AMERICAN GANGSTER
Ridley Scott | 2007 | USA | 2h37m + 10min intermission | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles
AMERICAN GANGSTER charts the rise of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas and turns it into one of the great American crime films of the 2000s. Denzel Washington plays Lucas as a businessman first and a gangster second, someone who understands supply, reputation, discipline and the importance of maintaining a low profile.
Set across New York in the late 1960s and early 70s, the film follows Lucas as he builds his heroin empire. Running parallel is Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe, an honest detective working inside a corrupt police department. For most of the runtime Scott keeps his two protagonists apart, allowing each side of the story to gradually unfold before their paths inevitably meet.
This is film made on the scale of an American epic. Harlem streets, police interrogation rooms, seedy nightclubs, family Sunday dinners and fleabit drug dens are occupy of the same ecosystem. Scott isn’t only interested in Lucas himself. He looks at the network around him, the relatives he brings into the business, the police officers on the take, and the broken institutions that allow the whole operation to function.
The supporting cast is stacked. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr., RZA of Wu-Tang fame and Ruby Dee all appear, with Dee earning an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Lucas’s mother. Russell Crowe is great, however it's Denzel who brings the heat. He gives Lucas intelligence, charisma and menace without turning him into a cartoon, and it's easily one of the strongest performances of his career.
Special thanks to FOMO Film Club member Sergei for recommending AMERICAN GANGSTER for this week's film program.
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FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
