In theaters

AMERICAN GANGSTER, directed by Ridley Scott, written by Steven Zaillian, 160 minutes, rated R.

The new Ridley Scott movie, “American Gangster,” stars Denzel Washington as real-life crime boss Frank Lucas, who from 1968 to 1975 built a drug empire in Harlem that rivaled anything built by his competition – the Mafia, with whom he eventually got into bed, and Harlem rival Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.), with whom you could say he had something of a falling out.

And why not? At the height of his career as a drug-running, church-going, life-snuffing, family loving thug, Lucas was worth in the neighborhood of $150 million, so you can imagine the complications this created for him in his own neighborhood, particularly since Lucas controlled a market others wanted to corner.

A shrewd businessman – and this is very much a movie about a master businessman who happens to be black in a country that doesn’t want him to succeed – Lucas made his mark by offering his clients a stronger, cheaper form of heroin he imported himself from Southeast Asia, thus cutting out the middleman so he could retain more of the profits.

Just how he imported the drug we’ll leave for the movie to answer (for those who don’t know, the revelation is as ugly as it gets), but it was called Blue Magic and apparently, as heroin goes, it was fantastic.

As with so many American movies focused on an individual who realizes the American dream, illegally or otherwise, “American Gangster” follows suit with a parallel story of those determined to bring that person down for achieving it. In this case, it wasn’t just Barnes who wanted Lucas gone. More significantly, it was Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the New Jersey narcotics cop who wanted to undo a man actively undoing his own people.

Working against Roberts were his colleagues across the driver, dirty NYPD cops profiting on the sly from the illegal drug activity. Chief among them is Detective Trupo (an excellent Josh Brolin), an intimidating beast with a mean mouth and meaner eyes who would go to any length to make certain Roberts didn’t succeed in his mission. After all, if he did, Trupo would be cheated out of one glam lifestyle.

Based on Steven Zaillian’s screenplay, “American Gangster” works hard to balance its two stories, shifting in and out of each while also exploring broader themes of race, urban decay, the drug trade, black capitalism and police corruption against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

The movie runs nearly three hours (and it sometimes feels it), but its ambitions ultimately prove too much for the film to handle. The screen burns with talent here, but many of the supporting performances are so underwritten, they make for only fleeting impressions. Another strike against the movie is that the side trips into the personal lives of Roberts and Lucas are more distracting than interesting.

That said, there nevertheless is much here to recommend.

Washington and Crowe are just as good as you would expect, Cuba Gooding Jr. redeems himself after wading through a wasteland of embarrassing flops, and Ruby Dee as Lucas’ mother shares a scene with Washington that’s authentic and memorable.

Beyond these performances, what’s so admirable about the movie is how it captures New York City and Harlem in the years before Rudy Giuliani stepped in to scrub its corners clean and slap a halo on the city’s skyline. Harris Savides’ cinematography and Arthur Max’s production design are among the year’s best, with the film’s gritty look and feel capturing a pre-AIDS era on the fringe of losing itself to itself. Sometimes in this movie, when the grimness really presses down, you swear you’re not only looking at Scorsese’s “Mean Streets,” but that you’re on them.

Grade: B

On HD DVD and Blu-ray

THE AVIATOR, directed by Martin Scorsese, written by John Logan, 169 minutes, rated PG-13.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator,” available this week on high-definition HD DVD and Blu-ray disc, seamlessly combines drama, action and comedy into such a compelling form, it lights the screen as if from within.

Spanning 20 key years in the life of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), this hugely entertaining film is more concerned with capturing the essence of Hughes than in offering deeper insights into the man, who remains here an enigma.

The film moves through Hughes’ early years in Hollywood in the 1920s, when he struggled to film his war movie, “Hell’s Angels,” and then it flows into the 1930s, when his love affair with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) was nearly as exciting and as complicated as his effort to break the air speed record.

Later, in the 1940s, Hughes’ infamous fear of germs began to sink him just as two men were working to do the same: Maine Sen. Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) and Pan Am’s Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), who was using Brewster’s Washington muscle to prevent Hughes’ Trans World Airlines from becoming a competitive powerhouse in the international airways. One of the best scenes in the movie occurs when Hughes and Brewster spar at the heated Brewster hearings. It’s a furious, marvelous clash of personalities, and it’s riveting.

Other scenes in “The Aviator” are equally masterful, such as the decadent re-creation of the parties at the Coconut Grove; the harrowing scene in which Hughes takes to the skies to film an aviation battle from “Hell’s Angels”; the sly moment Hughes first meets Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale); or the scene in which Hughes woos Hepburn in a dreamy flight over Los Angeles.

Most movies are a diversion. Too many are trash. But others you give yourself to. For so many reasons, “The Aviator” is that kind of movie.

Grade: A

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.