Rating: 4 Pulses

Rated R

American Gangster opened with fire blazing and guns booming. Frank Lucas (Washington) stands menacingly over his victim. Like a statue, Lucas takes life unfettered by moral constraint.

Lucas was a Harlem drug lord in the 1970s. He tackled the trade with ambition, and aspired to be a different kind of dealer. He sold his “Blue Magic,” pure, clean heroin straight from Burma to junkies who were used to buying junk so cut, it would kill you.

And he sold it at prices to kill the competition, establishing a brand name and making enemies with Italian mobsters and crooked cops alike.

American Gangster tells Lucas’s story. It shows an “honest” businessman in a dishonest trade. Lucas was a model capitalist. He realized the Vietnam war was raging and decided to capitalize on the rampant availability of heroin in Southeast Asia.

With the help of C-47s carrying the remains of young men dying for a cause they didn’t even believe in, Lucas transported thousands of kilos into the States.

The movie by no means glorifies the drug trade. Mixed in with the violence, flashy clothes, cars and homes, the audience sees the pain and agony of the junkies. However, the audience is torn. On the one hand, Lucas is distributing a deadly drug. On the other, he brings a quality product that isn’t cut. The cops and the mob steal their drugs and cut it to a killing point. You can’t help it. The movie makes you feel like Lucas is the neighborhood pharmacist, just trying to serve the community.

Russell Crowe plays Lucas’ antithesis, honest cop Richie Roberts. At one point in the movie his credibility is established, when he finds $970,000 in unmarked bills in a car and turns it in as evidence. Today Roberts’ action may seem natural for any man or woman in uniform, however, in 1970s Harlem this was not the case. In fact it made all the other officers wary of his presence.

Because of his honesty, Roberts is appointed as head of a New Jersey drug enforcement agency. Roberts is looking for the kingpin of the drug trade throughout the movie. Lucas keeps such a low profile it is hard to trace anything back to him.

None of the cops believe an African American man could possibly be the head of the heroin influx in New York. They say it has to be the Italians, but definitely not a black man.

Well, they were wrong.

Washington and Crowe, both deliver great performances. The movie comes full circle (take notice of the businessman’s outlook). It, like last year’s The Departed, is a breath of fresh air for the gangster genre. I highly recommend this movie. At two hours, 37 minutes it’s a long feature, but the time passes quickly because there is never a dull moment.