A shocking time - a brilliant movie!

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2007)

Gosh, what a movie! At first, I have to say that I'm totally into that kind of flicks, they are my favorite, I guess. And American Gangster is even by now one of the faves out of my favorite kind of movies. The story is brilliant. The acting is brilliant. The atmosphere is brilliant. Shocking one time, dirty another and again another funny. Ridley Scott coped fantastically with the challenge of making a realistic, depressing film, depicting the situation New York had to deal with in the 70's: corrupt cops, drug dealers on the rise, organized crime. On top of all this Frank Lucas, the first black drug-lord this country has ever seen, making millions with imported heroin from South-East Asia. On the other side, respectively on the bottom of the hierarchical order: Richie Roberts, a righteous do-gooder, a cop so just that his colleagues hate him. Roberts and Lucas are enemies, opponents. Though they are not seen on screen together before the last twenty minutes of the film, their stories are shown parallel, which adds much to the atmosphere I liked for example in "The Departed" so much. The story lines are so gripping, yet different that it is hard to keep your eyes away from the screen. My recommendation: go to the toilet at least twice before watching this 2-hours-37-minutes-blockbuster, so you won't have to miss one second. Ten out of ten. Chapeau, Mr. Scott!