‘American Gangster’ falls short of Scarface status

It takes many things to make an Oscar worthy movie; a compelling script, believable acting, clear and concise directing and above all, an audience who will flock to the theaters.
“American Gangster” has three of the four elements, the one missing being the compelling script.
Ridley Scott, famed director of “Gladiator”, “Hannibal”, “Black Hawk Down” and “Kingdom of Heaven”, seems to have dropped the ball in choosing the script and scriptwriter Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”, “Gangs of New York” and “All the Kings Men”) for the movie.
Although Denzel Washington wonderfully portrays real-life Harlem heroin lord Frank Lucas, the movie never gives viewers the opportunity to understand what makes Frank think. In the movie, Frank does not have a back-story.
The movie begins in 1968 where Frank is working for Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson as driver, bodyguard and personal assistant. When Bumpy dies, Frank is at a lost as to what to do next until he takes notice to the raising media attention for Vietnam veterans getting hooked on a new drug called heroin.
After devising a plan and getting money together, Frank decides to cut the “middle man” out and go to Bangkok himself for the heroin. Using a cousin stationed in Bangkok during the war, Frank is able to travel without alarming military authority.
His biggest problem: How to transfer 100 kilos of heroin into the U.S. on his own.
Solution: Using the caskets of dead soldiers to transport the drugs in.
By selling a better product – pure heroin – for half the price of other drug dealers (a mere ten dollars) Frank’s “Blue Magic” became the drug of choice for many New York and Harlem inhabitants.
Enter Richie Roberts, played by Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”, “Gladiator” and “Cinderella Man”), a New Jersey police detective whose friend and patrol partner dies by the hands of Blue Magic.
When asked to join the Bureau of Narcotics to head up for Essex County, Richie sets out to rid the streets of the drug lords.
After that, the movie is a cat-and-mouse game of when and where Frank will be arrested.
Unlike “The Godfather,” Scott does not give the audience time to develop a bond with the anti-hero. In fact, it seems as if Scott wanted to make a movie about Richie’s feat of brining down half of New York City’s police department because of officers linked to drug related activities.
We are not privileged to know what type of childhood Frank had or see the real interaction with his brothers. There are no classic lines to be learned and repeated over again for fun.
In various interviews before the movie premiered, Washington and Crowe said they had spent time with the real Lucas and Roberts to better understand their characters.
Unfortunately, their knowledge of the characters does not pan out on film.
Will “American Gangster” win an Oscar? Probably not. Will Washington and Crowe get nominated for lead actor and supporting actor? Probably so.
Is the real Frank Lucas happy with “American Gangster”? Probably not.