American Gangster bash!

Now how many of these types of action-drama, based on a real life story, films have we seen recently. I’m sure we are all familiar with Johnny Depp, and his memorable role of George Jung in the film “Blow”, further on, it is Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in “The Departed”, and of course, our favorite con artist Leonardo Di Caprio as Frank Abignale Jr in the film “Catch Me If You Can”.

American Gangster is a Story about the most notorious dealer in the history of America, Frank Lucas. According to Sterling Johnson, the federal judge of Lucas’s prosecution, Frank is:

One of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside of US and then sold the narcotics himself in the street.

Frank Lucas, played by Densel Washington in “American Gangster” is born in 1930, in North Carolina, but was born as a heroin dealer in Harlem, NY in the late sixties. Frank Lucas was known for cutting off the middlemen, hence he handled everything on his own. He transported kilos of heroin from Southeast Asia in the coffins of dead servicemen from Vietnam, and brought them down to the streets of NY. Particularly, 116W street.

Some might say, American Gangster is preparing for an Oscar. I say, its just another movie, just another story, about a man’s rise and fall as a drug lord. We’ve seen it before, its been done. What is it about this film that is different from the others?

Brian Grazer, the producer of this film, is definitely engrossed about Frank Lucas’s life story. He believes in this film, as well as he sees Frank Lucas as a being, and according to Grazer; “that being is defining a culture or a world.” Grazer and the director Ridley Scott have their visions of this man’s life, and are tempted to capture the most out of Lucas’s world, using wide and long camera shots, that depict the remarkable aspect of this man, and of creating his world in the dark streets of NY in the seventies.

Frank Lucas worked for Harlem’s most famous gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson. He’d drive downtown to the 57th St Diner; waiting by the car while his boss ate breakfast with Frank Costello. “I stayed outside”, Frank remembers, “just another guy with a bulge in my pocket”

Russell Crowe is the act of Richie Roberts, the detective who was determined to stop Frank Lucas, and had brought the wonderful game of cat and mouse being played into this film as the two main characters develop their true characteristics throughout the film. Mr. Roberts is fighting with himself as well as trying to better his important relationships with his immediate family, but instead Frank Lucas eludes him to believe that his most important relationship is between them two.

Ridley Scott, the director of all time favorites “Bladerunner”, follows this story well. He depicts his locations to best capture time frames in the seventies, by creating a world through the usage of wide shots to express the depth of the drug business in NY.
Even so, does American Gangster come close to a film such as “Goodfellas”?