AMERICAN GANGSTER

Ridley Scott is an unpredictable director and he is capable of the best and the worst : trying to make sense of a body of work that comprises GI Jane, Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Hannibal is somehow as easy as trying to explain why someone would study science to be a baker selling daisies to buddhist blind cats. Luckily, American Gangster belongs to the best. This film is a strange ballet: the first act is a bit slow to take off but the plans are sharp, the mood is right and the reconstruction of the gloomy seventies end of the Vietnam war era perfect in its tackyness. At the end of the first act, four cops dressed in black climb a staircase, a weird slow motion staccato plan follows them up to wherever hell they are going and from there, the movie takes off and you can hardly catch a breath until it’s over. The rise and fall of the most unprobable druglord of black Harlem, the stubborn good cop who won’t let go, Nixon in the background, a great ballet indeed. Denzel Washington gives one of his best performances and so does Russell Crowe.
Their last dance together is actually a littlle gem. I never knew about Franck Lucas -first black druglord in New York history who managed to use the US army planes to transport the drugs from Southeast Asia- , never knew that thanks to Richie Roberts the good cop, three quarters of New York police was put behind bars. I can’t say that I care that much - but the movie was good and it's always nice to travel back to ancient times: times without cell phones and answering machines but lots of Afros, ugly clothes and cigarettes (not enough of that in the movie but Hollywood has its quotas, I am sure).

Ridley Scott n'est jamais là où on l'attend et il est capable du meilleur comme du pire. Difficile de faire le tri entre GI Jane, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down et Hannibal... c'est un peu comme si on avait affaire à un expert en agrumes qui vendrait du cochon à des religieuses en chocolat. American Gangster fait heureusement partie des bonnes surprises. Le film se déroule comme un étrange ballet, un peu lent et confus dans le premier acte mais dès la scène pivot où l'on voit des flics de dos grimper un escalier, filmé en très léger ralenti, on plonge dans l'atmosphère sordide, glauque et pesante des années soixante dix, fin de la guerre du Vietnam et de l'American dream. Grandeur et décadence du premier trafiquant de drogue noir américain de Harlem pourchassé sans merci par le plus intègre des flics de New York avec Nixon en arrière plan, du grand art. Quelques ratés bien sûr, la plupart du temps parce que les petits rats ne suivent pas les danseurs étoiles mais globablement du numéro d'acteur sur mesure pour Denzel Washington et Russell Crowe.