Combine Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, and Ridley Scott and you get cinema magic. American Gangster is a film about the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a heroin kingpin in the seventies who is getting his special breed of heroin from the far east, smuggled via united states military. Because he has illiminated the middle man, Frank has a superior quality drug and a cheaper price. He gets big enough that the New York mafia even swears an allegiance with him, but nonetheless he manages to stay off the radar of the police. For a time. That is until Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), who seems to be the only honest cop left, begins heading the narcotics team created to take down Blue Magic and it’s leader. 

Ridley Scott took us back into a time when drug dealers were smooth and classy citizens and the cops were low down dirty criminals trying to get their piece of the pie. Frank Lucas was portrayed as almost a Robin Hood of Harlem. On thanksgiving he tosses turkey’s from a truck to the citizens. It’s no mystery that while Scott wants the viewer to cheer for Roberts, the real hero of the story is Lucas, who is less of a drug lord and more of a businessman. That is when he’s not shooting people in their faces or setting them on fire. 

The film focuses less on the drugs and more on the business aspect of the crime. The movie is interesting because you have powerhouse actors like Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe leading the way, not to mention strong supporting roles like Josh Brolin as a corrupt NYPD officer. Cameo’s by Common playing one of Lucas’s brothers and Cuba Gooding Jr. as a jive talking rival dealer color up the screen even more. The superior acting of this film matched with first rate direction and an intricate script and story make for two and a half hours of entertainment. 

The affects heroin had on this time is simply an afterthought, along with the vietnam war in the background. This movie is not about social awareness, nor is about the pain and sorrow the drug business causes in peoples lives. It was a glorified story about the rise of an African American drug lord, ruling the roads usually ran by Italians. It was about the rise, not the fall or thereafter, and that made rooting for the bad guy interesting once again. American Gangster gets three and a half out of four stars.

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