I sit back and think of why someone would say that this movie was slow in the beginning or that the last few minuets of the movie were not needed. I believe that every part of the movie was significant to first lead up to how certain characters ended up being who they are.
American Gangster is a story about Frank Lucas one of the most powerful and feared New York crime bosses between the 1960's and the 1970's. In New York he was even more powerful than the mafia. During that time Lucas reportedly amassed a fortune of more than $52 million in less than a decade taking advantage of the rise of heroin in the crime stricken New York area.
It was said that Frank Lucas ruled with an iron hand and kept his people in fear in order to make them do what he wanted them to do. Denzel Washington definitely portrayed the iron hand of Frank Lucas. He showed how far he was willing to go in order to keep his streets profitable and in his control.
The story starts out with Frank Lusas (Denzel) as the driver of another drug boss who passed the rings over to Frank Lucas in real life after he died. To Frank this man was like his father. He taught him everything that he needed to know in order to maintain the business when he left. After his mentor dies he begins to contemplate how he could continue the business how he was going to collect all the bad debt that other crime figures owed his old boss. While in this phase he thinks of a way to purchase his drug of choice from an outside source instead of buying from the mafia. He put together a network that would fly pure heroin into New York; he would cut it up and distribute it to separate districts of New York for distribution. He also supplied other connections to ship his product to other parts of the United States. All the while a detective named Ritchie Roberts played by Russell Crowe finds that a lot of people are overdosing on Franks product and is assigned to a unit who's sole purpose is to bring down major drug bosses. Frank is at that point put in the cross heirs of Ritchie Roberts.
This was a powerful movie that had me thinking of how Frank could have been a rich man in his own right if he did not have a lethal drug as his product. Russell Crowe also plays a very convincing determined cop that finally finds out who Frank was and tracks down his whole network to bus Frank. This is not a kid's movie. I would not recommend taking any children or teenagers to see this movie. This is strictly an adult movie with adult themes. But it is a must see.
