(Long Island, N.Y.) The easiest way to describe American Gangster is that it’s similar to Al Pacino’s classic film Scarface in the sense that it covers the rise and fall of a crime lord from the ghetto, but without the 80s camp and with actual Black people playing Black people instead of Italian people playing Cubans.
Okay, I guess I have to actually earn my money here, so let’s throw in a few more paragraphs to my lone sentence above and really get into what makes this excellent new movie tick.
Acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) directs Academy Award winning Actor Denzel Washington in this slick crime drama, a take on real-life 1960s/70s Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas. Yes, Denzel is playing a bad guy once again. He held out on doing so for much of his career, mainly portraying nice, squeaky-clean characters, but 2001’s Training Day opened up Denzel and the viewing public to his darker, harsher side. And hey, it even got the man an Oscar, so I guess change can be a good thing for your career.
Frank Lucas was infamous throughout urban crime circles for the fact that he made the bold decision to cut out the middlemen in the drug trade, personally traveling to Vietnam and buying his heroin directly from where it was grown and cultivated. From there, he would smuggle the smack into the U.S. and sell it on the streets of Harlem at a discount, undercutting the competition and establishing an eventual stranglehold on the market. Ahh, free enterprise- it’s the American way.
Along comes Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), charged with curbing the flow of drugs into the inner city. Richie is infamous throughout the force for discovering a million dollars in dirty cash during a bust and actually turning it in as opposed to pocketing it. For some unfathomable reason, the man is actually ostracized and becomes the object of mistrust among his fellow officers for doing the RIGHT thing (maybe not the SMART thing, but the right thing). People are weird- if you can’t trust a cop who doesn’t run off with a small fortune in crooked money, who can you trust? My only theory is that perhaps he was came across as a whistle-blower of sorts and made all the less-than-clean cops around him antsy.
Richie’s quest to uncover the newest source of drugs hitting the street initially bears no fruit, as Frank Lucas, despite his power, remains almost invisible. His street smarts and generosity towards the people of Harlem ensures that no one will roll over on him, and Frank quickly amasses a fortune while pulling the strings of his operation from behind the scenes. However, one night Frank has a chance encounter involving a full-length fur coat that finally puts him under the probing eye of Richie and his team. Now Frank must not only contend with the scrutiny of legitimate police detectives, but also crooked cops looking for a payout (headed up by the always great Josh Brolin) and a jealous local mob boss whose share of the drug trade Frank is grinding under his boot. How can a cheesy fur coat straight out of Huggy Bear’s closet cause a powerful crime lord’s downfall, you may ask? Watch the movie and you’ll see.
This film was a bit of a departure for director Ridley Scott, in the sense that it contained none of his trademark flashy visuals. Instead, Scott focuses on the decay and grit of the street and nails it perfectly. Even when shown the opulence of Frank Lucas’ new lifestyle, you never forget the poverty and destitute that exists just outside his window, or the emaciated bodies of the drug addicts poisoned by his grand ambition. Denzel Washington infuses the vile mobster with class and dignity, but never lets you forget who you’re really dealing with by retaining a murderous, unremorseful streak in his portrayal of Lucas. Russell Crowe continues to impress as he appears to have transformed himself physically for a role once again, packing on noticeable weight to play disheveled Detective Richie Roberts, a man torn by the duality of his life- while he is a dedicated police officer, his personal life is a shambles due to his inadequacies as a husband and a father.
As far as being a factual account of the life and times of Frank Lucas, however, American Gangster comes up a bit short. Aside from somewhat glamorizing the life of a filthy heroin dealer, there are several inaccuracies ranging from Lucas’ looks and mannerisms to the actual amount of time he served for his crimes (the movie claims 15 years, but in reality Lucas merely served 5 of his initial 70-year sentence, and later another 7 for a parole violation). But that’s why biopics always have that fun “based on a true story” disclaimer- it gives them the superpower known as “creative license.”
But what I find truly distressing is that, in real life, Frank Lucas’ crimes are not covered by the Son of Sam law. What’s the Son of Sam law, you ask? Well, after wacko serial killer David Berkowitz was arrested in 1977, publishers entered a bidding frenzy for the rights to his biography. The Son of Sam law was created in New York on the heels of this event to prevent Berkowitz (and other criminals) from profiting from their crimes by selling books or screenplays based on their hijinks. However, since Frank Lucas’ crimes were committed before this law was created, he is exempt from it. As a result, Lucas is getting a nice fat check from Universal Studios, in addition to merchandising revenue. Whoever says crime doesn’t pay?
American Gangster, while not the instant classic most people are making it out to be, is still a powerful movie and well worth watching. To supplement the experience, read up on the actual exploits the film is based on, and the Hows and Whys or what really happened are very interesting. As is often the case with movies that take their inspiration from real-life events, you’ll find the truth lies somewhere between life and Hollywood, and it’s always good to get the whole picture instead of being blindly spoon-fed revisionist history. So, while not 100% accurate to the history books, American Gangster is still a triumph for Scott, Washington, and Crowe. Go watch it.
And don’t do drugs. They’re bad for you!
