Though I went to see American Gangster during its opening weekend, I felt that I needed some time to digest it and give it a proper analysis. Of all the movies released this year, this by far was the one I most anticipated. If ever there were a formula for a perfect movie, this was it – a great director, talented writer and a slue of wonderful actors. Having said all of this, imagine my disappointment when the film fell short of my high expectation. I could talk about the fact that the script felt a little under developed in is attempts, or lack of attempt, to get inside the heads of the primary characters. I could talk about the fact that the casting choices, at times didn't make sense. I could even talk about the fact that the movie was about 45 minutes too long. Yet, above all these things, the thing the prevented this film from being the perfection I had in my head was the lack of what I like to call the black aesthetic. This often happens when white directors seek to make “African American” themed movies where the effort is to create a great “American” movie with themes that transcend race – see Ali for another example. Yet, it’s difficult for me to understand how one could make a film about “black life” without dealing with the racial underpinnings that created the character. One may argue that Frank Lucas, like the Italian mobsters, were both motivate by money, but what that money meant to them was in many ways different. Playwright August Wilson often talked about the black aesthetic. The following analogy hits the nail on the head:
The commonalities we share [with white people] are the commonalities of culture. We decorate our houses. That is something we do in common. We do it differently because we value different things. We have different manners and different values of social intercourse. We have different ideas of what a party is. There are some commonalities to our different ideas. We both offer food and drink to our guests, but because we have different culinary values, different culinary histories, we offer different food and drink. In our culinary history, we have learned to make do with the feet and the ears and tails and intestines of the pig rather than the loin and the ham and the bacon. Because of our different histories with the same animal, we have different culinary ideas. But we share a common experience with the pig.
In putting this into the reference of the film, the fact that African American and Italians don't share in the horrors of lynching or the main of a policeman's bullet, or better yet the hull of a slave ship – the way in which Frank Lucas operates and his motivations for dealing drugs are quite different, and the movie felled to deal with these differences and why they are important. Black conduct and manner are fueled by its own philosophy, mythology, history, creative motif, social organization and ethos. So instead of speaking to our personal truths as African Americans, it merely aped a white way of doing things. There were moments in which it did connect – Frank's scenes with his mother (Ruby Dee) and his confrontation with the Nicky Barnes character played by Cuba Gooding Jr. One of my favorite moments in the film occurs at a party in Frank's house that ends in a casual shooting that leaves a blood stain on his white rug. It is priceless to here Denzel shout “You blot that shit, you don't rub it.” For all that its worth, American Gangster is a movie that is well executed. It however does not live up to the expectation of an amazing film that delivers a new and unique perspective – make it a Blockbuster night and rent The Godfather and New Jack City.
