ultimately brings Frank down. It’s not as meaty a role as Frank Lucas but of course he pulls it off brilliantly. It’s really interesting to note that Washington and Crowe have been in a movie together before opposite eachother in lead roles. They played the starring roles in the mediocre 1995 film Virtuosity with Crowe being the villain that time to Washington’s cop. That film was kind of a hack job that cashed in on the “virtual reality” fascination at the time and was easily forgettable. And it was obviously a very different time in each of these actor’s careers, especially for Russell Crowe. He would get his break-through role in L.A. Confidental 2 years later which set him on the road to his 2 Oscar wins. In 1995 Washington was already an Oscar-winner for Glory and had done amazing work in Malcolm X, Philadelphia, and a string of other fine films. But now in 2007 he would never take on a weightless film like Virtuosity. So it’s interesting to compare the 2 actors performances 12 years apart.

It’s also interesting to note that Crowe and Washington spend very little time together in this film. They are essentially in 2 separate but parallel movies leading up to the climax where Frank gets busted toward the end of the movie. They have just one scene together which is at the courthouse after Frank has been put on trial. Det. Roberts has passed the bar to become a lawyer and is the prosecuting attorney against Frank, besides being the lead investigator that brought him down, and they have a tense negotiation as Roberts gets Frank to help bring down the crooked cops of the NYPD. It’s a great scene and both actors are equally matched in this heavyweight back and forth.

My only question about this movie is why Ruby Dee got a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this film? I’ve got nothing against Ruby Dee. It’s just that she is barely in this movie. She plays Frank’s mother and has probably 10 minutes of screen time, maybe. And it’s a very unremarkable 10 minutes. Maybe this is one of those “body of work” Oscars they give out as a tribute to a career, much like Al Pacino’s Oscar for Scent of a Woman or even Denzel’s for Training Day. It was wasn’t their best work but their accomplishments are so great that no one questions if they deserve an Oscar or not. Denzel SHOULD have gotten the Oscar for The Hurricane and/or Malcolm X but it didn’t work out that way so Training Day was the one that got him there instead. But I believe he got it largely because of his overall career.

American Gangster is a good, tense film that shows off another fantastic performance from these two acting giants. Definitely worth watching just for the one scene of the two leads interaction.