Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.

I wanna be Capone when I grow up.

And not Al Capone, the gangster. I mean Capone, our movie reviewer here at AICN. He’s the hardest working man in rock and roll. He’s always got his reviews ready for Friday. He’s a machine. He’s a sex god. His sheer productivity shames me. But since we’re talking about Al Capone, gangster, I want to weigh in on this fall’s two big contributions to gangster cinema. One is a documentary that includes many iconic images, and the other is a fiction film that draws specifically upon those real iconic images. Seeing both of them sets off some fascinating echoes, in ways that the filmmakers couldn’t have intended.

MR. UNTOUCHABLE
AMERICAN GANGSTER

If you’ve seen Ridley Scott’s AMERICAN GANGSTER, then you have Cuba Gooding Jr fresh in your head as Nicky Barnes, a proud black gangster from the ‘70s, competition to Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington. By coincidence, Marc Levin (PROTOCOLS OF ZION, SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF GOD) made a documentary about the real Nicky Barnes at the same time that Ridley Scott made his film. I like some of Levin’s earlier work, and I’ve written about him here and on my blog. I think he’s got balls. I think he’s a fearless interviewer. I don’t think he’s a great interviewer in terms of pushing the subject... but he knows how to get someone to sit down and talk to the camera. He can get them comfortable. That’s not a small skill for a documentary filmmaker to have in the toolbox. I think Levin’s problem here is that his narrator... his main interview... is an unreliable subject. I think Nicky Barnes is a man in love with the image of Nicky Barnes. The moment that gives the film its title is a key piece of Levin’s film. It’s maybe the pivotal moment for Barnes as a character. And it’s one of the few inarguably true moments in the film. A lot of this movie played to me like someone self-mythologizing. Henry Hill did a fair amount of this, but I don’t care because Martin Scorsese rocked GOOD FELLAS something fierce.

The real reason to see Levin’s film is if you see Ridley Scott’s movie and enjoy it and you want to see just how right he got all the production design. These two men moved in the same circles, dealt with the same people, and even crossed paths on occasion. As a result, I get a feeling that Ridley Scott and his production designer Arthur Max must have seen a fair amount of reference material that looked just like Levin’s documentary. They may have seen some of the same exact stuff that Levin did. There are images that show up in both movies, like the rooms full of topless or even nude black woman working in drug processing houses, or the handing out of turkeys. Steven Zallian, in fine form, must have seen that same reference material himself, and lots of it. If MR. UNTOUCHABLE establishes what reality was like, then AMERICAN GANGSTER takes full advantage of that, and it plays everything real but magnified.

I think Ridley Scott’s at the top of his form lately. I think he has always been a populist filmmaker first, a visual artist second. He makes slick entertainment. He is almost surgical about it. And I admire the hell out of him for the way he has slowly evolved a really wide visual vocabulary over the years. AMERICAN GANSTER doesn’t look a thing like KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. It’s not cut like KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. It’s not paced like KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. And neither of them feels a thing like BLACK HAWK DOWN. I’m baffled by anyone who compares Ridley Scott’s work to Tony Scott’s work. Ever. Tony Scott has one style he takes from project to project to project. It’s evolved over the years. Slowly. But MAN ON FIRE looks just like DOMINO looks just like DÉJÀ VU. And back in the day, THE HUNGER, BEVERLY HILLS COP 2, and TOP GUN all looked exactly alike. Which is, frankly, insane.

I don’t know the full history of how AMERICAN GANGSTER was developed. I know some other directors were attached to it at various points, including Antoine Fuqua. Was he directing a Zallian script? Or was someone else writing it for Fuqua? Because if so, where are they in that screenplay credit? I do know that the real-life figures who the film is based on are starting to complain that the movie isn’t quite like real life. Duh. Zallian’s script is simply too well-structured and thematically consistent to be real life. It’s a movie. It’s a great big old-fashioned movie. And as such, it’s really entertaining and satisfying.

When Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington appeared in VIRTUOSITY together, one of the reasons it irritated me is because I already believed these were two of the best guys in their age range, heavy hitters, and I wanted to see them really go head to head. The way Zallian’s built the journey here, the way he intercuts these stories, the particular ways he emphasizes who these men are, how they love their families, what they believe in... it’s rich. The film takes its time. It’s one of the most languid films that Ridley Scott’s ever made, and it’s especially nice to see that in a post-GOODFELLAS world, where it seems like everybody’s stylistically chased that film when doing the mob. THE SOPRANOS would never have existed without GOODFELLAS specifically. There are, of course, other heavy hitting gangster cinema titles that have been equally imitated, like SCARFACE or THE GODFATHER films, but AMERICAN GANGSTER doesn’t feel like it’s imitating any of those films, and that alone is an accomplishment not to be underestimated. I would compare this to Michael Mann’s HEAT in some ways, but Mann always does his best to write in haiku, suggesting more than he ever makes explicit. Zallian, on the other hand, is a fairly traditional writer, and his screenplays always feel to me like classic studio system screenplays... smart and carefully constructed and built to entertain. AMERICAN GANGSTER’s first image lets you know exactly how cold-blooded Frank Lucas is capable of being, important when you’ve got someone as innately likable as Denzel playing the part. You’ve got to tell the audience that Denzel is genuinely dangerous here, and you’ve got to make them believe it. And Russell Crowe’s playing a much nicer, more decent and even garrulous guy than he normally plays. By casting both the stars against type, Scott makes you pay attention to them. You’re waiting to see if they can pull it off, and they do, in fairly impressive fashion.

They’re given great support by a sprawling supporting cast. Ruby Dee plays Frank’s mom, and she steals every moment she’s onscreen. I love her in the film, and she gives her final moment a gravity that is impossible to deny. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays one of Frank’s brothers, and he’s a great match for Denzel. Josh Brolin continues his winning streak this year with a slimy appearance as Detective Trupo, the most corrupt cop in New York, a photo negative of the hyper-honest Richie Roberts (Crowe).

Lymari Nadal and Carla Gugino do strong work as the women in the lives of Lucas and Roberts, and Zallian’s script actually gives them something to do and doesn’t just marginalize them. Roger Gueneveur Smith, John Hawkes, RZA, Armand Assante, Common, Kevin Corrigan, Joe Morton, and the great John Ortiz all make something memorable of their brief onscreen time.

Technically, AMERICAN GANGSTER is as slick as big-studio money can buy. Harris Savides is a damn good D.P., and he gives the film a look we really haven’t seen from Scott before. Pietro Scalia’s work keeps the entire 2 hour and 40 minute film feeling electric, always moving forward, anything but boring. And as I noted before, the production design is something else, well-observed period that never overwhelms the film. It’s easy for period movies to feel like people playing dress-up, but this feels like a ‘70s film. It’s everything... the look, the filmmaking, the approach of the actors.

I wouldn’t call AMERICAN GANGSTER one of the best films of the year, but I would call it tremendously entertaining, and well worth seeing theatrically. MR. UNTOUCHABLE, while interesting, is sort of a rough draft of a movie, and it really only makes an interesting footnote to the other better film. Still, if you find yourself intrigued by the world and wanting to learn more, you’ve got an option.

I’m leaving LA on Thursday, so I need to finish up some more reviews that are backlogged before I go. Better get to it...

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles