Starring: Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe
Directed by Ridley Scott
Year: 2007
IMDB / Wikipedia
This film only has two stars. The rest of the cast was trying to keep up in their supporting roles. But, for what it’s worth, they came up short against two of the best actors to come along in a great long time. I could make an “Ebony and Ivory” joke here, but I won’t because it’s more than that. These two actors have graced the screen together twice, here and in the Sci-Fi thriller Virtuosity made 12 years prior. Both good films, but this one stands alone not only in each actors’ respective catalogs, but also in the Crime Drama genre itself.
The story is based on the real life events surrounding the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Washington) who comes to power in the Harlem heroin game after his mentor passes away. On the other side of the law is the last good cop in New Jersey, Richie Robbins (Crowe) who is made the head of a Federal task force team out of New Jersey whose focus is to bring down the heads of the drug business in the area. Along the way a web of corruption, rivalry, and lies are woven as these two men’s lives, both on and off the street, are paralleled until they finally meet.
In another dimension, Michael Mann could have made this film. However, I feel he would have done it in his over-stylized-yet-minimalistic sort of way that would detract from the characters drawing influence and motivation from their surroundings into a film like Heat where the characters shape the environment. In this film, it was central to the plot to show that each character had a driving interest outside of themselves and their own sense of self-preservation and that would have been lost had this been a Mann-driven film. Thankfully, Ridley Scott held the reigns of this film and made it everything it should have been.
This movie was poised and, depending to whom you speak, fulfilled its promise to be the next Scarface, a film that glamorized and decried the life of crime simultaneously. It can be said that not every criminal was truly a bad person to the core. Some were amiable, downright friendly, but they made choices that defined them on a wider scope than any personal relationship. And it’s true, some people choose the life of crime because they felt there was no other way to put food on the table for their families and their want was for a better life, not to commit evil; but it rarely turns out the way they hoped. This film, like so many other crime rise-and-fall movies in the genre shows the consequences. No one gets away clean–no one exits the story how they entered–they are all changed forever and must live with the consequences of their actions.
But, where this movie sets itself apart from the rest, what made it better than Scarface, and probably why the true events made such a good candidate for a motion picture was that both the main characters wanted the same thing in the end. To that end, they worked toward a common goal and they both came out a tad more righteous in the end. If you have the means (and I think Netflix still offers it this way) get the extended/unrated/director’s cut version of the film. There’s a few added scenes which give substantially more context than the standard theatrical version (and don’t get my started on the butchered television version) especially an extended ending.
Most Valuable Actor: Denzel Washington’s portrayal as Frank Lucas was more an homage than a re-imagining as he plays the role of a hard-edged gangster with a strict moral honor code sublimely. In all honesty, the reason he’s here and Crowe isn’t is because his storyline was far more interesting because he made it so. That’s something remarkable in a film like this.
Trailer: