Knocked
Up
aside, this summer’s been pretty disappointing for me thus far, so I find
myself already looking to the traditionally meatier Fall schedule where one
film towers above all others for me: American Gangster. From the moment I
first heard of the film’s central trinity of greatness – Denzel Washington,
Russell Crowe, and director Ridley Scott – to the subsequent casting
announcements of supporting gems like Common, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, and
John Hawkes, I only become more and more excited for the mano-a-mano cop vs.
crimelord tale set in the 70s. Although the common practice these days is to
maximize your enthusiasm level at “cautiously optimistic,” I say fuck that and
let’s expect greatness. With that being said, the only question was how soon
would a trailer arrive, and it’s been answered.
Thanks
to a tip from stalwart chewer Brian Henne, we know the trailer’s up in
beautiful QuickTime over at Yahoo, and it’s a doozy. It starts with Denzel
leading his crew through the streets of Harlem and relating an anecdote that
puts the racial element of the film front and nature. Denzel’s playing real-life
drug lord Frank Lucas, a heroin operator in the 70s who became notorious not
just for being such a big-time dealer, but also a black man bypassing
traditionally white and Italian channels to secure his dope. He was the first “Nino
Brown”, using his wealth and Robin Hood-esque legend to endear himself to the
community, even as he destroyed it with his main product. The rest of the
trailer elaborates on this as we see Denzel solidifying his home base while Crowe, as the cop hot on his trail, attempts
to alert incredulous superiors that a lone black man has somehow broken the
criminal world’s glass ceiling.
Hell,
why bother reading another word? Go here
now to see it for yourself.