American Gangster [Blu-ray]

American Gangster [Blu-ray] Review

For the longest time, it has been argued that the godfather (from the movie of the same title) is not about Vito Corleone but about Michael Corleone because it is about his ascent/descent into the underworld. And, at the very end, he is the godfather to Connie's son while his rivals are being executed. In the same respect, I had to wonder about who the real gangster is here: Frank Lucas (Washington) or Special Detective Truppo (Brolin). While we do watch Lucas' burgeoning success as a drug dealer, it is Truppo who acts with the viciousness of a gangster. He and his flock of black-jacketed, vulture-like crooked cops are more terrifying and brazen than Lucas. Lucas acts with compassion at times--even while burning an enemy alive in the opening sequence, he mercifully blasts him away before the flames can prolong his agony. In fact, any time he resorts to violence seems forced. Truppo has no compunction about saying things like "Maybe next time I throw you and your brother in the river." In fact Truppo is a nemesis to both Lucas and Officer Roberts (Crowe). His malevolence is everywhere.

Then, like "The French Connection" it is about the complex world of drug-trafficking and the frustrations of law enforcement to understand it--especially in the wild and wooly days of the late-60s to late-70s. Crowe does an exceptional job of expressing this frustration and confusion (he cannot believe that a Black man could do what the Italian Mafia could not--monopolize the drug trade in all five boroughs and then the outer counties, including New Jersey). To make matters worse, Roberts has to contend with the corruption in his own department.

All this makes for a dark but engrossing film that leaves you impressed with director Scott's ability to recreate a world that has vanished a few decades ago, at least in appearance.

So why not a perfect score? Two things: First, the prolonged scenes concerning Roberts' divorce are way too distracting. While I love looking at Carla Gugino, her thankless role in thankless scenes detract from the film's pacing. Second, the second disc--with its self-congratulatory nods to the costume designers, set designers, fried egg designers--really aren't worth watching. The only thing on that disc worth watching is the discussion between the real Frank Lucas and the real Richie Roberts. And even that discussion is marginally interesting. Still, this is a set worth owning.

American Gangster [Blu-ray] Overview

Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe team with director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) in this powerful, epic story. Armed with ruthless tactics and a strict sense of honor, crime boss Frank Lucas (Washington) rules Harlem's chaotic drug underworld. When outcast cop Richie Roberts (Crowe) sets out to bring down Lucas's multimillion-dollar empire, it plunges both men into a legendary confrontation.

American Gangster [Blu-ray] Specifications

Ridley Scott puts on his "sweeping saga" gameface again, this time not for the sci-fi vistas of Blade Runner or the ancient world of Gladiator but for an urban epic. American Gangster gives the story of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a real-life Harlem crime lord who built an empire on Southeast Asian heroin in the 1970s. Running parallel to Lucas's somewhat standard story is the investigation led by a persistent New Jersey cop, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe). Roberts is a more interesting character than Lucas--too honest for his own good, unlucky in his personal life--and this kind of character, easily patronized by others, fits Crowe like a polyester shirt. Scott's tendency to hit his points square on the noggin is much in evidence here, including the typecasting of the supporting roles and the predictable Serpico atmosphere of the whole thing. (And speaking of supporting actors, the film needs more Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose role as a Lucas sidekick feels cut down.) It succeeds as a kind of chewy entertainment, fueled by the presence of two big stars working their muscles. Both Washington and Crowe look pretty brawny here. --Robert Horton




Stills from American Gangster (Click for larger image)

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American History X [Blu-ray]

American History X [Blu-ray] Review

This movie is pure propaganda to get white people to dislike their race even more and to embrace the ills of multiculturalism. Here in California we are the eighth largest economy in the world and we have been embracing multicultaralism for a long, long time. I personally know for a fact that any good things about it, are heavily outweighed by the bad things. It is fun to get to know other cultures, and one grows and learns a lot about themselves in the process, but it comes at a terrible price. Multiculturalism is a looting of culture and tradition. It is also the means to lower a people from prosperous, down into the ranks of the nothingness pool of poverty and enslavement. Think that I'm just bigoted and don't know what I'm talking about? I would've said the same thing to me a few years back, as I was also heavily indoctrinated by the media, believing that to roll out the red carpet to all peoples from all lands was an enlightened, peaceful position to be at. Nothing could be further from the truth. Realize that you are not to blame if other countries have become rotten from the inside out. Drop your guilt trip.

American History X is a good movie, I highly doubt there is anyone disputing that. Back in the mid-90s when I was attending the College of San Mateo, we watched it in my 3rd World Cinema class (a controversial class taught by a very opinionated black panther, and where my self-hatred really took hold). It's a great movie to watch if you want to have a debate about racial issues afterwords. But the scales are tipped in favor of non-white races in the movie. If you can't immediately see that then just pay attention to the opinions in your debate, almost everyone will be defending every race but the white race after the movie. It has always been one of my favorite movies, but now that I am learning to actually like my own people again, I see it for what it is, yet another brilliant propaganda piece made by Holly Wood, which is in fact an elitist magical world wanded by people who are not of my race, and who are famous for hating my race. Disinformation is a lie sandwich, it will have good truth on the outer layers but a bad lie sandwiched in the middle. This movie is no different.........

The good message: You cannot judge a whole race badly based on the actions of a few bad eggs within it. Every tree has it's good apples and it's rotten apples. One must learn to judge people on an individual basis.

The bad message: If you're a white man, then you should kiss black people's butts because they are more fun and let's face it, you owe it to them. If you don't, then your white brothers and sisters are going to rape and kill you, because that is the real nature of the savage and ignorant white goyim family. Blacks, Mexicans, and Jewish people are just innocent victims of the system, but they want revenge against you for all the atrocities that the system has committed against them, hopefully by your catering to them left and right you can eventually make ammends.

"Ha ha whitey, now the whole world is blaming you for our actions."

American History X [Blu-ray] Feature

• Derek Vinyard is dangerous, a coiled fury of hate who leads a neo-Nazi gang. But time and events start to change him. He reassesses his ways while doing time for manslaughter and emerges from prison eager to keep his younger brother (Edward Furlong) from falling victim to the thug cycle of violence and payback. It may be too late.Weaving in and out of events past and present in Dereks life, Americ

American History X [Blu-ray] Overview

Derek Vinyard is dangerous, a coiled fury of hate who leads a neo-Nazi gang. But time and events start to change him. He reassesses his ways while doing time for manslaughter and emerges from prison eager to keep his younger brother (Edward Furlong) from falling victim to the thug cycle of violence and payback. It may be too late. Weaving in and out of events past and present in Dereks life, American History X is revealing in its look at white-supremacist gangs and impassioned in its message that hatred and bigotry can be unlearned. Edward Norton (Fight Club, Pride and Glory) portrays Derek, giving a powerful, persuasive, Oscar®-nominated* performance.

American History X [Blu-ray] Specifications

Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive--at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation.

The film's basic message--that hate is learned and can be unlearned--is expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment, and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities--and a compelling clash of visual styles--to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact. --Jeff Shannon

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