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American Gangster

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

"American Gangster" depicts the ruler of the inner-city drug trade in the Harlem of 1970's, an under-the-radar Harlem heroin kingpin named Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). He's a penniless lad from North Carolina who arrives in the city in 1946 to become a loyal driver for Ellsworth"Bumpy" Johnson (Clarence William III), one of the notorious crime bosses in the city.

Bumpy's sudden death of leads Frank to exploit the vacancy and build his own empire through the stroke of genius idea of cutting out the middleman (usually in the mob) to sell a much purer Southeast Asia heroin called, "Blue Magic," which he attempts to smuggle from Vietnam in the caskets of American soldiers. His lucrative products are twice as good, and the prices are half that of the competition, so Frank slowly legitimizes himself as the city's top criminal.

From the other side of the perspective, comes a scruffy and self-righteous cop, Richie (Russell Crowe), who once turned in a million dollars that he found on a stakeout, making him infamous among his colleagues. His weakness for women has also dragged him into divorce and custody battles. As this outcast cop enforces his morality in the streets of the drug underworld, he senses a change in the horizon.

Although the street-smart Frank initially outplays Richie by embodying strict business ethics such as only employing his sibling, who later confronts the police as a genuine soldier among brothers--no betrayal and no leaks. From then on, two powerhouse actors are headed on a collision course.

Denzel gives a grand performance ranging from a kind and polite father who enjoys the weekly routine of a church outing with his mother, to that of a cold-blooded killer who pops a gun at anyone who gets in his way. He possesses an admirable stature that deeply engages us to the very end. Russell Crowe tackles the more subtle task of a simple elevation of the performance in everyone around him. Not only do they share great on-screen chemistry, the film offers a wonderful assembly of cast members: a rival (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a corrupt cop(Josh Brolin), and an Italian American mob boss (Armand Assante).

Director Ridley Scott mostly focuses on characters throughout the film, rather than action. He ambitiously scopes into the corrupt city of the 70's when dead junkies are turning up all over the area. In the end, the true criminal hides in the shadows.

Directed by Ridley Scott; written by Steven Zaillian
Based on the New York magazine article “The Return of Superfly,” by Mark Jacobson
Director of photography: Harris Savides
Edited by Pietro Scalia
music by Marc Streitenfeld
Production designer: Arthur Max
produced by Brian Grazer and Ridley Scott
Released by Universal Pictures.
Running time: 158 minutes.

Cast: Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas)
Russell Crowe (Richie Roberts)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Huey Lucas)
Cuba Gooding Jr. (Nicky Barnes)
Josh Brolin (Detective Trupo)
Ted Levine (Lou Toback)
Armand Assante (Dominic Cattano)
John Ortiz (Javier J. Rivera)
John Hawkes (Freddie Spearman)
RZA (Moses Jones)
Lymari Nadal (Eva)
Yul Vazquez (Alfonse Abruzzo)
Ruby Dee (Mama Lucas)
Idris Elba (Tango)
Carla Gugino (Laurie Roberts)
Joe Morton (Charlie Williams)