American gangster

Review Summary


Greatness hovers just outside “American Gangster,” knocking, angling to be let in. Based in rough outline on the flashy rise and fall of a powerful 1970s New York drug lord, Frank Lucas, the film has been built for importance, with a brand-name director, Ridley Scott, and two major stars, Denzel Washington as Lucas, and Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts, the New Jersey cop who brings him down. It’s a seductive package, crammed with all the on-screen and off-screen talent that big-studio money can buy, and filled with old soul and remixed funk that evoke the city back in the day, when heroin turned poor streets white and sometimes red. Like many moviemakers (and watchers), Mr. Scott loves his bad guy too much. And by turning Lucas into a figure who seduces instead of repels, an object of directorial fetishism and a token of black resistance, however hollow, he encourages us to submit as well. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Acting Credits

Denzel Washington - Frank Lucas
Russell Crowe - Detective Richie Roberts
Josh Brolin - Detective Trupo
Common - Turner Lucas


Production Credits

Director - Ridley Scott
Screenplay - Steven Zaillian
Source Material - Mark Jacobson
Co-Producer - Jonathan Filley





Eng subtitle
Vie subtitle