Live by Night finds Ben Affleck taking on Cagneyera gangster movies Peter Travers on why this overambitious homage should have been a miniseries. American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on. Rupinder%20Gandhi%20the%20Gangster%20%202015%20Hd%20Rip.jpg' alt='Gangster Full Movie' title='Gangster Full Movie' />As far as beloved family Christmas movies go, Angels with Filthy Souls is an unlikely one a gritty, noirish gangster flick in which a crowvoiced curmudgeon abruptly. Share this Rating. Title American Gangster 2007 7. Want to share IMDbs rating on your own site Use the HTML below. American Gangster Movie Review 2. Watch Turtles Can Fly Online Facebook. Apart from the detail that he was a heroin dealer, Frank Lucas career would be an ideal case study for a business school. Watch Criminal Streaming. American Gangster tells his success story. Inheriting a crime empire from his famous boss Bumpy Johnson, he cornered the New York drug trade with admirable capitalist strategies. He personally flew to Southeast Asia to buy his product directly from the suppliers, used an ingenious importing scheme to get it into the United States, and sold it at higher purity and lower cost than anyone else was able to. At the end, he was worth more than 1. Gangster Full Movie IndianGangster Full Movie 2016NYPD narcotics officers as corrupt. And he always took his mom to church on Sunday. Advertisement. Lucas is played by Denzel Washington in another one of those performances where he is affable and smooth on the outside, yet ruthless enough to set an enemy on fire. Heres a detail As the man goes up in flames, Frank shoots him to put him out of his agony. Now thats merciful. His stubborn antagonist in the picture is a police detective named Richie Roberts Russell Crowe, who gets a very bad reputation in the department. How does he do that By finding 1 million in drug money and turning it in. What the hell kind of a thing is that to do, when the usual practice would be to share it with the boys There is something inside Roberts that will not bend, not even when his powerful colleague Josh Brolin threatens him. He vows to bring down Frank Lucas, and he does, although it isnt easy, and his most troubling opposition comes from within the police. Lucas, the student of the late Bumpy, has a simple credo Treat people right, keep a low profile, adhere to sound business practices and hand out turkeys on Thanksgiving. He can trust the people who work for him because he pays them very well and many of them are his relatives. In the movie, at least, Lucas is low key and soft spoken. No rings on his fingers, no gold around his neck, no spinners on his hubcaps, with a quiet marriage to a sweet wife and a Brooks Brothers image. It takes the authorities the longest time to figure out who he is, because they cant believe an African American could hijack the Harlem drug trade from the Mafia. The Mafia cant believe it, either, but Frank not only pulls it off, but is still alive at the end. When it was first announced, Ridley Scotts film was inevitably called The Black Godfather. Not really. For one thing, it tells two parallel stories, not one, and it really has to, because without Roberts, there would be no story to tell, and Lucas might still be in business. Advertisement. But that doesnt save us from a stock female character who is becoming increasingly tiresome in the movies, the wife Carla Gugino who wants Roberts to choose between his job and his family. Bonanza Collection Complete Season 1-14'>Bonanza Collection Complete Season 1-14. Their obligatory scenes together are recycled from a dozen or a hundred other plots, and although we sympathize with her will they all be targeted for assassination, we grow restless during her complaints. Roberts domestic crisis is not what the movie is about. It is about an extraordinary entrepreneur whose story was told in a New York magazine article by Mark Jacobson. As adapted into a somewhat fictionalized screenplay by Steve Zaillian Schindlers List, Lucas is a loyal driver, bodyguard and coat holder for Bumpy Johnson who has inspired characters in three other movies, including The Cotton Club. He listens carefully to Johnsons advice, cradles him when he is dying, then takes over and realizes the fatal flaw in the Harlem drug business The goods come in through the Mafia, after having been stepped on all along the way. So he flies to Thailand, goes upriver for a face to face with the general in charge of drugs, and is rewarded for this seemingly foolhardy risk with an exclusive contract. The drugs will come to the United States inside the coffins of American casualties, which is apparently based on fact. Its all arranged by one of his relatives. In terms of his visible lifestyle, the story of Frank Lucas might as well be the story of J. C. Penney, except that he hands out turkeys instead of pennies. Everyone in his distribution chain is reasonably happy, because the product is high quality, the price is right, and theres money for everyone. Ironically, an epidemic of overdoses occurs when Lucas high grade stuff is treated by junkies as if its the usual weaker street strength. Then Lucas starts practicing what marketing experts call branding It becomes known that his Blue Magic offers twice the potency at half the price, and other suppliers are forced off the streets by the rules of the marketplace, not turf wars. This is an engrossing story, told smoothly and well, and Russell Crowes contribution is enormous its not his fault his wife complains. Looking like a care worn bulldog, his Richie Roberts studies for a law degree, remains inviolate in his ethical standards and just keeps plugging away, building his case. The film ends not with a Scarface style shootout, but with Frank and Richie sitting down for a long, intelligent conversation, written by Zaillian to show two smart men who both know the score. As I hinted above less The Godfather than Wall Street, although for that matter a movie named American Gangster could have been made about Kenneth Lay.