Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the quiet driver to one of the inner city's leading black crime bosses. But when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream in the Harlem of the 1970s. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city's mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars.
Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top.
Special Agent Matti
Uh... hmmm... ok. Like any film about a real criminal and a real cop you will find with American gangster that the tension is somewhat lacking. The cop always gets the criminal (otherwise you wouldn't know half the story) so the only way to make the film interesting is to make the chase as complicated and challenging as possible. Two-and-a-half hours later the cop has finally caught his man; that's just too long to watch some police dude chase some crim dude. Even Border Patrol doesn't go that long.
The Frank Lucas biography movie American gangster is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington.
MA 15+ (Strong violence, strong drug use)
156 minutes (2:36 hours)
Film: 10 January 2008
