"American Gangster" tells the story of a heroin dealer named Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who inherits a crime empire from his famous boss Bumpy Johnson.

Rating: 8/10 (16 November 2007)

"American Gangster" tells the story of a heroin dealer named Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) who inherits a crime empire from his famous boss Bumpy Johnson. He is smooth and very friendly on the outside, yet adhering to ruthless business tactics on the inside.
The movie deals with Lucas doing it all and doing it very well indeed. The New York drug trade is covered completely by him as he sells his stuff at higher purity and lower cost than anyone else. He manages to get in the drugs inside the coffins of American casualties, which is apparently based on fact. It's all very interesting how he turns the business practises around.
Lucas is not the quintessential gangster and sports absolutely no rings on his fingers, no scantily clad women lounging in his pad and loud cars. Nope, he is the quiet demure businessman with a very low key approach. He is even married. And all that makes it very difficult for the authorities to figure out who he is.
Lucas's stubborn antagonist is a police detective named Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe). He does a very bad thing that gets him on the bad side of the rest of the officers in his police department. He finds $1 million in drug money and turns it in. The rest of the boys in blue are mad as hell because they expected it to be shared out.
Roberts doggedly pursues Lucas while maintaining his ethical standards. He carefully builds up his case against Lucas ensuring an airtight offencive. He vows to bring down Frank Lucas and succeeds. When Lucas is caught he is worth more than $150 million but manages to reduce his sentence by cutting a deal to expose three-quarters of the NYPD narcotics officers as corrupt.
Nobody especially the police like what is going on. It's not good for their living. They all get into Roberts's way.
This is a deeply engrossing story that flows very smoothly and develops the characters accordingly. It's a smart movie, with lengthy but interesting dialogues that tell you a story like a story should be told.