American Gangster (2007): C

Director(s): Ridley Scott. Screenplay: Steven Zaillian. Cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lymari Nadal, Ted Levine, Armand Assante, Cuba Gooding Jr., Carla Gugino, John Hawkes, Ruby Dee, Clarence Williams III and Idris Elba. Distributor: Universal Pictures. Runtime: 158 min. Rating: R.

That American Gangster has received a surprising amount of critic appraise does not exclude it from an overall category found around this time of the year: Oscar bait. Pas de deux acting, historical topics, famous actors—you name it. Essentially, there's no way to escape this, as director Ridley Scott's newest concoction bears all of these trademarks mixed in a 70's milieu, the ultimate result being a tumultuous yet impeccably well-designed archetype unable to escape a sudden sense of familiarity all around; in recreating an embracingly deft milieu of the 70's, however, Scott, like in Blade Runner, has found an acceptable match. Not letting back, Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas, a criminal mastermind in terms of drugs and getting drugs—he gets his stuff straight from Thailand, this being an impetus for many people to use heroine quite more back in the 70's. Working in faux-intelligent parallelism, Scott also adds Russel Crowe's Richie Roberts to mirror Lucas's actions: both start out with nothing, ultimately crescendoing—the former in his drug money, and the latter on the investigation. More cast, in essence characters, are added, boiling the whole situation up above the norm, ultimately climaxing in a gripping shoot-out—yet again technically cool but not felt.

Without a doubt, this quality lacks throughout: however technically it succeeds, the film will never be able to escape its superficial ways and find a deeper meaning, this being American Gangster's main dilemma. Scott seems to have a certain amount of respect for both, though ultimately it's shown in, without a doubt, the film's best scene: the two men talking face to face. Respectively, the pas de deux works efficiently as usual, Washington giving a charismatic performance and Crowe adding what little he can to his do-good character. The film rests on their shoulders, as well as its vivid sense of place; yet its clunky running time also leads to narrative deficiencies throughout. However, an interesting success of the film is the way it manages to balance out Washington's performance with grimacing scenes of tension. There should be more of these; there aren't.