The Greatest Trick

Based on real events, Ridley Scott’s latest film details the rise and fall of heroin kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who used his connections in the US army to smuggle drugs from the Far East during the Vietnam War. Ludicrously honest cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) – who previously found and turned in a million dollars in unmarked bills without taking a penny – vowed to bring Lucas down. However, this was no easy task, given the size of Lucas’ organisation and the corruption he encountered, particularly from other policemen on the take.

Denzel Washington is very good at playing the bad guy, and his performance recalls darker characters he had previously portrayed (in films like Training Day for instance). Russell Crowe is also good, and there are a smattering of memorable turns from the supporting cast – including Cuba Gooding Jr, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Armand Assante, Lymari Nadal, Ruby Dee and Josh Brolin.

Lucas and Roberts are initially seen as contrasting characters. Although Roberts is honest about his work, he is dishonest with his wife and is a serial womaniser. Lucas on the other hand is admirably committed to his family, extended family and friends despite being a ruthless criminal businessman who thinks nothing about shooting a man at point blank range in front of countless witnesses. But as the story progresses, they are seen to have common ground. Roberts is detested and alienated by other police because of his unscrupulous, legalistic ways. Lucas also finds himself alienated because the Italian mobsters whom he undercuts hate the fact that a black man has been more successful. Both are determined men who ultimately display a grudging respect for one another.

However, this is still a strong condemnation of the dark side of the American dream. One particularly effective sequence shows the Lucas family in prayer saying grace for their Thanksgiving meal, which is then interspersed with disturbing images of junkies taking drugs – including a toddler crying next to her unconscious mother in a squalid flat. Roberts’ knew the true cost of Lucas’ empire, and his incorruptibility and refusal to back down are ultimately admirable in an “Elliot Ness” kind of way.

In the past, Ridley Scott has been unfairly criticized for being all style and no substance. However, it could be argued that American Gangster is all substance and no style. This is a big, meaty film in terms of plot and characterisation, and Steven Zaillian’s screenplay covers a lot of ground, but it contains little of Scott’s unique visual flair. Instead he borrows the look and feel of great 70s thrillers like Serpico and The French Connection although its main influence is clearly The Godfather. At least two scenes – one where Frank Lucas angrily confronts one of his Italian associates about the attempted murder of him and his wife, and one where several violent deaths are intercut with a church service – are a deliberate attempt to evoke Francis Ford Coppola’s classic films. As such, American Gangster disqualifies itself from entry into the pantheon of great crime pictures.

That said this is a solid, absorbing film, and well worth a look. Obviously it does contain strong bloody violence and bad language throughout, plus some brief sex and nudity (most of which is in sequences with female workers packaging drugs who are made to work naked to ensure they don’t steal). Personally, I didn’t think any of the above was particularly gratuitous given the genre and subject matter, but obviously there are those who will disagree.

Simon Dillon, November 2007.

If you’re going to see Beowulf at all, make sure you see it in the cinema on the biggest screen you can possibly find (which will be IMAX 3-D if you’re fortunate enough to live near one). Watching this on television would be as futile as attempting to duplicate the sensation of a rollercoaster by watching camcorder footage filmed by someone on the rollercoaster.

Beowulf is based on the Anglo Saxon poem on the same name, which incidentally was a big influence on writers like Tolkien (check out the Scandinavian influenced, Beowulf-esque culture of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings). However, to say the film departs from the text somewhat is an understatement. In case you didn’t study this at school, it tells of the warrior Beowulf who slays Grendel, a demon monster terrorising an 8th Century Danish village. Unfortunately, Grendel’s mother is understandably not too pleased at this development, so assumes the form of Angelina Jolie to seduce Beowulf in an attempt to conceive another demon offspring. Hang on – that’s the film, not the poem. Well, sort of.

Director Robert Zemeckis uses the increasingly fashionable tool of motion capture to craft his animated rendering of this classic tale. For the uninitiated, motion capture is a tool where the actor’s movements are recorded and scanned into a computer to attain an animated performance so meticulously detailed as to be almost indistinguishable from live action. At least, that’s what it says on the tin. In truth, motion capture is clearly still animation but the technology is getting better all the time (this is certainly a significant advance on Zemeckis’ previous motion capture tale The Polar Express).

On the performance front, Beowulf is an enjoyable mishmash of silly accents – especially Angelina Jolie’s ludicrous seductive tones, Anthony Hopkins Welsh-Danish King Hrothgar and Ray Winstone’s cockney Beowulf (“I will slay your monstah!”). And that’s before I even mention Crispin Glover. I kept expecting his spectacularly grotesque Grendel to slip into George McFly mode and yell to Hrothgar “I just can’t take that kind of rejection!”.

