American Gangster

She Said:

American Gangster opens and closes with the same imagery--a large steel door opening or closing. This door leads us into the life of Frank Lucas, and then at the end opens to let Frank Lucas back into the word while leading us out. He served his time--is his slate wiped clean? Will that same story repeat it self once he is released from jail?

For those of us who know its a true story and look things up on the internet--we know what will happen. But the film does not go there--it lets you decide what YOU want Franks life to end up as.

Frank Lucas, as played by Denzel Washington, is a cool, down to earth, intelligent gangster. His calm demeanor and non-threatening appearance makes him different than any other gangster or black man in Harlem during this time period in the film. Denzel is EXCELLENT as always and I believe he IS Frank Lucas. As for Russell Crow's character, whose time on screen was equal or more than Denzel's, Richie Roberts was a "honest" cop who is really trying to connect with the audience. I thought Russell Crow did a pretty good job acting, but I certainly did not connect with his character and I am one extremely empathetic film viewer. As for Josh Brolin (who I didn't even know was in it) he was scary and hot and sexy at the same time per usual.

This was a good movie, not a fantastic movie, but a good one. It was pushing 3 hours, but I bet the original cut was much longer--they pushed A LOT of information and characters and plot development into those 2 hours and 45 minutes. The BEST part in my opinion of those minutes were the shots and scenes of the drug addicts who were addicted to Frank Lucas' product, Blue Magic. Being a gangster and doing drugs seems so glamorous in most movies. We see Frank Lucas and his multi-million dollar dynasty--and the next SHOT we see is the junkies who are buying this 100 % pure heroin product, becoming addicted and OD'ing. We see the injections, we see the dead bodies, we see the blood and bodily fluids that come out of their bodies. It was pretty intense.

We also get some pretty graphic violence, mainly shootings. There isn't much sex, but there are naked ladies chopping up the heroin. This is not really a couples movie, unless the girl doesn't mind strong violence and drug use--there is not much BLATANT degradation of women so that is always good.





He said:



I thought this movie was really good. I guess I was expecting it to be great but I wouldn't say it disappointed me at all. Denzel played Frank Lucas, an innovative, intelligent and hardened gangster. I too did not connect with Russell Crowe's character. There was just something about him that didn't make him that appealing. Now to sum up the movie without spoiling it for you. It was based on a true story about Frank Lucas, who became the biggest heroin dealer in New York and maybe the U.S. in the late 60s-early 70s. We see him rise to the top and then see it all topple down in an instant. The movie had some pretty graphic drug-use scenes and some graphic violence as well. I don't think it really pushed the limit though (not saying it should have either). Denzel pulled off another stellar performance and though it ran fairly long, it got the job done, at least in my eyes. I would recommend you see this movie, maybe not on a date but at least when it comes out on DVD.