Film Critique: “American Gangster”

Film critique is the overall analysis and review of the cast, the performance, the direction, the acting, the overall gesture, shooting set and stage settings, production, dialogues, lyrics, music and everything which is involved in making a movie; starting right from the casting of performers to the launching of the melodrama or the movie which is presented to the public. In short, film critique is the final analysis of a movie which is written in such a good way that makes it publishable in the writing and reading commodity.It is not mandatory that a film critique should always be in the favor of the movie. It could be written against the movie or its makers because of any reason; this reason could be the platform, the story, the casting, the performance, the topic of the movie, anything! In this document, we would present the film critique and review of the movie â€Å"American Gangster† which was made in the year 2007. American Gangster: The Movie: There are several and hu ndreds of movies which are launched and then thrown into the basket without anybody’s notice.But at times, the box office and the audience are hit by a masterpiece. The American Gangster is one masterpiece on which its director, Ridley Scott should be very proud of. Ridley Scott is the ideal pioneer of the melodrama and he has succeeded in keeping his pace in this movie as well. He is the person behind the direction of the fabulous movies such as, the old Roman movie â€Å"The Gladiator†, the science fictional â€Å"Alien† and the â€Å"Blade Runner†; and makes the best of the project while keeping an eye on the whole story and background of the story and moral of the movie.The American Gangster is a melodrama by the king of melodramas and with the finest performance from the performers and actors in this movie (Mondello 2007). It is observed that the movie follows the line of the crime films such as â€Å"The Departed† and possess the variety of O scar award winning actors in the casting. Presented in the year 2007 by the Universal pictures, the usual reviews from all international media sides were very kind to this movie and the audience found it tempting and catchy enough to come and watch the movie but their overall expression is not so captivating as far as the whole impression is concerned.The whole story of the movie is based on a true story and revolves around the rise and fall scenario of 1970’s most powerful drug dealing king of the New York City. The casting consists of two major superstars Denzel Washington (playing the role of the drug lord, Frank Lucas) and Russell Crowe (a responsible cop who is on the hunt to catch the drug lord). Frank is a reliable and worker/friend of Bumpy Johnson since 15 years and decides to take charge of the drug lord position after Bumpy’s death. Frank Lucas becomes the drug lord of underground crime-world who has risen up from the Harlem.He has earned this position by de livering up uncut heroin directly from the Southeast Asian region during the Vietnam War era. His proceedings were determined by the incorruptible and honorable federal investigator Richie Roberts. The film basically focuses on Frank Locus. The script written by Steven Zailliant travels in parallel ways by focusing on two major roles of the two people belonging from entirely contrast fields; one from being the gang lord and other belonging to the law enforcement. This contrast has been set very neatly by the script writer and the director.Frank demolishes the in-way barriers and competitors and becomes the drug lord by bringing drugs from Thailand to U. S via military planes and then flooding the whole city with his uncut drug products, which ultimately makes him the king of the drug world with the huge profits of his drug sales. Previously, Frank Lucas has been a pimp-style flash who prefers to live with a normal style and maintain a low-profile by dressing himself in conventional and old-fashioned style, having breakfast alone in the morning in a local nearby bar and personally does not take interest in involving with his business around.But when he advances, he becomes bold enough to punish the accused person and shoot him in front of everyone on the streets of New York City in the day time. On the other side, detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is an honest responsible cop who has been assigned the task to administer the task force and bring down Frank Lucas to his end. The whole movie seems to confuse the viewer as how to judge Frank, because it is not really being seen whether to take him as a villain in the movie or as a main title hero character. He does something good; he is capable of doing bad things more and does so.He has a strong positive gesture towards his family and city and it shows that he loves both of them very much; but on the contrary he also makes efforts on vital basis to spread drugs in the city and play major role in the deaths, destruction and drug addiction in the entire city. His role is a mixture of villain, evil character as well as portraits himself as a loving person too. Same is the case with the character of Russell Crowe as he has been portrait as a sweaty honest cop who does brilliant job in the police department but his actual home and love life is a complete failure.He is popular to complete his tasks on time with high performance and do whatever he thinks is right; but at home, he hardly manages to give proper time to his only son and barely communicates with his ex-wife. Both the stars are brilliant characters in their own field. The whole movie shots two men in parallel and we do not manage to see both the stars together till the end, until they finally meet in the last scenes of the movie. The Review:The movie â€Å"American Gangster† doesn’t really starts with a slow pace and we do not seem to see any thrilling actions in the first thirty minutes of the movie and nothing rea lly happens in the story which could change the situation of the movie. Both characters of Denzel Washington and that of Russell Crowe