Which brings me neatly onto the issue of Grendel’s father, who in this version turns out to be Hrothgar. This is important, because it adds a potentially interesting spiritual theme, ie the sins of the fathers coming back to haunt them and so on. Not that this is a particularly deep film. Or a particularly spiritual one. In fact, whatever spiritual positions it does take mostly depart from the vaguely Christian worldview of the original poem (where Beowulf often credits God for his victories). Here however, the influence of Christianity is largely seen as negative and leading to wars between men. One line sums up this paganism-was-better philosophy, where Beowulf laments that “There are no heroes anymore. The Christ God has killed them all”.

That said Beowulf himself becomes a sort of Christ figure near the end as he faces up to his mistakes and ultimately discovers the true nature of heroism in his final battle with the dragon. Incidentally, this sequence is the highlight of the film; an absolutely breathtaking set piece replete with dizzying camera moves and thrilling, edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger action. It’s worth the price of admission alone, but again I must add the caveat that it has to be seen on the big screen.

Make no mistake, Beowulf is a big, silly film with very little to recommend it outside of its astounding but gimmicky visual effects. But whilst scholars will no doubt complain about changes from the poem, it’s also something of guilty pleasure, and audiences who do see it will not come out complaining about lack of bang for their buck.

One final point: this is absolutely not a film for children. There is a surprising amount of nudity and violence considering the rating it got (12A in the UK, PG-13 in the States). Having said that, most of the blood and gore are the result of Beowulf’s fights with various monsters and the nudity is “virtual nudity”, so perhaps the film got off on a technicality.

Simon Dillon, November 2007.

Fans of elaborate frocks and silly beards will find much to enjoy in Elizabeth The Golden Age, the sequel to 1998’s Elizabeth. My personal frock/beard high point was the Spanish Ambassador, whose performance reflected his costume in that it epitomized a highly gigglesome slice of pantomime cartoon villainy.

Equally amusing was Clive Owen’s ludicrously dashing Walter Raleigh, who comes back from the New World bearing tobacco and potatoes. He attempts to gain favour with Queen Elizabeth for a new expedition and seduces one of her ladies in waiting in the process. When Elizabeth finds out she’s not too chuffed, because she rather fancied him herself (even though the relationship would have been impossible).

But the plot mostly concerns those dastardly Catholics and their Armada. Those of you who paid attention in history lessons will recall Prince Phillip of Spain was less than happy with a Protestant on the throne of England and wanted to depose her. Not that history is really on the agenda here. The filmmakers play very fast and loose with facts but only a real bore would quibble as the frocks and beards more than make up for this.

Whereas the first Elizabeth was a superb historical political thriller which earned itself a place on my ten best films of 1998 list, this is much more sprawling affair and is unlikely to repeat the trick. However, Cate Blanchett is terrific and for her this is a triumphant return to the role that made her famous. Who knows? Perhaps this will get her more than an Oscar nomination this time (if Academy voters are happy to give the award to two Queen Elizabeths two years in a row). Geoffrey Rush’s Walsingham is another major plus, making a welcome return after his excellent supporting role in the first film. Here his character is older, more melancholy and he discovers his judgement isn’t as deviously sharp as it once was.

Make no mistake; Elizabeth The Golden Age is a mess. Wildly uneven in tone, the screenplay is a muddle and lurches awkwardly between court intrigues, soapish melodrama and special effects blockbuster (the Armada scenes). That said Cate Blanchett somehow manages to hold the thing together and director Shekhar Kapur calls the shots with flair.

Because Kapur has played up the Elizabeth myth at the expense of historical veracity, this ultimately takes on the look and feel of a fairy tale, particularly in the final act. An armour clad Elizabeth sitting astride her noble steed in silhouette overlooking the Armada battle from a cliff top is an image that wouldn’t look out of place in one of the Lord of the Rings films.

Therefore, in attaining the feel of a fantasy epic, the film takes on new allegorical and spiritual layers of meaning which will resonate strongly with modern audiences. These days Britain might not face a literal Armada, but it is locked in religious conflict with Islamic terrorists and it becomes impossible not to see cautionary contemporary parallels when Elizabeth’s advisors urge her to arrest Catholics and execute Mary Queen of Scots (played by a typically oppressed looking Samantha Mortensen).

Above all, this is a film that extols that most unfashionable of virtues: patriotism. Britain today has been weakened by Armadas in the form of the EU, political correctness, the nanny state, a blame culture and many other things, but Elizabeth The Golden Age celebrates the indomitable spirit of a nation that refused to kowtow to aggression, fought and won despite the odds. It also dares whisper, albeit subliminally, that Britain could be that nation again.

So it’s worth a look for that as well as the frocks and beards.

Simon Dillon, November 2007.