Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas
Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts
(All photos by Frank Connor/Universal Pictures)
Made in America, one crooked cop at a time, with one gangster legend rising to
the top of New York's drug business empire. As directed by Ridley Scott,
Harlem is captured in its glory and grit as the lenses of Harris Savides's
camera captures the grandeur and scope of the New York City neighborhood in its
'70's and '80's sheen. Within that community there was Frank Lucas,
protege of Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, whose rigid moral code of business and
family helped him to become the drug kingpin of New York. Lucas was
charismatic, shrewd and opportunistic, using the charm and intelligence he
possessed to build an empire in the wake of Mr. Johnson's untimely death.
Denzel Washington steps in the role of Lucas with conviction and is a magnetic
presence. His strongest moments are when his character is silent, but we
can feel him percolating.
"American Gangster" has been a while in the making.
Antoine Fuqua was slated to direct it at least three years ago, with Mr.
Washington and Benicio Del Toro in the role that is played in Mr. Scott's film
by Russell Crowe, with whom the British director has collaborated on two prior
occasions ("Gladiator", "A Good Year"). Mr. Crowe plays Newark, New Jersey
police detective Richie Roberts, a man with an impeccable sense of duty, ethics
and justice on the job, even as his personal life has been shot to smithereens.
Roberts is the head of the Essex County Narcotics Unit. The film
chronicles these two men, on an inevitable collision course. Brian Grazer
produced the film and persisted mightily in his quest to bring Ridley Scott on
board to direct "American Gangster". It wasn't until the ninth or tenth
time Mr. Grazer approached Mr. Scott that the esteemed director of such films as
"Blade Runner", "Alien" and "Thelma & Louise" agreed to take on the project.
"I'd taken the script to Ridley Scott seven or eight times, and he always liked
it," says Grazer in the film's production notes, "but the timing was never right
for him."
The 1970's in New York City signified turmoil an upheaval, not unlike the
climate moving through the rest of the United States, and "American Gangster",
which opens across North America on November 2, reflects this. The Vietnam
question screams louder, a U.S. president facing impeachment, is forced to
resign, Kent State an other campus violence and turmoil, race riots in numerous
American cities, and in the Big Apple in particular, the Son of Sam serial
murders, a power outage, oil shortages and the rampant corruption endemic in the
New York Police Department (which would reappear a decade later as chronicled in
Mike McAlary's book Buddy Boys, the in-depth story of the 77th Precinct
in Brooklyn, where the NYPD's "finest" would shakedown drug dealers of their
monies and resell drugs, as well as use the drugs as well, while letting drug
suspects go, enabling them to be couriers for various officers in the force,
some of whom were in the narcotics unit. In the seventies, the
Department's Special Investigations Unit, according to Mark Jacobson, who wrote
The Return Of Superfly, the New York magazine story upon which
"American Gangster" is based, "by 1977, 52 out of 70 officers who'd worked in
the unit were either in jail or under indictment."
Washington with Josh Brolin, as Special Investigations Unit New York police
detective Trupo
Lymari Nadal as Eva Lucas
Steven Zaillian, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for "Schindler's List"
and directed "A Civil Action", was brought back to re-engineer the screenplay,
which originally had been focused mainly on Frank Lucas and Detective Trupo.
The film which was to star Washington and Del Toro was tentatively titled "Tru",
and was to be directed by Antoine Fuqua, who directed Mr. Washington to a Best
Actor Oscar in the 2001 film "Training Day". Universal Pictures pulled the
plug on the film's shoot in 2004, citing budgetary concerns as a result of the
screenplay, which apparently called for things that pushed the budget beyond its
limits. It was the new director Ridley Scott's idea to get Mr.
Zaillian to explore the parallel narratives of Lucas and Roberts, requesting the
Oscar-winning writer build the Roberts character in greater depth.
