American Gangster would make an interesting (if near unwatchable) double-feature with There Will Be Blood. Both are gruesome, indicting explorations of the American Dream skewed, twisted, and transformed into the American Nightmare. Both examine the Darwinian nature (“red in tooth and claw”) of America’s capitalism—kill or be killed, survival-of-the-fittest, last man standing. Both feature repulsive yet hypnotic antiheroes whose ambition is matched by their amorality. Both movies are long, violent, and bludgeoning.

Unfortunately, Gangster lacks Blood’s obsessive focus on its main character. Ridley Scott, the director, has delusions of grandeur—he seems to think he’s making a Scorsese or Coppola movie. There’s the pop soundtrack, the roving camera, the deep chiaroscuro lighting, the moral ambiguity, the family drama, and the lines writ in stone, as when Lucas intones: “See, ya are what ya are in this world. That’s either one of two things: Either you’re somebody, or you ain’t nobody.” There’s even the predictable contrast of the Christian liturgy with scenes of sickening brutality. It’s been done before, and better.

Washington is magnetic as the cool but volatile Lucas, while his costar Russell Crowe gets stuck with the perfunctory part of dogged detective on Lucas’ trail, the one good cop in a corrupt city. This parallel storyline adds unnecessary poundage to an already flabby script, especially the sub-subplot involving divorce proceedings with the requisitely long-suffering wife. (Perhaps Denzel is getting revenge. Remember a movie from years back called Virtuosity?—probably not, but if you do it’s only because a young, relatively unknown Aussie named Russell Crowe stole the movie blind from its supposed star, Denzel. Now it’s Denzel’s turn to slow-burn as the bad guy.)

The viewer has to wade through a whole lot of muck to arrive at the big showdown between Russell and Denzel (I mean, Richie Roberts and Frank Lucas). It’s almost worth the wait. Their scenes together have a wit and energy the rest of movie lacks. There’s even a suggestion of redemption in the Lucas character who, when Richie asks him if he’d like a drink, answers with a grin, “holy water.” It’s too little, too late. The whole movie could have used a sprinkling.

USCCB rating: L—Limited Audiences

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