American Gangster

Was a really good movie
I think it was a must see.


The Story
Denzel Washington portrays Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem who smuggled the drug into the country in American service planes returning from the Vietnam War. Crowe portrays Richie Roberts, a detective who brings down Lucas' drug empire

The Cast

• Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas
• Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts
• Josh Brolin as Det. Trupo^[3]
• Cuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky Barnes^[4]
• Lymari Nadal as Eva Kendall-Lucas
• Ruby Dee as Mama Lucas
• Armand Assante as Dominic, a top Italian mobster
• Common as Turner Lucas, the brother of Frank Lucas^[5]
• Clifford Harris (T.I.) as Stevie Lucas, nephew of Frank Lucas^[5]
• Anthony Hamilton as a singer^[6]
• Robert Diggs (RZA) as Jones^[5]
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Huey Lucas^[7]
• Ted Levine as Toback^[7]
• John Ortiz as Javy Rivera^[7]
• Yul Vazquez as Detective Alphonse Abruzzo^[7]
• KaDee Strickland as Sheila Dickerson, Richie Roberts's lawyer^[8]
• Idris Elba as Tango Black
• Clarence Williams III as Ellsworth Johnson

Everybody in the roles they are given is relevant, true to form and I think Brilliant.


Performances
I'll go into more depth later on but these impressions stayed with me...

Josh Brolin really for the first time impressed me as an actor.
Cuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky Barnes was amazing.
The lovely Ruby Dee was as usual, splendidly Ruby.
Denzel, although he tried not to glorify the character of Frank, he may as well have because I and the audience loved Frank Lucas regardless of what he was about, after that performance (I will talk about Denzel's performance and all the nuances later when I am not so tired).

Russel Crowe played his part well.
You didn't love him but you liked him enough not to despise him.

Chewitel Ejiofor was lovely and underutilized in this film, but his enthusiasm as Huey the North Caroline Brother of Frank Lucas, making the 'big time', really moved me.

I have more to say about the other actors including Common, TI and Armand Assante who I haven't seen in a long time but added so much to this movie in his role...


The social and cultural aspects of this film will move anybody. At the end the audience cheered. It was a fairly long movie, but it was worth it.

More later.....
I am tired