How much truth we get in the movie version is hard to say...nobody much cares if it's gospel, as long as it's riveting. Here, alas, it is not.
American Gangster (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:30
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: American Gangster is a gritty and entertaining throwback to classic gangster films, with its lead performers firing on all cylinders.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, pervasive drug content and language, nudity and sexuality.
Runtime: 2 hrs 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 2, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $130,127,620
Synopsis: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster. Nobody used... Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster. Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Oscar® winner Washington), the quiet driver to one of the inner city's leading black crime bosses. But when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city's mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars. Richie Roberts (Oscar® winner Crowe) is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top. Washington (Training Day) and Crowe (Gladiator) lead a spectacular cast of accomplished and rising stars--Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Ted Levine, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, John Hawkes, RZA, Common and T.I.--in this blistering tale of a true American entrepreneur directed by Oscar® nominee Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and produced by Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) and Scott from a screenplay by Academy Award® winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List). -- © Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chjwetel Ejiofor
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Carla Gugino, Ted Levine, John Hawkes, RZA, Ruby Dee, Cuba Gooding, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, Common, T.I.
Director: Ridley Scott
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: Steve Zallian
Producer: Brian Grazer, Ridley Scott
Composer: Marc Streitenfeld
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for American Gangster
For all its grit, style and atmosphere, Gangster never sweeps you away. It has neither the lurid bravado of De Palma's "Scarface" nor the intimate grasp of the criminal lifestyle you find in Scorsese or Coppola.
Washington's steely grip on his impersonation of Frank Lucas holds the film together.
Ridley Scott's listless Big Statement is a wheezy, hot air-inflated dud.
In its title character, the movie has created a murdering, dope-slinging millionaire from the streets that even Denzel Washington has managed to make boring.
American Gangster is an enjoyable double character study, and the movie's length ultimately becomes an advantage.
As with an earlier star who fed off career criminals, Humphrey Bogart, there is always something a bit smarmy about Washington, even in his heroic mode; the nastier his character grows, the looser his acting becomes.
Their ambition is out there. But for all the sprawl, American Gangster feels secondhand. It’s like Scarface drained of blood, at arm’s length from the culture that spawned it.
This is Washington's movie as much as it is Lucas' story, and he is as entertainingly evil here as in his Oscar-winning performance as a bad cop in Training Day.
It takes nerve to call a film American Gangster -- But once you see this finely made and richly satisfying film, you understand it's the only title possible.
It's a much better film than nine-tenths of what's out there on any given Friday, and if you're a fan of steak-and-potatoes crime drama, I highly recommend it.
Every bit as generic as its title, American Gangster is a Frankenstein creature of a film, put together from the parts of other famous gangster flicks yet lacking in both the fury and wild-eyed vision the best of the genre have to offer.
For talent, Scott couldn't start much purer. Washington and Crowe are consummate craftsmen who burrow deep into their characters.
Ridley Scott packs the film with period detail and vivid, violent energy reminiscent of high-grade Scorsese, then mixes in a Lumet-like, keenly observed outrage at systemic corruption.
This is an engrossing story, told smoothly and well, and Russell Crowe's contribution is enormous.
The entire movie is caught between being a work of seriousness and a work of absurdity.
Both he [Washington] and Ruby Dee, as his mother, give Oscar-caliber performances.
Latest News for American Gangster
August 16, 2008:
ByAnyMediaNecessary.com: The equal opportunity bone crunching pits real life black druglord kingpin Lucas (a grinning, scary Denzel) and Crowe's womanizing, eager beaver Jewish NYPD crime buster in an ethnically diverse, cat and mouse go at it. ![]()
More...
August 16, 2008:
ByAnyMediaNecessary.com: The equal opportunity bone crunching pits real life black druglord kingpin Lucas (a grinning, scary Denzel) and Crowe's womanizing, eager beaver Jewish NYPD crime buster in an ethnically diverse, cat and mouse go at it. ![]()
More...
July 07, 2008:
American Gangster Sequel Coming? ![]()
Is Universal filming American Gangster 2 in Puerto Rico? More...
May 06, 2008:
2008 MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced
It's almost time to hand out some golden popcorn -- the nominations for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards have been announced! More...
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