Flick of the Day: American Gangster

I'm a big fan of the English born director Ridley Scott here at The Daily Flick. Indeed, the very first post on this blog way back on Sunday Dec 5th 2010 was a review of the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven, perhaps one of his best works in its full and unmangled version. Over the course of his career, Scott has produced some truly ground breaking works while operating well within the mainstream of modern genre cinema. Very often the impact of his work has been lessened by a triumph of visual style over narrative substance. Films like Black Rain and Black Hawk Down were visually stunning at times but lacked something which made them memorable. However when he manages to marry a compelling story to his visual flair, there are few better than him. Today's flick of the day American Gangster is most definitely in the latter category.

American Gangster

Opening in 1968 with the Vietnam war rapidly reaching its nadir, this is the story of Frank Lucas, ably played by Denzel Washington, the right hand man of the soon to be deceased Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson. Stepping into the power vacuum created by the death of his mentor, Lucas sets out to become the most powerful hood in the 5 boroughs of New York by travelling to Thailand and seeking to import heroin from its jungle source. Taking advantage of the boom in users caused by serviceman returning from Vietnam with a needle in their arm, Lucas quickly corners the market. This is unwelcome news for a group of corrupt cops led by Josh Brolin who have been selling confiscated heroin back to the Mafia men who had imported it. Into this heady brew steps Richie Roberts, a straight as an arrow cop training to be a lawyer with a zeal for putting away drug traffickers. Roberts is played by Russell Crowe who excels in the role. Roberts quickly begins a quest to bring Lucas to justice by any means.

The real joy of this film is Scott's ability to weave what is a very interesting look at New York sub-culture in the late 60's and early 70's. At times there is an almost documentary feel as the set-up of the city's drug trade is laid out before us. From an aside about the police selling the drugs captured in The French Connection to the interactions between the dealers and celebrities of the era, the film exudes authenticity and research. This grounding in the era and an understanding of the world into which Lucas begins his rise to power serves the film well.

Like so many of Scott's films, this has a cast rich with talent throughout. Fine actors like Idris Elba, Jon Polito and John Hawkes appear in tiny roles and such was the hype surrounding the script that the cast is littered with a who's who of stars from the American hip-hop scene. The leads each give nuanced performances throughout. Brolin stands out perhaps because he has the most entertaining role as a corrupt and ruthless detective who is menacing throughout. Crowe is his usual competent self and Washington surprises in his ability to inhabit the morality free zone that is Frank Lucas' world.

Perhaps one of the more underrated of Scott's films perhaps because it initially appears to be overly glossy and lacking substance, there is much to enjoy here and as it reaches its natural denouement becomes quite a compelling ride. You know Frank is going to be captured but it is the how that is just as entertaining. A fine film.

Flick of The Day: King of New York

I have looked at the decline of New York City in the 70's and 80's previously in my reviews of  Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead and  James Gray's We Own The Night and it is indeed a rich canvas for filmmakers to work with. Abel Ferrara has long used this as his milieu with some successes such as 1992's Bad Lieutenant and  some notable failures such as today's flick of the day, King of New York. During its premiere at the 1990 New York Film Festival, much of the audience walked out including Ferrara's own wife. In the years since its release it has come to be seen for what it is, a stylish b-movie oddity with an uneven script that is held together by a towering performance from Christopher Walken as the drug kingpin of the title.

King of New York

Opening with the release from prison of Frank White, played by Walken, the film depicts the grimy underbelly of New York from the backseat of a limousine in a memorable opening sequence. After his stint behind bars Frank is acutely aware of how his exploitation of society as a drug trafficker had made him a wealthy man. Determined to give something back to the neighbourhood, he sets out to reclaim his throne and finance the construction of a hospital with his ill gotten gains. To do this he needs the help of the various factions which control the city. Much like an episode of the PlayStation series Grand Theft Auto, each of the gangs are represented along racial lines. There are Asians, Italians, Colombians and African Americans each nastier than the last and again much like a computer game, their refusal to bow to Frank leads to scenes of highly stylised violence usually led by Frank's right hand man Jimmy Jump, played with manic abandon by Laurence Fishburne. Ultimately Frank's attempts to do good lead to a major gang war where even hard nosed cops led by David Caruso are out to get him before a dramatic bullet riddled finale in Times Square.

