American Gangster Review

We rented American Gangster mostly because my husband wanted to see it.  I was afraid it would be real bloody.  I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of blood and guts in this movie!  There was some, but very little of it.

The plot is actually quite simple.  Frank Lucas grew up learning the gangster ways through his mentor, Bumpy.  When Bumpy dies, Frank decides to take over the lead role in their drug selling throughout Manhattan.  Frank basically cuts out the middle man and gets the drugs directly from the source in South East Asia, making it so he can sell the drugs cheaper than anyone else.  Other gangsters and drug pushers aren't quite happy about that! 

At the same time, policeman Richie Roberts is out to bring down whoever is bringing the drugs into Manhattan.  He quickly learns that he is quite alone in this effort as many of the other policeman are either corrupt, or too scared, to go after the big guys in Heroin.  Richie does what is right even from the start when he turns in $1 million in unmarked bills that he found.  Who would ever turn in $1 million in unmarked bills?  Only the most honest cop you'll ever meet.

Richie is determined to bring down the gangster and squash the entire drug business, but is this possible?  Will he ever learn who is behind it all?  And can he prove any of this?  You'll have to see!

My Thoughts
This was based on a true story and at the end they tell you some facts about what happened to all the characters.  That made this a movie worth watching.  I'm sure they exaggerated some of it for the big screen, but otherwise I've looked up some news stories and a lot of this seems to be very close to Frank's real life. 

Frank, played by Denzel Washington, is actually quite a likable guy.  It's not often that you like the bad guy!  I think this goes to show that he may not be a bad person, he was just raised in a bad atmosphere that turned him into what he was.  Frank was just trying to make a living like anyone else, except that often meant risking lives of others.  Denzel did an outstanding job as you end up liking him, but you'll still want him to go down.

Russell Crowe was fun to watch as the honest cop.  He had many opportunities to turn to the dark side with the other cops, or to give up on his massive drug bust and stick to other criminals.  Instead he always kept in pursuit, determined to get his man!  He did not want to just arrest druggies, he wanted to arrest the person providing them, and he wasn't going to stop until he had this person captured.  You'll have to see if he ever does get him!

The movie is not bloody, as mentioned above.  Instead it is more of a talker with some action thrown in.  This makes it so it's a drama where you get to learn a lot about the characters and the different things they went through in life.  This isn't just a hunt-em, chase-em, arrest-em type of movie but instead it is a thinker as you learn all the different things that went on in the drug world in the 1970s.  This also meant it was very interesting and not just an action packed movie.

For comparison, I think The GodFather is incredibly boring every-time I catch my husband watching it.  All they seem to do is talk!  Yet this movie has just enough talking and just enough action to make it exciting for me.   My husband compared this movie to Scarface which I have yet to see all the way through.

Rent American Gangster and watch it with adults only.  It is an interesting "documentary" on the life of Frank Lucas.  I was on the fence between 4 and 5 stars, but concluded there is absolutely nothing I could complain about.  It's a solid film.  Enjoy!!