What a beautiful portfolio of films Ridley Scott has brought to our culture. Normally critics look at his early films (Alien, Blade Runner) and say he never reached the same heights after the mid-80s. I wholeheartedly disagree; I could easily put Gladiator and Black Hawk Down in this spot too. I even enjoy Hannibal quite a bit amidst all its schlockiness. What I would say is he had stock in a lot of genres, so while he probably will be best known for making two of the greatest science fiction films ever, he tries his hand in everything from historical fiction and crime drama. And what's great about Scott, unlike many other directors, is when he makes a bad film, he learns from his mistakes and tries something new. In 2006, he made a terrible film called A Good Year about Russell Crowe drinking wine for two hours. He went back to his roots and made a gangster movie based on a true story. And what I feel is his best film. Though I'm sure many others would say differently.
The plot is about Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the driver for notorious gangster Bumpy Johnson. When Johnson dies, Lucas takes over his racket, though no one expects him to. He makes his way to the top by smuggling pure heroin, which he calls "blue magic" due to its 100% potency, in from Vietnam between 1968 and 1975. No one has a clue, except for a police officer (Russell Crowe) running an undercover narcotics team, who suspects him though its a million to one shot.
Everything clicks and feels very authentic in this film. Denzel Washington is always great, here he scales back a bit to play subtler then he had been performing at the time with over the top roles like Training Day and Man on Fire. Russell Crowe makes a big comeback after the drinking wine for two hours movie, and shows why he's an Academy Award winning actor. What's great about this role is his smoothness; he's juggling a lot in his life (passing the bar, his team, his investigation, his divorce), but never loses his cool. And when I say authentic I mean you are transported to a new world. The steam and grit of New York City is something kids today won't see in a Disney-fied Times Square. The police captain in this film says "Biggest city in the world and it's turning into an open sewer. Everybody's stealin' and dealin'..." New York in the 70's was a rough place, but Washington plays Lucas so charming and quiet that you sort of forget some of this mess is his making. "I've got parents of dead kids lined up around the block" says Crowe's Richie Roberts. This echoes well today amidst the opioid crisis, but there's nothing Roberts could do to take on the pharmaceutical companies today.
I remember writing trite essays on the SATs about "Is the American Dream dead?" I always believed it was just that, only a dream and a fantasy to keep the poor hopeful. But the rise and fall of Frank Lucas is certainly an all-American story, much like Joe Kennedy bootlegging during Prohibition leading to the Kennedy dynasty. Scott raises an interesting point amidst the epic sweep of this film: The American Dream is alive and well, and attainable through of hard work, just that that hard work is, as Roberts said "Bribery, Extortion, and Murder."
Rating **** out of 4
Σχόλια