#3 Fav Film American Gangster

Alex Holt

Meta Review 3

02/06/2012

My Man! Is the word in the movie you did not want Frank Lucas played by (Denzel Washington) to say to you, because this only meant one thing that you have pissed him off , and in the movie he was not the one to make mad. Frank had the streets of Harlem in his pockets he ran the entire town for more than 3 years straight he was getting the Heroin straight from Korea during the war he would have his drugs shipped in coffins of the solders into the United States. Just as it seemed like Frank Lucas was untouchable to everyone there was one small cop who would soon start to cause him problems Richie Roberts (Played by Russell Crowe) was a cop in New Jersey who wanted to keep the streets clean. This man risked his career on a day to day, as well as his life, and with little to no fears going head to head with the big guys in the city.

Josh Taylor the reviewer said “The irony of both characters is that their professional and personal lives are flipped. Frank does dishonest things for a living, but in his personal life lives by a strict moral code of humility, honesty, and family. Richie is a painfully honest cop, but his personal life is a garbage dump of lies, failed relationships, and insecurities.” This quote is very true the entire movie Richie puts aside everything in his life to focus on work including his relationship with his son and ex-wife, to do his job correctly. The two men were on two different sides of the playing field with the same objective and that was to win at whatever it is they did.

In this movie I would have liked the (director Ridley Scott) to show more background on the two men and show why they are who they are today. I feel this would be important because they have such big rolls and they are both very good at what they do so it would be nice to see them open up emotionally behind what drives them to be great, and not just men who are good at their job. I feel like this movie had a great script and a great beginning, middle, and ending, because the movie’s plot is set at a good speed and shows the growth of both men’s operation, which helps the director build up to the plot. Overall I feel like the rolls were played great by both characters and the movie was well put together and thought out to get the real life story out there of Frank Lucas was a great idea to inform the world of a man who turned nothing into what is a empire no matter if he was right or wrong for his choice of business the director leaves that up to you to decide by letting the characters outside life into the film, I feel like this is the key piece to the film. Overall I give them film a –A.