LIKE “The Godfather” and other genre classics, Ridley Scott’s epic “American Gangster” focuses on the bigger picture – how a drug epidemic and police corruption brought the Big Apple to its knees in the early 1970s.
Denzel Washington dazzles in his best screen performance to date as Frank Lucas, a real-life Harlem drug lord who revolutionized his nasty business by importing heroin directly from Thailand, and selling a product that cost half as much and was twice as potent as anything on the market.
In the detail-packed script by Steven Zaillian (an Oscar winner for “Schindler’s List”), just about the only cop standing in Lucas’ way is the resolutely honest Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a former Essex County detective recruited by the feds to run an undercover operation against both drug dealers and massively corrupt narcs. Crowe is solid in a self-effacing way as this Serpico-like character, but the film belongs to the mesmerizing Washington as Lucas, who seized power after his mentor, legendary Harlem crime lord Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III), died of a heart attack in 1968.
Lucas had little education, but the street-smart instincts of a CEO. Knowing that drug use is rampant among troops during the then-raging Vietnam War, he sees it as a business opportunity.
Rather than continuing to buy heavily cut heroin from the Mafia, Lucas flies to the Far East and makes a deal to cut out the middle man – using military planes to transport the smack, sometimes in the coffins of U.S. servicemen.
Soon Lucas is grossing $1 million a day and has sent for his brothers (Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the oldest) and cousins from North Carolina, installing them in low-profile businesses that serve as fronts for drug distribution points in New York and New Jersey.
He also brings up his mother (the great Ruby Dee) and buys her a large house where they all have dinner every Sunday, the model of middle-class strivers.
Unlike his better-known and flamboyant rival Nicky Barnes (briefly impersonated by Cuba Gooding Jr. in “Superfly” mode), Lucas mostly is scrupulous not to draw attention to himself or his activities – even when he carries out a public execution on the street just to remind everyone who’s boss.
The major exception occurs when his wife (Lymari Nadal), a former Miss Puerto Rico, buys Lucas a chinchilla coat as a birthday present and he unwisely wears it to a Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight at Madison Square Garden. Worse, he sits in front of a Mafia don (Armand Assante) who by this point is buying drugs from Lucas.
This draws the attention of the cop Roberts, his polar opposite who lacks Lucas’ gift for gab and indeed has a talent for alienating people.
While Lucas lives comfortably, Roberts is a financially struggling divorced dad who, to the disdain of his colleagues, turns in nearly a million dollars worth of cash probably skimmed by cops from the French Connection bust.
Eschewing his recent reliance on computer-generated effects, “Gladiator” director Scott realizes this compelling saga doesn’t need his usual stylistic tricks. Scott builds considerable tension cutting back and forth between these two stories, until Lucas and Roberts finally meet more than two hours into the 157 minutes for a twist climax I found especially rewarding.
I also give Scott credit for not shying away from graphically depicting the horror of heroin addiction caused by Lucas and the law-enforcers he had on the payroll (Josh Brolin plays a particularly nasty specimen of the latter).
It’s probably the most unflinching picture of drug use since Brian DePalma’s “Scarface,” though Scott thankfully avoids that film’s operatic excesses and over-the-top performances.
“American Gangster” feels a little rushed as Scott ties up loose ends in the last half hour. It left me wanting more. That’s one of the biggest compliments I can pay one of the year’s best movies – and surely a major Oscar contender.
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AMERICAN GANGSTER
The Harlem “Godfather.”
Running time: 157 minutes. Rated R (graphic violence, much drug use, sex, nudity, profanity). Opens Thursday night at the Union Square, the Chelsea, the Harlem USA, others.