busy in their own circle of life. Denzel Washington being busy in working his heads off; and Russell Crowe being busy with his studies and trying to complete his law degree from the law college. The story of the two men continues to serve as particularly individual narrative stand which later on becomes closer tightly together.As a viewer, most of the people do not find the movie very interesting especially in the beginning and also the ending. The best part is in the middle of the movie. Most of the people find the opening and ending part of the movie boring whereas they like the middle part of the movie quite interesting. (Dargis 2007) There are some flaws or long tails in the movie as well which makes it boring for the viewers. These parts raise questions in minds such as; how come a movie would portrait the life of woman who is ex-wife of a cop w ith so many details and what is the use of focusing on the life of a woman in the story of a criminal drug lord?How many crime concerned movies get the details of a dirty cop who enjoys making other people’s lives miserable? There are at times so many similarities I found with other crime based movies while watching this film that I almost forgot that this movie was actually based on a true movie. There are many shots which are similar with other crime based movies and do not play a distinctive movie as a whole. What the viewers would be interested to know how the drug dealer Denzel Washington dealt with his emotional feelings and nature after becoming the drug lord and how he took it on is psychology.People would be more interested in knowing how Denzel Washington dealt with his subordinates and become the drug lord in detail. This all could have been portrait in better form rather than portraying more on the emotional irrelevant details of Russell Crowe’s wife suffer ings and life. (Dargis 2007) Whatever the movie takes, Denzel Washington is the best actor when it comes to act seriously. He can take the movie and the viewers to their edge if he gets to act and so has he done in this movie as well.As Frank Lucas, Denzel Washington wears traditional old fashioned clothes with a gun tacked up on his belt and makes his own reliable gang by calling off his relatives and inviting them and binding them together in his gang to make a team. This is how he manages to get the title of the drug lord by eliminating his competitors and getting competitive edge to all the criminals in the city. (Gleiberman 2007) Director Ridley Scott seems to like his villain too much, that is why we did not manage to judge who is the hero or who is being the villain in this movie.Ridley Scott has showcased the character of Denzel Washington with lots of positive points along with being the bad guy. He has tried to prove his point in this movie that hope and struggle should be implemented in lives and there is no such word as being a failure or hopeless. Every man has guts to be the best if he tries to. The best shot in the movie could be the one when Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas) shots a man in head on the streets on a daytime in the new York city, the camera moves backward with long focus view; this shot tells the sensitivity of life and territory consumption detail.Nonetheless, the best scene which we have found to be most interesting is the one in which Russell Crowe (Richie Robert) with his task force decides to take over and drag down an incoming military plane and immediately comes in action by putting off all the things and coffins apart. This scene contains all the concentration and emotions which are needed to hold the audience on their seats. The movie â€Å"American Gangster† is rated R which means that it is restricted for the children coming under the age of 17 years who are accompanied by either their parents or guardians because of the drug and violence reference used in the movie.The overall reaction which was perceived by the viewers was that Russell Crowe played the role of Richie Roberts very well better than Denzel Washington being Frank Lucas because he played a different role than he usually plays in other movies; whereas Denzel Washington played the same â€Å"angry man† role which he usually does all the time. However, keeping the same image of the angry man, Denzel Washington did a very good job and no matter what business the movie brought to the team involved in making, it touched the hearts of the viewers and is a movie which we could recommend others to watch to pass time with a normal fine mood.The Team: Directed by Ridley Scott; written by Steven Zaillian, based on the New York magazine article â€Å"The Return of Superfly,† by Mark Jacobson; director of photography, Harris Savides; edited by Pietro Scalia; music by Marc Streitenfeld; production designer, Arthur Max; produced b y Brian Grazer and Mr. Scott; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 158 minutes. The Cast: WITH: Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas), Russell Crowe (Richie Roberts), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Huey Lucas), Cuba Gooding Jr.(Nicky Barnes), Josh Brolin (Detective Trupo), Ted Levine (Lou Toback), Armand Assante (Dominic Cattano), John Ortiz (Javier J. Rivera), John Hawkes (Freddie Spearman), RZA (Moses Jones), Lymari Nadal (Eva), Yul Vazquez (Alfonse Abruzzo), Ruby Dee (Mama Lucas), Idris Elba (Tango), Carla Gugino (Laurie Roberts), Joe Morton (Charlie Williams), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Doc), Roger Guenveur Smith (Nate), Roger Bart (United States attorney), Chuck Cooper (private doctor) and Linda Powell (social worker).Works Cited Mondello,Bob; 2007, Movie Reviews – ‘American Gangster', NPR. org, Available online at: http://www. npr. org/templates/story/story. php? storyId=15885027 Owen Gleiberman, 2007, Movie Review – American Gangster (2007), Entertainment Weekly, Availa ble online at: http://www. ew. com/ew/article/0,,20155724,00. html MANOHLA DARGIS, 2007, Sweet, Bloody Smell of Success – Movie Review of the American Gangster, the New York Times.