Both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe had been nominees together for Best
Actor Academy Awards for two out of three years from 2000 through 2002. In
2000 both actors (nominated for "The Hurricane" and "The Insider" respectively)
lost out to Kevin Spacey. In 2001, Crowe was awarded the Oscar for
"Gladiator" (Washington was not nominated for any film that year), and then both
actors would be in the same final five in 2002, when Washington would be awarded
the Oscar for "Training Day" over Crowe (who was nominated for "A Beautiful
Mind", which would win Best Picture that night) and other fellow competitors
that would include Will Smith (for Ali) and Tom Wilkinson (for "In The
Bedroom".) "American Gangster" marks the second film that the two acting
titans have worked together. In 1995 Washington and Crowe starred in
"Virtuosity", a science-fiction thriller directed by Brett Leonard. Both
also have registered arguably their best performances in films for which they
did not win Oscars. In the 1992 film "Malcolm X", Denzel Washington lost
out in the title role, and as Ruben "Hurricane" Carter in "The Hurricane"
(1999). For Russell Crowe, his roles as Jeffrey Wigand in "The Insider"
(1999) and as John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind" (2001) went without Oscar award
recognition.
For "American Gangster", the real-life Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts are still
very much alive, and both were consultants to Mr. Scott's film. Mr. Lucas
was on the set almost continuously throughout the shoot when Mr. Washington was
filming, and the actor spent a lot of time conversing with him. Says the
actor in the film's production notes, "I didn't try to imitate him, necessarily,
but Frank's such a charmer; that's key to his character." One of Mr.
Washington's concerns was about the way Frank Lucas was depicted, especially
doing the negative things that he did. "What interested me in the story
was not to glorify a drug dealer, and I told Frank that when I met him."
For Mr. Crowe, Richie Roberts is anything but cut-and-dried. "There are
things we have Richie do in the movie that he didn't do. Everything about
him is contradictory. None of his real story has traditional elements --
and he's not somebody you can easily categorize. When it comes down to it,
you're doing an impression."
"American Gangster" began filming in the summer of 2006 in the sweltering heat
and humidity of New York City, specifically in Harlem, and on West 136th Street,
where street signs were changed to replicate blocks that were 20 blocks south of
there -- the 116th Street area where Frank Lucas once ruled. Mr. Crowe was
less than enthused about having to run up and down at least 50 steps and then 75
steps wearing circulation-stopping 1970's Levi's jeans. Other venues that
were utilized in New York City included a scrap metal shop in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn, the Marlboro projects in the Gravesend section of the same
borough, Governors Island, and on Long Island at the Nassau County Coliseum.
The film also went to Thailand to shoot numerous scenes which were pivotal to
the development of Frank Lucas's drug trading and supply. Thailand was
also a country of withering heat.
The film has the original score music of Marc Streitenfeld, and the songs of
Jay-Z ("Heart Of The City" -- which plays over the film's trailer), Anthony
Hamilton ("Do You Feel Me"), and includes classics from Sam and Dave ("Hold On,
I'm Coming") and Mavis Staples ("I'll Take You There") among others.
"American Gangster" has cinematography from Harris Savides, who worked to
capture the grit and light of Harlem in both its vibrant tones and more sinister
underbelly in the Lucas drug locales. The faded and muted tones of the
seventies also lends a sadness or bleakness to parts of the film, which gives it
a weight and depth. Arthur Max added stature and texture with his detailed
production design. "American Gangster" is understated, and even some of
the costume work by Oscar-winning costume designer Janty Yates is mainly
understated, with a few exceptions. There had been photographs of Crowe's
Roberts character in more suave-looking suits (particularly in the photo
immediately below this paragraph, but this was changed to what the same
photograph shows Mr. Crowe wearing, perhaps to give off more of a contrast.
"American Gangster" shows that crime pays, and that criminals do as well, and
the makers of this epic film hopes that it pays off handsomely at the North
America box office very soon.
The production design of American Gangster is augmented by Arthur Max and the
cinematography of Harris Savides in this shot and the one below of Harlem
"American Gangster", which also stars
Armand Assante, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Common, Clarence Williams III, Cuba Gooding,
Jr., Ruby Dee, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, RZA, Idris Elba, T.I., John Hawkes, Ted
Levine, Roger Guenveur Smith and Roger Bart, opens across the U.S. and Canada on
November 2.
