I recently had the opportunity to catch American Gangster again tonight, from a German station that specializes in recent American releases, since watching it on the big screen when it came out a few months ago. This second outing surely reiterated to me just why I hated this movie so much. Bottom line, this movie, directed by one of the greatest and most successful hacks in Hollywood in the past two decades, is just a giant ball of badly-executed liberal cliches that only seek to exploit the cynical and condescending attitude pervasive in the contemporary, average, "smart" audience. It deems itself an expose to the "lie" that is the "American dream," but everything in quotes: "negro," "war," "soldier," "truth," "integrity," "community." Scott cannot conceive of a populace working to better their lives because there simply is no other option. No, he turns America into a place of crooks and the people they victimize. Even if he had to tell the story of criminals and the criminal minded cops designed to catch them, he does not even go into why criminals do what they do, and cops do what their adversaries do. Only, that they live in the post-60s world of corruption and war, and that their lives are strictly regulated by those facts. Scott's characters aren't characters, more like sketches of what a "Criminal" and a "cop" would be given the time frames.
With the heavy commercializing of Jay-Z's album released concurrently with the film's premiere and the vision of Denzel's character as a "revolutionary cinematic black character," the producers o this film shamelessly tapped into the very attitudes amongst communities of color that created the world that they portray and ultimately condemn in their film. Gangsters and violence are glorified, and the use of progressive Civil Rights ideals to justify their glorification and justification is despicable. The film's argument that a black man rising in power in influence through the destruction of others' lives is justified because his society has done nothing to him only reveals an ignorance of the legacy of the community to people of color. Scott's ethnicization of the failures of American society without explicitly addressing the complex results of the skin color of his pro/antagonists (Colbert's satirical line comes to mind: "I see beyond color") only reveals the liberal tendency to which Scott caters of hiding deeply held social prejudices behind progressive and cynical analyses of history.
In terms of filmmaking, there is nothing to discuss. The film is bland, lacking anything significant or captivating. It has the clinical movement of a perfectly executed Hollywood film, devoid of the lyricism of the Burnett films released earlier in the year (films that were more incisive in its look at the black community, which is probably the reason why they were also more ignored). Scott could have at least made his black actors look good photographed, but he doesn't have Spike Lee's capacity and frankly the sense of urgency to do so. His black actors look anemic, like they were destined to look like crack addicts. His New York City is as flatly photographed, and his editing lacks the pace and rhythm as determined by somebody who knows what he is doing.
It's disappointing really, having such a movie with such potential ruined by such an inept director. But really, being a movie made in 2007, it is on par with it's colleagues. 2007 is filled with equally disappointing and equally appalling movies such as Zodiac, Juno, Atonement, and There Will be Blood. American Gangster is a monumental failure, but to be honest it is a monumental failure in a year that was by and large a monumental cinematic failure.
With the heavy commercializing of Jay-Z's album released concurrently with the film's premiere and the vision of Denzel's character as a "revolutionary cinematic black character," the producers o this film shamelessly tapped into the very attitudes amongst communities of color that created the world that they portray and ultimately condemn in their film. Gangsters and violence are glorified, and the use of progressive Civil Rights ideals to justify their glorification and justification is despicable. The film's argument that a black man rising in power in influence through the destruction of others' lives is justified because his society has done nothing to him only reveals an ignorance of the legacy of the community to people of color. Scott's ethnicization of the failures of American society without explicitly addressing the complex results of the skin color of his pro/antagonists (Colbert's satirical line comes to mind: "I see beyond color") only reveals the liberal tendency to which Scott caters of hiding deeply held social prejudices behind progressive and cynical analyses of history.
In terms of filmmaking, there is nothing to discuss. The film is bland, lacking anything significant or captivating. It has the clinical movement of a perfectly executed Hollywood film, devoid of the lyricism of the Burnett films released earlier in the year (films that were more incisive in its look at the black community, which is probably the reason why they were also more ignored). Scott could have at least made his black actors look good photographed, but he doesn't have Spike Lee's capacity and frankly the sense of urgency to do so. His black actors look anemic, like they were destined to look like crack addicts. His New York City is as flatly photographed, and his editing lacks the pace and rhythm as determined by somebody who knows what he is doing.
It's disappointing really, having such a movie with such potential ruined by such an inept director. But really, being a movie made in 2007, it is on par with it's colleagues. 2007 is filled with equally disappointing and equally appalling movies such as Zodiac, Juno, Atonement, and There Will be Blood. American Gangster is a monumental failure, but to be honest it is a monumental failure in a year that was by and large a monumental cinematic failure.
