2008 Woodie Awards
The reel critic
Josh Wessler
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Arts
- Page 1 of 2 next >
MOVIE |American Gangster
DIRECTOR | Ridley Scott
STARRING | Denzel Washington
"American Gangster" has a writhing, tortured soul, off-centered and uneasy. It has the whiff of an old Western, set among the gangs of New York. It tastes like American apple pie gone bad, a far cry from Tony and the white-bred Jets. This gangster tale goes back further than the immigrant gangs of Italians, Jews, Cubans and French. This is about the black man brought along to take part in the white man's dream with women only secondary. This is about the idealism of a new country, a new city, soured by the scourge of the poor masses - the wretches freed from the fields and released in a city of iniquity. It's about the impossibility of carving out a niche when the fat cats take up the whole couch. It's about America, and its nasty, rotting soul.
The setting is Harlem, 1968. The city strains under the pressure of corrupt cops, drug addiction and chain stores waiting to push out black storeowners. More than guns and drugs, this film is about retail. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is nothing if not a businessman - a middleman in his own trade. He recognizes that his services are not welcome in a formal, white-collar economy. He still dresses in a suit each morning and holds office in a local diner. Instead of dealing war bonds, he deals heroin, pure and half-price, personally delivered from Vietnam's war-torn jungles.
Across town, detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), who conspicuously wears a Jewish star around his neck, is tormented by his own honesty. When he and his partner find a million bucks, they hand it over to their precinct. This is not "NYPD Blue" - it's the nightmare of "Serpico" and the anarchy of "Cop Land" rolled into one. As Richie's partner notes, "Cops kill cops they can't trust." And no one trusts a cop that hands over a million dollars. Though Richie is tough enough to handle being ostracized, his partner is black and already suffers on the job, and soon succumbs to the drug and extortion game. Left alone among the corruption, Ritchie's only job is to hunt down the source of the recent heroin cache.
DIRECTOR | Ridley Scott
STARRING | Denzel Washington
"American Gangster" has a writhing, tortured soul, off-centered and uneasy. It has the whiff of an old Western, set among the gangs of New York. It tastes like American apple pie gone bad, a far cry from Tony and the white-bred Jets. This gangster tale goes back further than the immigrant gangs of Italians, Jews, Cubans and French. This is about the black man brought along to take part in the white man's dream with women only secondary. This is about the idealism of a new country, a new city, soured by the scourge of the poor masses - the wretches freed from the fields and released in a city of iniquity. It's about the impossibility of carving out a niche when the fat cats take up the whole couch. It's about America, and its nasty, rotting soul.
The setting is Harlem, 1968. The city strains under the pressure of corrupt cops, drug addiction and chain stores waiting to push out black storeowners. More than guns and drugs, this film is about retail. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is nothing if not a businessman - a middleman in his own trade. He recognizes that his services are not welcome in a formal, white-collar economy. He still dresses in a suit each morning and holds office in a local diner. Instead of dealing war bonds, he deals heroin, pure and half-price, personally delivered from Vietnam's war-torn jungles.
Across town, detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), who conspicuously wears a Jewish star around his neck, is tormented by his own honesty. When he and his partner find a million bucks, they hand it over to their precinct. This is not "NYPD Blue" - it's the nightmare of "Serpico" and the anarchy of "Cop Land" rolled into one. As Richie's partner notes, "Cops kill cops they can't trust." And no one trusts a cop that hands over a million dollars. Though Richie is tough enough to handle being ostracized, his partner is black and already suffers on the job, and soon succumbs to the drug and extortion game. Left alone among the corruption, Ritchie's only job is to hunt down the source of the recent heroin cache.
Be the first to comment on this story