“My man.”
Who would’ve thought that a chinchilla coat would’ve been what led to the downfall of one of Harlem’s biggest kingpins, but that was the case. Frank Lucas was satisfied to keep a low profile until that fateful day and he came to the attention of the law and the dedicated officer who would make sure that Frank got caught.
Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) was the driver and bodyguard of Harlem kingpin Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III) until Bumpy dropped dead of a heart attack in 1968. With the demise of Bumpy the gangland leadership of Harlem was left vacant.
Lucas decides to get into the heroin trade, but instead of going through the usual channels he goes to his cousin who is serving in Vietnam to cut out the middleman. He gets a product that’s so pure that its strength is killing junkies left and right because they’re used to shooting the diluted product.
Since his product is so pure, he also starts making money hand over fist and Frank brings in his brothers, including Huey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), to help him distribute it in New York. Jersey cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is a detective so pure that when he finds a car with a trunkful of cash totaling one million that he turns it in. His honesty is noticed by both dishonest and honest cops – his chief, Lou Toback (Ted Levine) assigns him to head up a new narcotics unit because of this honesty.
Dirty New York cop Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin) isn’t so pure and isn’t happy to not be getting his cut of Frank’s wealth and starts tailing Frank looking for a way to line his own pockets. Frank isn’t one to bring much attention to himself, but at the Frazier-Ali fight he wears the new chinchilla coat that his wife Eva (Lymari Nadel) has bought him and Richie wonders who the well dressed fellow mob boss Dominic Cattano (Armand Assante) keeps talking to.
So Frank comes to the attention of the cop interested in busting up the drug ring and in a way his fate is sealed. However, the pursued and the pursuer form a strange bond that will lead to an unlikely friendship.
Frank Lucas was the real deal and this film is inspired by a true story (profiled in a New York magazine article entitled “The Return of Superfly”). If some chinchillas hadn’t have been sacrificed for a coat then Frank might’ve been able to keep himself hidden for a time longer.
When Detective Roberts started looking to shut down the drug trade Frank Lucas wasn’t even on his board of suspects until that fateful fight and photo. In fact nobody knew who the hell he was and Roberts had to dig to find out who he was since the Mafia was considered the usual suspects.
It was Roberts dogged pursuit that would put Frank behind bars and ironically Robert’s later defense of the charismatic Frank that would get his sentence reduced to 15 years (and Roberts would even be the godfather to Lucas’ youngest son). Denzel Washington plays against type as Frank but has a great stature as the businessman-like drug dealer who appears to be an investment banker when compared to the other gaudy drug dealers of the film.
Russell Crowe is also excellent as his pursuer in a role where the two rivals never share the screen till near the end of the picture. Ruby Dee has a powerful scene in the middle of the film that clenched her an Oscar nomination.
Josh Brolin also plays against type and is very good in the smarmy, villainous crooked cop role. It’s just an excellent film that takes a more realistic and less over-the-top look at ground that Brian De Palma explored in Scarface and will find a high place in the pantheon of gangster films.
American Gangster is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Two versions of the film are on disc one, a 158-minute theatrical cut and a 177-minute unrated extended cut.
I’d hazard to call the extended cut a director’s cut since I really didn’t see too much more gore or nudity that you might expect for the “unrated” moniker. It’s more character bits such as some more footage of Bumpy, a bit where Roberts hijacks a cab to pursue his “borrowed” dope money, and an extended ending (that feels a bit tacked on).
Special features on disc one include a commentary with director Ridley Scott and writer Steven Zaillian (on the theatrical cut). Disc two has 3 minutes of deleted scenes that really don’t add up to much but still don’t make it into the extended version. The 78 minute “Fallen Empire” is a great making of feature that features some footage of the real Frank and Richie on the set of the movie!
The 25 minute “Case Files” are also a collection of behind-the-scenes segments, including a script meeting.
American Gangster is a grand character study and features some top-notch performances from the leads and the supporting players. Ridley Scott does it again in my opinion and adds another spectacular film to his resume.
It’s nice to see the extended cut, but I preferred the theatrical cut and the special features add more depth to the film (such as seeing the real people the characters are based on).
American Gangster (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 10th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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