American Gangster

As promised, I will begin to review movies as I see fit. The intention of this is to remind myself why I liked or disliked a film, educate the public about my taste in the cinema, but mostly to keep a database of the films I have seen. I am proud to announce the first film for this new addition is Ridley Scott's 'American Gangster' (2007).

Denzel Washington plays the druglord Frank Lucas, always looking for a way to cut out the middleman, while Russell Crowe plays Detective Richie Roberts, a divorced ladies man trying to do good by way of his job rather than his morals. They are pitted against eachother, creating the most powerful weapon New York has ever seen; an honest, hard working, citizen trying to do good for a place they want to call home.
To me, Ridley is trying too hard to be a director that audiences want to appreciate with this film. There are a lot of things that people want to get out of movies, but none of them were a staple of his films prior to 'Gladiator'. It was as if he put everything he had into a movie, which won best picture and actor but not director, and he left feeling more drained than Frank Lucas' pockets at the end of 'Americna Gangster'.
It wasn't suppose to be this way, he was onto great things with questionable topics, heros/heroines, and beautiful establishing shots yet he fell short when he layed it all on the table. Don't get me wrong, 'Gladiator' was great, on my all time top-five, but Ridley lost something in that movie. It was almost like the death of Maximus and the hand-over of Rome to the public changed Ridley's view on films. I think a part of him dies with that movie, and he has been searching for it ever since.
Sadly, 'American Gangster' doesn't bring me back to the director I once knew but still love, although it is quite enjoyable and the screenplay is as addicting as 'blue magic'. It's great to think that these characters are trying to clean up a city they know and love, but I got the feeling from the ending that neither was welcome there anymore. In the end I felt exhausted from the build up of a criminal that became a hero, it was too much to take and I couldn't relate to a character switch like that so late in a film.