It should be plain by now that I don't view this film as a classic by any means but that is not to say it doesn't ask some interesting questions about the effects of the drug trade on a city and its people. Released at the end of the Reagan 80's when the war on drugs became front page news, this film pointedly shows how much of a failure these efforts had been. Frank views himself as a businessman and as he puts it:

"You think ambushing me in some nightclub's gonna stop what makes people take drugs? This country spends $100 billion a year on getting high, and it's not because of me. All that time I was wasting in jail, it just got worse. I'm not your problem. I'm just a businessman. "

This could have been a thrilling examination of one man's rise and fall but too often the script resorts to stock cliché's from Gangster 101. Ferrara's visual flights of fancy while stylish and beautiful often detract from the film, giving it a cartoonish air, something enforced by the sheer frivolity of characters like Jimmy Jump and bullet strewn scenes that don't serve to move the plot forward. Very much a missed opportunity.

If the film has a redeeming factor it is the performance of Christopher Walken. A real talent when it comes to playing menacing villains, he shines throughout as Frank. Imbuing the character with a sociopathic streak while still making a case for him being the most sane character in the film, Walken carries the film when the script lets itself down.

Roy Bishop: You expected to get away with killing all these people? 

Frank White: I spent half my life in prison. I never got away with anything, and I never killed anybody that didn't deserve it. 

Roy Bishop: Who made you judge and jury? 

Frank White: Well, it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

While far from the car crash its premiere would have suggested and not worthy of the opprobrium heaped upon it on it release, this is a deeply flawed film with an uneven script and visual tone. Walken is strong enough to make the film watchable but it is no more then that. As a time capsule it takes some beating though, capturing a city and a period that has long since passed into the realm of urban myths. The New York underworld during the 80's? No it was never as stylish as even Abel Ferrara imagines but then what is?

Flick of The Day: Scarface (1983)

"Say Hello to my little friend...", so ends one of the most overblown and hyper violent gangster epics ever to hit the silver screen. A film that was largely derided or worse still ignored by critics upon its release in 1983, criticising it for its violence and supposed glamorisation of the drugs trade, something that was very much a no-no in the Reagan '80s.

Scarface (Widescreen Two-Disc Anniversary Edition)

This film, scripted by Oliver Stone and directed by Brian De Palma bears little resemblance to the original 1932 version directed by Howard Hawks apart from the fact that both films would prove controversial upon release. After being rejected by censors in 1931, Hawks was forced to add an alternate ending where the gangster hands himself over to the police as opposed to going down in a hail of bullets and the subtitle "The Shame of The Nation" added. De Palma's version would prove equally controversial with a number of the most violent scenes removed  to give the film an R rating in the United States as opposed to the dreaded X rating.

For the uninitiated, this is your classic tale of rise and fall. Al Pacino is Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant who goes straight from Castro's jails to the streets of Miami. Quickly rising from the streets to the drug trade, he eventually usurps his boss, Frank Lopez played by the excellently over the top Robert Loggia, to become top dog.  Of course before long, it all ends in tears. That's the interesting part though.

This is very much Al Pacino's film though. He drives it from beginning to end in a stunning performance as an almost personification of evil. He would go on later in his career to play the devil himself in The Devils Advocate but this the scarier performance. Throughout the film, his character keeps everyone including the audience on edge, as you know he could snap into violence at any moment.

Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics)

The film is over long, coming in at an ass numbing 170 minutes and at times the violence is excessive, though not gratuitous. Excessive in the sense that you gradually become desensitised to it, its loses its shock effect as the film drags on, though the chainsaw in the bathroom scene early in the film still retains that shock effect nearly 30 years after its release. I don't feel the violence is gratuitous in that it is necessary to remain true to a realistic portrayal of the excesses and violence of the drugs trade in the 1980s. However for its flaws, this remains a modern classic, which as a cinephile you have to see if only for the spectacle and Pacino's grand standing performance. This is epic film-making of the highest order.