American Gangster

I love watching movies that are “based on a true story”. I’ve always viewed those stories as 3 parts truth and 1 part “Hollywood”. I know that my life would have some exciting ups and downs to it, but my usual day-to-day activities would probably bore you to death. I couldn’t imagine people watching my life unfold on a big screen as I toggle through my fantasy football team or look for new cologne at Macy’s. American Gangster is based on the life of Frank Lucas. Driver turned kingpin who ruled the streets of Harlem for years. Thankfully his life wasn’t as mundane as mine so it made for a much better motion picture.

American Gangster starts as crime boss Bumpy Johnson passes away and Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) vows to get the money back that people owed Bumpy. At a lost to find ways to make money, Lucas comes up with the idea of getting heroin straight from Vietnam and bypassing the middleman. He outsmarts the competition and because the main supplier to the inner-city drug scene in New York City. Lucas becomes a major figure and draws the attention of New Jersey policeman Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe).

The movie does a great job of showing multiple sides of the drug game. You are able to see how the lifestyle affected his wife and his family. The supporting characters did a great job (Cuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky Barnes especially), but Crowe and Denzel basically ran a two man game for the entire film. Both actors are so far beyond talented that it makes the movie work.

After watching the movie I had a ton of questions so I went to my own person history expert, my dad. I asked him how someone was able to make so much money in the 1960’s.

Dad Fact #1
He said that a lot of the soldiers from Vietnam were coming home drug addicted. Some picked up habits while serving overseas and others received morphine to help with the pain of lost appendages, but were not adequately shown how to kick the drug. This means you had a ton of junkies with money coming home from the war.

Dad fact #2
My dad concludes that Vietnam had the best weed and “everyone knew it” He had a friend in the military who would take whole duffle bags full of weed off the plan and nobody ever checked him. Seems crazy, but I guess a lot of that stuff really happened.

Since the American Gangster opened there have been interviews with Bumpy Johnson’s family, officer Ritchie Roberts, Nicky Barnes and even Frank Lucas. There are conflicting reports as to what actually happened and what details were left out or added. What we do know is an amazing story about a man who made choices in life. Life is about the choices you make and he chose to sell drugs. I wonder how different his life would be if he decided to do something else.

My Suggestion: I there was one movie out to see this fall it would be American Gangster. It’s informative, sad, intriguing, cool, and will definitely start a few conversations.

My Grade: 3.5 – Great job. We’ll done, but not sure if you showed enough work.