AMERICAN GANGSTER kicks off tribute to Ridley Scott at Lincoln Center
AMERICAN GANGSTER (Ridley Scott, 2007)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Friday, May 25, 1:00, and Monday, May 28, 6:15
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.americangangster.net
Based on a true story, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster follows the path of two very different men during the Vietnam War era. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a proud, dedicated man from poor southern roots who is determined to become the most respected and loved drug lord of Harlem. Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is an honest-to-a-fault Jewish cop studying to become a lawyer while failing miserably in his personal life. Cold, calculating, and smooth as silk, Lucas will do whatever is necessary to ensure his absolute success, including shooting another player in the head in plain view on an uptown street. Meanwhile, Roberts becomes a pariah in the corrupt police department when he finds nearly a million dollars in cash and turns it in. As the war escalates in Southeast Asia, Lucas and Roberts are both on a dangerous road that threatens to explode all around them. Filmed in New York City, American Gangster — featuring an excellent script by Steven Zaillian and intense, superb direction from Ridley Scott — is a compelling thinking man’s mob pic, a worthy successor to (and mash-up of) such genre classics as The French Connection, Serpico, and New Jack City. The diverse all-star cast also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, RZA, T.I., Josh Brolin, Carla Gugino, Cuba Gooding Jr., Common, and the great Ruby Dee and Clarence Williams III. American Gangster is screening May 25 and 28 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the Lincoln Center series “Past and Prologue: The Films of Ridley Scott,” celebrating the career of the British director who will turn seventy-five later this year and is set to release his latest, the Alien prequel Prometheus, on May 30. The festival continues through June 3 with such diverse films as Legend, The Duellists, Alien, Thelma & Louise, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Gladiator, and G.I. Jane.