American Gangster Review
Rabbit Rating: 3.5 out of 5
JDP and I made our way to the local AMC Theatres for a screening of “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe. We had high hopes for this movie as Roger Ebert said it was the best gangster movie he had ever seen. That means better than The Godfather, Goodfella’s, Casino and Scareface. So you can see how there would be some hype surrounding this movie – but to add to that it’s based on the real life story of gangster icon Frank Lucas. Possibly the biggest gangster in the New York crime family – or at least in Harlem for about a 5 years span (1969 – 1973).
Frank Lucas was all about an elegant power that he used to become even bigger than the italian mafia in his day. He gave back to the community by handing out turkey’s on Thanksgiving and knew numerous celebrities – but he also destoryed a community with drug use. At one point he was making close to $1 million a day selling heroin from river to river in New York to New Jersey. He found a way to cut out the middle man and get his drugs directly from the producer. In this case that meant from Thailand and through Vietnam – while the Vietnam war was going on. His heroin was 100% pure and he sold it for half the cost as the heroin being sold on the streets at that time – it was called “Blue Magic.” The dirty money rolled in and it wasn’t just Frank that was that contributing to the drug problems in NYC. Some of the cops and military were in on it too – in fact he paid certain people in the military to import the drugs in dead soldiers caskets.
(Theatrical Trailer)
I found the movie to be pretty interesting but never felt like we were getting anywhere in the storyline. There were a few scenes that I really enjoyed but for a 2 hour and 44 minute movie I wanted more out of it – and it failed to produce any real storyline in the middle part of the movie. They could have probably cut 44 mins of the movie out and it still would have got the point across. It also featured several rappers and musicians. Including; Common, T.I., RZA and Anthony Hamilton. Jay-Z also released a soundtrack based on the movie.
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