My thoughts in general: American Gangster is Ridley Scott's new film starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. It is based on the true story of a gangster from Manhattan and the policeman who is trying to stop him and his criminal activities. In the 1970's, Frank Lucas created a huge heroin smuggling business and became rich and powerful (the basic premise of any gangster film). Though it has been nominated for many awards, it has yet to win any really significant awards. This film was not very satisfying for me. The acting was typical--Denzel Washington was the same smooth-talking, toothy-grin-flashing, powerful man who suddenly bursts into throwing-my-coffee-mug-into-the-wall rage (wait, have I seen this before? Man on Fire? Deja Vu?) while Russell Crowe was the looked-down-upon-until-I-prove-I-am-right, almost-reclusive, stuttering-at-times outsider (A Beautiful Mind, anyone?). Acting aside, it was interesting to portray a based-on-a-true-story rise of a black gangster, since most past gangster films have focused on Italians. Yet, it lacked some key elements of the classic gangster picture and reinforced to me the post-modern world in which we live. Having recently written a study on the gangster genre, I anticipated seeing this film, yet it was difficult when my generic expectations were not met.
My thoughts on application: Like Atonement, this film is rated R, yet setting aside the inability of using this in a classroom, I find some areas that could be worthwhile discussion. As mentioned above, this film could be used to analyze the gangster genre--how it fits, how it doesn't fit, why, etc. It could also be analyzed as a historical text, and it could be compared to the real story of Frank Lucas. It would also be an interesting study for its inclusion in the repertoire of Ridley Scott films. However, all these ideas seem to be of more benefit to critical film studies than to classroom assistance. Hmm....
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