American Gangster

"My man." Two men standing opposite one another. Both on different sides of the law. But first impressions can be wrong... No, this isn’t Mann’s Heat, but American Gangster is very similar. Or so you would have thought. You can even see images reminiscent of Once Upon a Time in America, The Godfather and Goodfellas. Ridley Scott decided that it’s about time that he won one of those director’s awards, and with this movie, it might just work. We can only hope that this won’t be Scott’s swan song. Because this is a perfect and flawless picture. Well, almost perfect. But it has an unignorable snag - everything that this movie shows you, you have seen before in one of the above genre classics. It’s not directly plagiarism, but it has nothing to surprise us with. On the other hand, Scott presents it in such a perfect technical wrapping, so atmospherically and so perfectly cast that this fact is completely overshadowed... American Gangster is a splendid genre picture, but nothing more. For that, it lacks any invention whatsoever. That said, this does nothing to impair the watching experience. (09/02/2022)

After being urged by a fried for several months, I finally watched American Gangster and I can’t shake the slight enthusiasm. Flawless direction, brilliant performances (and I don’t like Denzel too much) and an interesting story (at least for me, I haven’t seen many gangster movies so I can’t compare it within the genre), all combine to deliver a five-star worthy film. And even though I generally prefer films that are half as long, this one didn’t bore me for a second. (03/07/2008)

An excellent, atmospheric gangster movie. Perfect directing from Ridley Scott, excellent acting performances from Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe is further enhanced by an excellent screenplay. And Josh Brolin made a really good impression on me; he’s appearing in better and better roles these days. (05/03/2008)

Under the impression of high ratings and knowing that it is one of the most praised films of last year, I expected an exceptional experience, which did not happen; however, it does not mean that it is a bad movie. But there have been many gangster films made in the United States, and Scott's film is not among the very best. My favorites remain the older films by Scorsese and Coppola. Ridley Scott adds racial issues and the Vietnam war trauma to the classic gangster theme. In the first half, the film starts at a slow pace, and Russell Crowe seemed rather unremarkable to me. Most scenes felt like I had seen them somewhere before and they could have been directed a bit more atmospherically. However, it is a big-budget film, skillfully edited, with excellent music and good actors. Overall impression: 75%. (10/02/2008)

A Vietnamese gangster, a.k.a. a bit of a different kick in the rear to the way America was headed after the WWII, when you could swim in banknotes, but with more or less dirty hands, of course. Fantastically brisk, almost in the style of Scorsese’s best, skilfully put together around the informational and motivational parallelisms between the characters, and shot with a certain text-book aloofness that lets you not only appreciate the story of the protagonist, but also the general narrative and timeless diary of an era, and the links to the social or ideological components. But at the same time, non-stop fun as every proper cop movie. Very well spent three hours. 90% (19/04/2020)