American Gangster: Great Movie

American Gangster (AG) is a biopic of sorts about Frank Lucas the notorious heroin dealer in NYC in the late 60's early 70's. its been said that at his height Lucas made a million dollars a day in the drug trade. AG was a great movie, it was full of great dialogue and contained plenty of action. You cant condone Lucas' actions he was a drug dealer and he was a criminal. But you cant knock his business sense either making a million dollars a day takes initiative. He bucked the current system of purchasing his supply through middle man and went straight to the source for his heroin. Then he turned around and sold it cheaper than his competition while making more money on it than his competition did.

I cant decide how I feel about the character of Ritchie Roberts portrayed by Russell Crowe. In some ways I feel that the character is underdeveloped and as such it makes me question the amount of screen time that Crowe is given. Alot of Robert's time on screen is spent dealing with his personal life separate from how it affects his chase of Lucas. In many ways the dichotomy of these two characters reminds me of the relationship between Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in Heat. In both films you have very strong actors all leading men in their own right but confined to stories where there is only on leading character and possibly not enough meat for both to eat on artistically. In both instances we are treated to large parts of the secondary lead's private life that has nothing to do with the real movie. In the end to bring them together both movies use a scene a diner in Heat and prison conference room in AG to put two strong actors together and let them work. It comes out well in both. Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington are two of the best actors of their generation.

Roberts is a funny copy in the juxtaposition of the rest of the movie. He is blacklisted by his Department because he was honest and turned 100K without taking any. Because of this no one will work with him, but this leads to him being the choice to be the guy to go after Lucas. He is honest but he isn't at least not in other facets of his life. He is about as dishonest as Lucas is honest, and Lucas is a totally bad person he has some good intentions, but some very questionable practices. In the end Lucas was a thief, killer, and a dealer. But his life is an interesting story. And even when you know that Lucas is living the embodiment of evil toward his people and his time period you still find yourself rooting for him in his struggle with dirty cops and the Italian Mafia.

check out more frank lucas @ http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/3649/