Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

American Gangster
2007
**½
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Yul Vazquez, Armand Assante, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal, Ted Levine, Cuba Gooding Jr.

In the late 1960s, Frank Lucas, the new kingpin of Harlem, puts his competition out of business by importing top quality heroin straight from the manufacturer. At the same time, Richie Roberts, a squeaky-clean detective, forms a new task force to capture the top dogs in the drug trade and rid the police department of corruption. This long crime epic is solidly made and perfectly watchable, but everything about it feels secondhand. Lucas' story arc echoes Scarface, GoodFellas, The Godfather, and every other gangster film. Roberts, who finds himself ostracised by his colleagues, follows in the footsteps of Serpico. The face-off between these two men, who actually have a lot in common, brings back memories of Heat and The French Connection. You could look past the lack of originality if the story was entertaining and the characters were charismatic, but the usually reliable Washington and Crowe are not able to breathe life into these two bland archetypes. To earn a place in the pantheon of gangster classics, a drama like this needs one or two truly memorable scenes, like all the films listed above, but Ridley Scott doesn't provide any. Loosely based on real events described in a New York Magazine article The Return of Superfly by Mark Jacobson.