|
See what happen's when you show off. You draw unwanted attention to yourself. Lucas was on top of the world and still ended up in jail, his family in ruins. The positive reviews' already written says it all. The scene where Denzel's Lucas burns the $50,000 Chinchilla coat said it all for me. Great film (and object lesson) for the interested.I rate this movie: 5 stars.
Both versions present an audio commentary by Scott and Zaillian which is very informative. Now that HD has fallen to Blu Ray this may just be a passing footnote to the industry. Scott takes on the problems of filmmaking on such an extensive project while Zaillian talks about the writing.The HD special features include the deleted scenes that were placed back into the extended version and a five minute featurette with the real Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts.
The disc presents both the HD movie and the standard definition extended cut( some 18 minutes of additional scenes). The problem is that this is all that is included as extras. Ridley Scott's American Gangster is a gritty portrait of the New York drug underworld in the early 1970's.
The camara work by Harris Savides is both gritty and dark.The disc I viewed was the HD DVD and while presenting a great picture and sound field is not without its problems. With great performances by both DenzelWashington as drug kingpin Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as cop Richie Roberts the film takes on both the gangster lifestyle and the currupt police problem of New York.The film has all the earmarks of an epic. The story written by Steve Zaillian, while a bit long at times, effectively portrays life on the streets at the time period.
The standard definition disc have many more additional features that are not included in the more expensive HD package.
Director RIDLEY SCOTT and scriptwriter, STEVEN ZAILLIAN (who last collaborated on HANNIBAL) aren't your standard shoot-em-up types, so they'll be painting Lucas as a prototype of white-collar criminals and, even more crucially, highlightingthe element of race in the heroin business. In the early '30s, hard guys like James Cagney, Paul Muni and Edward G.Robinson paraded the sick dazzle of Prohibition - era thugs. changed all that. Their story was told in a magazine article that is the source for this film.
The movie surely has another motive. As Lucas amassed a $50 million fortune, investigator Richie Roberts (RUSSELL CROWE) pusued him.
AMERICAN GANGSTER, is the real - life microcosm of that story. The Mafia, considered African Americans as its customers, not the rivals.
Lucas and the more notorious NICKY BARNES(played by CUBA GOODING Jr). American Gangster (2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition)GANGSTER MOVIES COME IN VIVID SPURTS, like machine - gun fire.
Frank Lucas (DENZEL WASHINGTON) was a Harlem drug lord who, the Vietnam era, revolutionized the Heroin trade by importing the nasty white stuff directly from Southeast Asia, often in the caskets of U.S.soldiers. Forty years later the Corleones ruled, but on the margins were the subgenera of African Americans gangster films: SUPERFLY, BLACK CAESAR and their bloody kin.
Beneath the violent fantasies of these films was a historical fact: African American mobsters were seizing power from the Italians, who had run the underworld. The three actors and Zaillian, are all Academy Award winners, as is producer, BRIAN GRAZER( for A BEAUTIFUL MIND ), and Scott helmed GLADIATOR to a BEST PICTURE statuette.
If you like crime dramas, or dramas in general than you will most likely enjoy this movie. What I enjoyed most were the special features which show the viewer the real story that inspired the movie. This movie was pretty good, I am not a huge fan of gangster themed movies but I got it because Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe were in it and they always are great to watch. It's a good plot, it is based on a true-story which I really liked. It is a little on the long side but it's worth the time.
We see a similar tale here with "Lucas," except that his fall is sudden in this stor.Director Ridley Scott and photographer Harris Savides also give us a slick- looking film, very pretty spots and stylishly-directed. Both play fascinating guys, Washington, a big gangster ("Frank Lucas") and Crowe, an honest cop ("Richie Roberts")This movie reminded me a lot of the '83 "Scarface" film in which Tony Montana (Al Pacino) rises from the bottom up to be a big drug lord, only to have things crumble big-time. The story wasn't quite as good as the "hype," but I was never bored despite the two- and-a-half-hour length of it. The best thing this movie had going for it - which is no surprise - is the acting duo of Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Not many, and neither actor disappoints here. I was a bit confused in the first 25 minutes but things straightened out after that.It was entertaining enough for me that I'd watch it again. How many bad movies do you see with either of those guys starring in them.
|
May be eligible for FREE Shipping offer
