Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Ruby Dee, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, John Hawkes, Roger Bart, Carla Gugino, Lymari Nadal, John Ortiz, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Joe Morton, Ted Levine, Armand Assante
Frank Lucas was a Harlem drug lord who broke crime barriers which would be applauded if he didn't deal in heroin. He was ruthless, focused, and creative. As the former driver and right-hand man for Harlem godfather Bumpy Johnson, Frank learned to dress well, stay under the radar, and always think of the next move. When he's chastising his brother over his attire, Frank says, "The loudest person in the room is the weakest," which is advice he should've applied to himself when he attended the first Ali-Frazier fight in a fur coat.
Before then, Frank ran a lucrative operation with insane profit margins because he cut out the middle man. He traveled to Thailand during the Vietnam War and bought directly from a general who ran the local poppy farms. The heroin was shipped to the U.S. using military planes (and later hiding the drugs in the coffins of dead soldiers). Frank then branded the drug "Blue Magic" and sold at lesser prices than his competitors, forcing them out of business, and also keeping the Mafia out of his business. It's capitalism no matter how you slice it. Later, Frank works out a distribution deal with the Mafia where he expands his power. This was unheard of in an Italian mob dominated crime scene.
American Gangster's other story is of Detective Richie Roberts (Crowe), a mostly honest cop who became famous (or infamous) for finding nearly one million dollars in drug money and turning it in. Instead of making him a hero, he becomes a pariah within the department. If Richie doesn't share the wealth, how can cops trust him? Richie, who attends law school at night, soon is hired by the feds to run his own team and take down the New York area drug kingpins. American Gangster doesn't make the mistake of turning Richie into Saint Richie. He has his flaws, including neglecting his wife and son. In one scene, he bails out his partner who killed a junkie by wheeling the dead man out on a gurney, propping his eyes open, and pretending he's still alive. When the partner, who is strung out on heroin, asks Richie to file a false report, that is a bridge too far.
American Gangster is on a collision course between Frank and Richie. In the mix is corrupt Detective Trupo (Brolin), who has no compunction about shaking down Frank for his cut, which turns out to be fatal for his prized Shelby Mustang. Brolin plays Trupo as the embodiment of sleazy corruption, someone both Frank and Richie can despise for their own reasons. Washington and Crowe give us multi-dimensional performances of driven men on different sides of the law. Washington is a charmer when he needs to be, but also someone not to be trifled with, not even by his brothers and cousins he brings up from North Carolina to work for him. Crowe's Richie is charming to the various women he beds, including his divorce lawyer, but otherwise he's a tenacious bulldog tearing little by little at the fabric of Frank's empire.
The movie is nearly 2 3/4 hours but it hums along efficiently and fascinatingly as a dual character study with plenty of violence mixed in. American Gangster is a superior crime film, taking its time to see the full scope of Frank's and Richie's activities. We're never lost or confused, while seeing each character for all of their dimensions, faults, and even their good qualities. When Richie and Frank meet face-to-face, it is a riveting several minutes of Frank trying to pull out all of the stops to unnerve Richie, who stoically stares down Frank and answers each of his attempted manipulations with the same strength which brought them together in the first place. What a gem of a movie.
