American Gangster

Wifezilla and I watched American Gangster last night. I was mostly underwhelmed. Crowe puts in a much more interesting performance in 3:10 to Yuma and Washington has too many shots of him staring grimly off to the side. And this movie needed some masterful performances to pull itself out of mediocrity. It didn't get them.

I feel about mafia movies the same as I do boxing or sports movies. They all follow a formula, and only the great ones deviate enough to tell a truly compelling story. The mafia formula: protagonist hails from humble, low beginnings. If he isn't raised a criminal by his own family, his neighborhood does the job. Through ambition, ingenuity, and brutality, he climbs the ranks. He makes a name for himself. He eventually takes a big risk of some kind, like taking out a competitor(s) or discovering a new angle on old graft, and ends up at the top. He's flying high here, reaping the fruits of his ill-gotten gains: money, cars, mansions, etc. While out-on-the-town, he spies a beautiful woman across the dance floor. He woos her. They get married, or not. They're happy. For a time.

It's at this point he begins to get complacent, sloppy even. At the top, there's nowhere to go but back down. He or one of his associates makes a key mistake. Rivals try to muscle in on his territory. The cops close in. His wife/girlfriend starts whining and complaining about his job (haha, I always laugh my ass off when they do that). And then in the end, he either opens fire in the midst of a glorious gun battle or quietly ducks his head into a patrol car. If he's not dead at this point, the movie ends with a summary caption telling us how long he served and what he did when he got out.

American Gangster followed this to the letter. It took no chances and reaped no artistic reward. Unfortunately for Ridley Scott and company, I've seen The Departed, a mafia movie that rewrote the mafia film formula and turned out a great movie. One of my all-time favorites in fact. American Gangster opened with a caption that proclaimed what followed based on a true story. Sometimes the truth is less interesting than fiction.