Tuesday, February 19, should have been a great day for HD DVD fans because it marked the release of American Gangster. This movie was one of the bigger titles that would help shake us all out of the dry spell that begain weeks earlier. I was preparing to post this review then, but the news in the world of HD DVD was overshadowed by Toshiba’s announcement that they would discontinue their line of HD DVD players.

Since that day, many people have either decided to sell off their HD DVD players and movie collections, or keep them around while they bide their time until getting a Blu-ray player. People staying “red” in any way at all have at least a few months of interesting HD DVD titles ahead, and it’s movies like American Gangster that make it easier to put off that potentially inevitable Blu-ray adoption.

American Gangster has a ton of things going for it, and there’s little surprise that it’s such an eagerly awaited title on HD DVD. Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe star in this Ridley Scott directed movie about the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, a real-life 1970s Harlem druglord who outdid the Mafia, and Richie Roberts, the police officer who brought him down.

The scenes alternate between following Lucas’s rise to power and the establishment of his empire, and the parallel story about super ethical police officer Roberts facing his own issues in life, while he’s on the trail of an unknown criminal mastermind. Neither figure knows about the other until later in the movie, and you’re along for the ride as these two worlds literally crash into each other.

American Gangster is based on a true story reported by Mark Jacobson in New York magazine, though very much modified for this movie’s purposes. You actually get to meet the real Lucas and Roberts in the featurettes included on the disc.

Frank Lucas starts out as the driver for Harlem crime boss, Bumpy Johnson. Lucas learns from the master, and takes over the empire upon Bumpy’s death. Based on Bumpy’s lessons, Lucas eliminates the middle man (the Mafia) in the drug business by personally visiting Thailand to arrange for the direct importing of his heroin. Using a network that has family members placed at key positions, Frank Lucas is able to sell his own brand at a cheaper cost and higher potency. He beats the Mafia at its own game, and even becomes their supplier.

While this Lucas story develops, there’s also the the parallel story of Richie Roberts, a cop from the mould of Elliot Ness and The Untouchables, who’s way more honest than most of his fellow officers are comfortable with. His sainthood is established at the start of the movie when he comes across one million dollars and turns it all in as evidence instead of keeping some for himself and his buddies. While he may be an excellent role model at work, Richie’s personal life is a big mess.

Roberts is chosen to head up a special drug enforcement task force, and that’s when he stumbles upon the trail of a mystery druglord. It’s not until the last fourth of the movie that Roberts even knows who Frank Lucas is and how Lucas operates. If you watch the extended cut, then there are a few more scenes like the extended conclusion which gives them more time together.

The story is told really well, and you actually want to see both characters succeed. Unfortunately, only one of them can truly win, and that ends up being the honest police officer who brings down the big druglord.

The surprise about the Oscar nominations for American Gangster is only that it got two: one for Art Direction and another for Best Supporting Actress. Ruby Dee won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for her Supporting Actress role as Lucas’s mother, but it seems like the movie should have earned at least a couple more. Well, that’s nothing new for the Academy Awards where there are always a half-dozen movies and directors, and couple dozen actors and others being ignored for whatever reason.

The controversy that HD DVD owners will probably find more relevant is the skimping of extras on this eagerly awaited title. For example, the unrated director’s cut is only on the DVD side of the combo, and the “U-Control” picture-in-picture commentary is not very well thought out. I’m guessing that this disc went into production as the holidays approached and people were out on vacation instead of crafting an HDi masterpiece.

The film is encoded in VC-1 and presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio (the black-bars widescreen kind). The video quality is superb as we would all expect it to be on high-def discs. You are unlikely to be disappointed in this regard.

The audio is delivered only as Dolby Digital Plus, but it works for this movie. Remember, this is mostly a drama and more about the dialogue, though there are some action-packed moments. In such a case, it’s not necessarily horrible for the audio to not be lossless. But the bad thing is that going with this kind of audio format left plenty of disc space for more and better extras than what was provided on the disc.

On the whole, American Gangster is a great movie and a great high-def experience. I think many HD DVD fans will probably get this disc because it represents one of the last greatest titles that will be released on the format. I wish the disc could have lived up a little better to its HDi and bonus material potential, but at least it’s a combo and you can watch the extended vesion upscaled from the DVD side.

• American Gangster at Amazon.com