American Gangster

American Gangster is a great movie. That's all there is to it. Denzel Washington gives a great performance, as does Russell Crowe. I thought all the supporting actors were good as well-many rappers played not only members of Denzel's gang, but were cops as well and all aquitted themselves honorably. Denzel plays the bad guy-a heroin dealer who goes straight to the source in Southeast Asia and cuts out the middleman, while Russell Crowe is the cop who is intent on bringing him down. Denzel is the family man, who cares for his wife, his mother and his brothers, while Russell is a negligent father, who admits it's not safe for his child to be around him-but both are dedicated to their respective jobs. While both Russell and Denzel ever been a big fan of his movies. He's always had a great cast and a story but he always has to throw in flashy camera angles and turn it into a spectacle. He wasn't always this way-Alien, using a very small set and a great cast was a great scary movie. But then there was Blade Runner (yes, it needed to effects but it was really flashy and slightly annoying), Legend, Conquest of Paradise, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. Why all the epics when he proved he could tell a great story without all the show (I'm thinking of Matchstick Men and Thema and Louise-both of these were great stories without the "Epic Sweep" of which he is so fond)? So I was happy to see that although this is a "big" movie if only by virtue of it's tremendous cast, it's still a story, focusing on two men determined to do their jobs as best they can. No epic, no sweep and grandeur, just a great story told very well. The scene where Russell and Denzel finally meet is a case in point-Denzel has been in church with his family and comes out of the church to find the street, once full of cars and people, is now bare. He sees his car, the only one out front, with a telephone pole blocking the view of the whole car. He looks around and sees the street has been cleared, with police cars and officers blocking every road. He moves his head a bit to the side and now sees Russell, leaning against his car. And that's it. You know the scene is over, you know he won't run and there's nothing of the "you're under arrest" crap-it's a great scene.
Unfortunately, it is almost undone by what follows. Denzel and Russell next have a great scene where they discuss what Russell has on him and how's he's going to put him away-it's two actors who know what they're doing and enjoying it. But after...it's turns into five minutes of a buddy movie. The two of them laughing and joking and working together-oh God it was stupid. I won't say it ruined the movie, but after spending almost three hours of good cops, really bad cops and gangsters deal drugs, kill each other and hunt each other down ina very hard-nosed way, it was very disconcerting to watch it turn into the "ha ha, let's join forces and go get the bad guys" cliche and it was a shame because it was so good up to that point.
Regardless, it was still a great movie. I sat there for the three hours and never wondered when the movie was going to end (or praying that it would end soon), I was caught up in every single moment. Would I see it again? Definitely. I'd also like to say how nice it was to see black actors in a movie-it reminded me that so many movies lately are about white people (white men in particular) so to see a movie with some great black actors (not just Denzel who can pretty write his own ticket)-well, it was nice. Could we get some more of that please?