"American Gangster" Movie Review

"American Gangster", while jammed packed with talent and money, drags on a little longer than a viewer likes to sit through. The story of a 1970's drug lord, Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington, is a classic American tale of rags to riches. Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, the hero of the movie as the New Jersey cop that brought Lucas's expansive drug ring down. While the story is captivating and true, the depiction is not as riveting as it is hyped up to be.

Frank Lucas grew up poor in the South but his tale lands him in New York in 1970 and being one of the biggest drug lords at the time. His heroin ring stretched to Vietnam where his product was being shipped in the coffins of soldiers on their way back. Roberts is a cop from New Jersey that believes in honesty, and eventually exploits Lucas's drug ring. Lucas is just a proper businessman getting his share of money by running a well-organized operation. He buys his family everything they never had growing up. This is an example of the old American tale with a classic twist. The plot is invigorating but the attention spent on some parts seemed too drawn out.

Roberts is an honest cop from New Jersey. They spend a lot of time explaining his honesty by starting with a scene where Roberts and his partner find $100,000 unmarked dollars and they turn it in. This is a running joke throughout the movie, but also a pointless addition to the plot because the character explains his honesty with other conversations and actions. Russell does an excellent job portraying the cop, but the sub-plot to his character with his custody battle is irrelevant to the plot as a whole. It is supposed to shed light and explain to the audience that even though Roberts is honest in his police work, he is not honest with himself or his family about personal choices and how much his son matters to him. It is supposed to complicate his character and make him more dimensional but just adds minutes to the lengthy movie. It also cuts up the flow of the main story and takes away from the overall gangster feel of the film.

Roberts first notices Lucas because of the chinchilla fur coat that Lucas wore at a boxing ring, but does not question why a black man at the time owned one of the hottest nightclubs in New York. That seems a little far-fetched to believe. This detail is also a few extra minutes in a couple of scenes where they could have been left on the cutting room floor.

The Italian mafia plays an important and influential role, but could have been paid less attention. Lucas and his ring were bigger and more organized than the Italians were at the time. This is an important fact to know, but there were countless times when these men were not connected to Lucas yet were discussed and watched at length in the movie. Everyone knows that the Italian mafia existed back then, so in the beginning when the details were not that important they could have been left out to get to details that were more important. They seemed to get in the way of the bigger minor details hidden in the movie.

Lucas's passion and determination are greatly explored through Washington's performance. He smiles so warmly to people as he passes them by and in the next minute, he shoots a man in the head at point blank range. Seeing this allows you to realize the kind of soulless man Lucas was. With all his hard efforts like going to Vietnam twice himself to get heroin, it is a disappointing end to learn he sells other drug lords out. It seems very unlike his character and takes away from the title "American Gangster". This seems very different from the struggling, workaholic depicted on the screen for two hours. Lucas seemed like the man to fight for what he believed in, not the man to rat everyone else out just to help himself.

"American Gangster" while very provocative and captivating, held viewers captivated for too long. With useless details and bad sub-plots, the film lost some of its momentum and grip. The ending did not support Lucas as a character but undermined all of his hard work the film set him out to do. With excellent acting, and lots of money "American Gangster" falls short of being an American classic.