Review Detail
9.5 5 10
Overall rating
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Watched this epic with my lovely bride, who LOVES crime dramas.
While I have watched the original American Gangster multiple times over the years, my wife had not seen it since it's release in 2007, and admitted to having little to no memory of it. So her experience with this fan edit was slightly different from mine.
The concept of this fan edit is simple and brilliant. Take two intertwined character stories and segregate them into their own spotlight chapters. This allows the viewer gain a greater depth of understanding as they are fully immersed in that character's point of view and motivation. I loved this approach.
However, my bride found this approach in Chapter One - One Good Cop, which tells the story of detective Richie Roberts, to be a bit challenging to follow and connect with for two reasons. One, as great of an actor Russel Crowe is, his character is the least dynamic of the two, thus his regular joe day to day problems, even with the added element of good man in a corrupt system, plays a bit slow. And two, due to the style of this edit, Crowe's arc is mostly "Tell" rather than "Show", which is not always the most emotionally involving.
I, on the other hand, viewed chapter one as mystery investigation, which worked for me. But at the same time, I have to acknowledge, that I still remember the original movie plot very well, so all the names, photos and references that appeared during Robert's investigation, I already knew what they meant and thus made sense to me. But to someone who has never seen or remembers the original movie version before...?
Thus, I think Chapter One requires a bit of patience and faith on the part of the viewer, because once you hit Chapter Two, all the dots begin to connect and the narrative tension increases exponentially. And by devoting a chapter to focus on one lead character at a time, makes the final Third Chapter, more interesting and rewarding than how it played out in the original.
Technically, it looks and sounds flawless to me. Which is a major compliment, as the creative editing (particularly with audio) involved to create two separate story arcs would have been extensive and arduous.
American Gangster: Two Tales is a fascinating, creative and very successful re-imagining.
Thumbs Up! :)
While I have watched the original American Gangster multiple times over the years, my wife had not seen it since it's release in 2007, and admitted to having little to no memory of it. So her experience with this fan edit was slightly different from mine.
The concept of this fan edit is simple and brilliant. Take two intertwined character stories and segregate them into their own spotlight chapters. This allows the viewer gain a greater depth of understanding as they are fully immersed in that character's point of view and motivation. I loved this approach.
However, my bride found this approach in Chapter One - One Good Cop, which tells the story of detective Richie Roberts, to be a bit challenging to follow and connect with for two reasons. One, as great of an actor Russel Crowe is, his character is the least dynamic of the two, thus his regular joe day to day problems, even with the added element of good man in a corrupt system, plays a bit slow. And two, due to the style of this edit, Crowe's arc is mostly "Tell" rather than "Show", which is not always the most emotionally involving.
I, on the other hand, viewed chapter one as mystery investigation, which worked for me. But at the same time, I have to acknowledge, that I still remember the original movie plot very well, so all the names, photos and references that appeared during Robert's investigation, I already knew what they meant and thus made sense to me. But to someone who has never seen or remembers the original movie version before...?
Thus, I think Chapter One requires a bit of patience and faith on the part of the viewer, because once you hit Chapter Two, all the dots begin to connect and the narrative tension increases exponentially. And by devoting a chapter to focus on one lead character at a time, makes the final Third Chapter, more interesting and rewarding than how it played out in the original.
Technically, it looks and sounds flawless to me. Which is a major compliment, as the creative editing (particularly with audio) involved to create two separate story arcs would have been extensive and arduous.
American Gangster: Two Tales is a fascinating, creative and very successful re-imagining.
Thumbs Up! :)
B