Having watched the trailer, I got the impression that Denzel Washington was going to play another bad ass comparable to his psycho cop character in Training Day.
That's true to some extent, but Washington portraying the real life Frank Lucas, a Harlem crime boss from the Seventies, is more of a refined, GQ killer. Like a fart, he's silent but deadly.
Without so much as blinking an eye, Lucas ignites a gasoline-soaked victim and unhesitatingly puts a few bullets in the head of another who owes him 20% on a drug deal. But, hey, great suits and lavish digs make up for a lot of sins.
A former driver for a mob boss who's died, Frank, adhering to the same code of conduct as his beloved mentor [Linc from the original Mod Squad], becomes enormously successful. Even more so.
Until he makes one little fuck-up, Lucas' motto is never draw attention to yourself. And he goes about raking in millions off welfare recipients with a lucrative deal he's secured in Thailand. By playing Santa Claus and selling coke on the cheap and transporting it in the coffins of dead Vietnam G.I.'s, Frank has branded his product on the street much like Pepsi Cola in the can.
With his burgeoning largesse, Frank takes care of his sharecropper family and brings his brothers up to the Big Apple as distributors. But when one of the siblings adopts a bling attitude and corresponding manner of dress, Frank has to set him straight.
Listening to his own advice, Lucas has managed to fly well under the radar until his Miss Puerto Rico girlfriend gives him- what else? A gaudy super fly coat and matching hat as a present.
Ill advisedly, Frank sports this garish ensemble to the Ali-Frazier fight in Madison Square Garden. Dumb move. Russell Crowe as the womanizing, weight lifting New Jersey cop who stumbles across $1 million in cash and, consequently, the tip of a drug iceberg, has put a tail on some nasty assed cops on the take.
Because Lucas stands out like a sore pimp and seems to know everyone at ringside connected with the case he's investigating, Crowe wants to know who this guy Lucas is.
Then, like, Javert in Les Miserables, Crowe and his scruples are in relentless pursuit, and the chase gets confusing at times where at the end, Crowe winds up defending Lucas.
[The whole Crowe also being a lawyer angle assumes too much on the viewer having this knowledge and is not well spelled out for those who don't.]
Nevertheless, American Gangster will probably get a Best Picture nomination because of its star power. Denzel has played better characters. Crowe has certainly played better characters. But it's the supporting cast essaying various pieces of real life shit that give this movie its needed color. If you'll pardon the pun.
