At first, Roberts doesn't know that Lucas is the man he's after. Roberts discovers that there is a new brand of heroin coming into Harlem and Newark in the early '70s that's purer and cheaper than most. He assumes, like everyone else, that it's the Italian mob. But little by little, Roberts comes to the realization that Lucas, the driver for the late Harlem kingpin Bumpy Johnson (played by
The Mod Squad's Clarence Williams III), is the man supplying the city with what's known as Blue Magic. Lucas brings in family members he can trust, runs his gang like a corporation and has the smart idea to cut out the middle man. He achieves this by smuggling in the purest heroin he can find directly from Vietnam where U.S. troops are fighting. His stroke of ruthless genius is to use people in the U.S. military to stash the drugs inside the coffins of the dead soldiers being flown back home. Who would be crazy enough to suspect -- let alone search -- those coffins? But Roberts was crazy enough to not only stick with his investigation for years, but to follow through on information and intuition that suggested Lucas was smuggling drugs in those coffins.
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Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas in American Gangster (Universal)
Director Ridley Scott opens the film with a scene of Lucas brutally murdering a man by setting him on fire. So from the very first moment, we know what Lucas is capable of and how casually cruel he could be. But like the men of The Godfather , Lucas had a strong sense of family, a businessman's approach to crime and an undeniable charm. Even the real life Roberts admits to the allure Lucas has for young kids then and now -- he was an African American man who used his brain to not only become wildly successful at what he did, but also even more successful than his white counterparts. But Roberts also sees Lucas for what he really is -- a drug dealer and murderer. And that's something he never loses sight of.
Ridley Scott has scored most successfully in the past with films far removed from the real world whether it's the terror found out in space in Alien ; the dark future noir world of Blade Runner ; or the violent games of ancient Rome in Gladiator . With American Gangster , he delivers a solid, riveting, no-frills portrait of a cop and the mobster hes trying to catch. Set in the late '60s and early '70s, the film captures the period detail with impressive precision. But then Scott is good at detail. Just think of the detail loaded into Blade Runner . In American Gangster, there's a methodical sense of slowly building up evidence. Lucas may be the dynamic core of this film, but Roberts sets the deliberate, dogged tone. This is not a fast-paced, shoot 'em up cop action film, but rather an engrossing drama about the long hours and hard work that go into catching a criminal. The film clocks in at over two hours, but I never felt it lag in the way that the recent Reservation Road and Rendition did.
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Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts (Universal)
I've always been a fan of mob and crime films, and American Gangster focuses on a fascinating criminal in Lucas. His business innovation in the drug world was amazing. There's a perversely funny scene where Lucas is outraged because a rival degrades the brand name of Blue Magic by putting out a lesser product under the same name. With the protectiveness of a Coke or Pepsi, Lucas comes after his competitor without mercy. But in the crime world, brand names aren't protected by high priced lawyers -- but with muscle. Lucas builds an empire, buying buildings, putting money in off-shore accounts and making smart investments. His encounters with both the mob and the cops (both crooked and honest ones) are great to watch as we can see him calculating just how he's going to out maneuver each.
Washington doesn't dive into this change of pace role with quite the same gusto as he did in Training Day . But he has fun creating this slick, smart, slippery man who manages to mix brutal criminality with an odd sense of family values. Washington's Lucas is as different from the crooks around him as Crowe's honest cop is different from the corruption that surrounds him. Crowe's Roberts doesn't have Lucas' slick exterior and charm, but he has the intelligence to square off with him. The two actors don't have a scene together until the end, but it's worth the wait.
American Gangster (rated R for violence, pervasive drug content and language, nudity and sexuality) may not be great art, but it's impressive genre entertainment featuring a compelling true story at its core. Plus, Washington and Crowe get to play roles that are essentially against type.
Read Mark Jacobson's New York Magazine article on which the film was based, The Return of Super Fly , and a New York Times article on the friendship that developed between Lucas and Roberts.
You can listen to our Film Club discussion of American Gangster.
Companion viewing: The Godfather, Training Day, Gladiator, Serpico, Prince of the City
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