CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 11/02/07

Double Vision

By david michael wharton

Unfolding along two divergent narratives that gradually hew together, American Gangster tells a tale of deep-seated, systemic corruption, and two very different responses to it as it tracks the lives of the Harlem gangster who out-crooked the mafia and the un-crooked cop determined to bring him down.

American Gangster

Steven Zaillian
Based on Mark Jacobsen's article
"The Return of Superfly"

Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a small-time hood, driver, and bodyguard to Harlem mob boss "Bumpy" Johnson. After his boss passes away, the streets descend into chaos as every two-bit crook with dreams of power makes a play to stake out their territory. Lucas, however, proves both smarter and more ambitious, soon dominating the local heroin market thanks to cunning, ruthlessness, and an elaborate plan to use contacts inside the U.S. military to smuggle huge quantities of the drug into the country, effectively cutting out all the usual middle men. Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is one of the last honest cops on the force, for all the good it does him. Labeled as untrustworthy by the increasingly corrupt police establishment after he returns one-million dollars in unmarked bills, rather than pocketing the cash and fleshing out his retirement fund, Roberts toils unappreciated until his reputation lands him the job heading up a new anti-drug task-force comprised of "clean" cops. As the 1960s give way to the 1970s, Lucas' empire prospers and eclipses even the long-entrenched Italian crime bosses, and Roberts' investigations into the skeleton of the New York drug trade lead the two toward an inevitable confrontation.

American Gangster unfolds for most of its length as a pair of narratives that gradually grow closer and eventually intertwine. Detective Roberts doesn't even hear the name Frank Lucas until at least an hour into the film, and Lucas is unaware of Roberts' existence more or less until the film's climax. Rather than try to force the two characters into a closer ongoing confrontation than existed in real life, screenwriter Zaillian instead simply tells two separate stories, which are destined to eventually become the same story. We follow Lucas as he hatches his plan, rises through the ranks of the underworld, recruiting many of his family members into the business; at the same time, we follow Roberts on his way from the pariah of the force to the man who will help bring down a drug cartel responsible for millions of dollars of drug sales and thousands of ruined lives. Even when Roberts finally realizes that Lucas is a major player, his discovery is half luck and half intuition, and even then is nowhere near grasping just how high up Lucas' star has risen. While the film's bisected nature means we don't get any of those trademark Hollywood cop-drama scenes where hero and villain meet and swap mutual assurances of the other's destruction, this take feels much more realistic. In most cases, the cop that orchestrates the downfall of a crime boss probably isn't as familiar as an old golfing buddy: he's just the guy with the badge that kicks down your door at the start of a really bad day.

But while Lucas and Roberts may not be united by much shared screen time until the third act, they are thematically united from the very start. Following in the footsteps of many a memorable protagonist and antagonist pairing, the two characters are mirror images of each other in many ways. Both espouse a devotion to family that their actions rarely support. Lucas buys an extravagant house for his elderly mother and other relatives, but his charisma also recruits many of those family members into his criminal empire, resulting in death or prison for many, and simply the loss of more nobler dreams for the lucky ones. Roberts devotes so much time to his job that his family crumbles as he watches, and despite his admirable honesty in the face of a million bucks in unmarked bills, he can't seem to muster the same level of honesty for his wife.

Even more importantly, both characters are shaped and driven by their response to the corruption they find themselves surrounded by. Lucas loses any faith in "law and order" long before reaching adulthood, and so lives his life believing that he has to make his own way, even if that way should stray across the line of what is right. Roberts sees the widespread corruption in his own force and refuses to be consumed by it, even when that decision risks his career. In a way, both characters are fighting against the same thing, even though their strategies and motivations couldn't be more different.

It should be mentioned, however, that while the story is gripping, the running time is occasionally unwieldy. While the tale being painted deserves an epic canvass, the film might have been better served by a few more tough decisions in the editing room.

American Gangster marks a worthy entry into the over-trodden genre of the gangster film, one that eschews many of the clichés in favor of an elegantly structured tale well told.

American Gangster
Universal Pictures
Rated R; 157 min.

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David Michael Wharton is the managing editor of CS Weekly and a contributing editor of Creative Screenwriting. His attempts at a life of crime have thus far extended no further than removing the tags from mattresses.

American Gangster courtesy Universal Pictures

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