Gangster Squad was originally set for release last September, but the shooting in Aurora, Colorado led Warner Bros. to push the film back a few months (as well as excising a shooting scene shot in a movie theater). The delay didn’t make the film any less violent, of course, so those concerned that the violence doesn’t hold up to classics of the crime genre have little to worry about. But a gangster film isn’t all about the action.
Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) is a decorated World War II veteran for whom the war ended too soon — in other words, he has a lot of fight left in him. As a police officer in 1949 Los Angeles, his sense of duty cannot abide with looking the other way as gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) and his mob runs the gambling, drug, and prostitution rackets with no interference from corrupt politicians and police officers. Los Angeles Chief of Police William Parker (Nick Nolte) recognizes O’Mara’s character and asks him to put together a Gangster Squad to go after Cohen’s organization outside of the law. O’Mara, with the advice of his wife Connie (Mireille Enos), picks Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), whose niece died from using Cohen’s heorin, Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), a gunslinger with impeccable aim, Kennard’s partner Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena), and Officer Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), a tech wiz. O’Mara also attempts to recruit Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), a capable cop who has given up, but Wooters is far more interested in Cohen’s favorite lady, Grace Farraday (Emma Stone). The squad sets out to take Cohen down by any means necessary — and while things go well at first, it’s only a matter of time until Cohen notices.
If the plot sounds vaguely familiar to The Untouchables with Brolin in the Kevin Costner role, you’d be correct. In fact, Gangster Squad does a lot of borrowing, and it’s hard not to look at the film as a virtual “greatest hits” of gangster films. You have all the hallmarks of the genre — fancy nightclubs, tommy guns, drugs, graft, and prostitutes, and some other salutes to the classics. For example, Wooters and Grace have extremely well-written dialogue scenes which recall the “how did they get that innuendo past the censors?” exchanges in the 1940s-50s Warner Bros. gangster films. The film is very loosely based on true events (and make no mistake, even a slight glance at Mickey Cohen’s Wikipedia page will demonstrate that this movie is about as historically accurate as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), so it’s clear that screenwriter Will Beall (TV’s Castle) is playing loose with the facts for style. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially since there are a lot of enjoyable sequences in the film.
Of course,
since the film is so wrapped up in repeating beats from other gangster films there are parts that simply don’t belong. At one point Ribisi’s character points the Squad’s increasingly violent methods and asks Brolin’s character if they’re any different than Cohen’s thugs. After all, it’s common that a “good guy” character in crime films that touch upon vigilantism to have a crisis of conscience. However, the Gangster Squad doesn’t kill, sell drugs, run underground crooked gambling, kidnap girls and force them into prostitution, or hurt people’s families, so I’d say they’re pretty much in the clear compared to Cohen’s organization. It’s a silly scene that is a hollow bridge to the eventual fate of Ribisi’s character, and if it’s only there because most crime films have a similar scene it shouldn’t be there.
I also have mixed feelings about Penn’s Cohen. On one hand, it’s refreshing for Penn to be playing a traditional role in a film, but on the other hand Cohen follows the film’s “greatest hits” format by being equal parts Goodfellas‘ Joe Pesci, Scarface‘s Al Pacino, and (of course) The Untouchables‘ Robert De Niro. This combination of well-known gangster archetypes definitely helps Cohen feel like he belongs among them, but in the end imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — not originality.
But Gangster Squad is still a lot of fun, albeit overproduced. For a crime film there’s a remarkable lack of grit. I know the film is set in Los Angeles (which is a “newer” city in comparison to New York or Chicago), but everything in Gangster Squad is so slick and clean as if it’s been whitewashed before the cameras shot. Nevertheless, this is a huge step forward for director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less), since he’s never done a film like this before. Of course, he’s partially to blame for the film’s polished look — slow motion might have worked for the opening sequence of Zombieland, but it’s used awkwardly in this movie, particularly in a scene in which Cohen and O’Mara are shooting tommy guns at each other from about six feet away across a table and slow motion shows us why none of the bullets hit. I might be in the minority, but I don’t think crime films set in 1949 should have Matrix-style special effects.
So Gangster Squad is a solid entry into the gangster genre, and there are a lot of great action sequences that will keep audiences engaged. It won’t have the shelf life of Goodfellas, Scarface, or The Untouchables — three movies it clearly wants to be — and Penn’s Cohen doesn’t deserve a spot in those mafia movie icon posters, but it’s a fun ride for those looking for a crime film that’s heavier on action than it is on drama.
Rating: There’s a lot to enjoy here even if it freely borrows from better gangster films (6.5/10).
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