American Gangster - A review

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2010)

To summarize this movie in a few words would be impossible. This movie breaches the movie making industry in a way that no other movie has ever done before. To follow fact and make fact is very hard for many directors but Ridley Scott has done it again. Amazing character roles by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe show that Hollywood just isn't Sex, Money and Press.
Portrayed in this movie is the life of a Harlem drug lord by the name of Frank Lucas. It shows his life as a right hand man and a man of power. What sets Frank Lucas apart from other drug lords is his transparent honesty. To offer better heroin to the streets of Harlem and still looking to make money he goes and buys direct from a source in Southeast Asia in the jungles of Vietnam.
In his struggle to power many businesses are destroyed most of them owned by the Italian Mafia. The Mafia's motto being, "Never Forgive and never forget" never forgot what Frank Lucas did to them. His product Blue magic destroyed the streets of Harlem, leaving thousands dead but the demand of his product grew.
On the other side of the bridge a small cop by the name of Richie Roberts tries to make ends meet with bar exams on his plate and the divorce from his wife who is going to take his kid away. He and his partner find a million dollars in the trunk of an abandoned car and instead of keeping it like another cop would have done and his partner insisted Richie turned the money in. This display of honesty goes to the Federal Narcotics Bureau and Richie gets the permission to form his own narcotics squad with only people that "wouldn't take a nickel off of the sidewalk."
As Frank grows more powerful Richie's investigation into the drug trafficking business grows bigger. At the boxing match of the century with Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, Frank Lucas gives himself away to Richie Roberts by wearing a a mink coat. Discovered to Richie Roberts his investigation into the drug underworld expands.
Though this review may contain many spoilers you can end the movie for yourself by watching it.
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