The Film
The film ‘American Gangster’ focuses on the criminal lifestyle of a gang leader, Frank Lucas. The film starts when Frank’s boss, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, dies of a heart attack (Collins 12). Frank becomes the mob boss and specializes in smuggling heroin from Thailand directly from producers and selling it to drug lords in the United States. He perfects his trade by using servicemen from Vietnam War to come back to the Country. The strategy of using military planes and personnel made it difficult for his activities to be tracked down and stopped by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He developed a brand, ‘The Blue Magic’, known for providing pure and affordable heroin. His drug empire becomes successful as he is able to eliminate competition by providing affordable and quality ‘products’. As is common in the drug industry, Lukas and his lieutenants are involved in several murders, especially those who they consider threatening their business or lives.
Richie Roberts, a detective who is considered incorruptible, is committed to fighting drug trafficking in the country. Having developed a good reputation after handing in about 1 million dollars he confiscated from a drug boss; he is put in charge of Frank’s case. He takes time to investigate the activities of the drug lords in New York City (Jacobson 45). He successfully infiltrates Frank’s empire and gets to learn of the strategies that the gang is using to source, transport, process, and supply drugs in the city. He finally learns that the contraband is brought into the country using military planes and officers returning from Vietnam.
Roberts organizes a team of DEA officers and local sheriffs who burst a major remdrug operation at a warehouse owned by Frank. Although he faces numerous challenges during his investigation, including criticism and lack of support from colleagues and his superiors, Richie remains committed and focused on finding the drug lord and bringing down the drug empire in New York. The operation led to the arrest of Frank and all his lieutenants involved in the illegal trade. Frank agrees to a deal with the prosecution to help identify DEA and other law enforcement agents who are aiding and abating crime in the city. About 75% of law enforcement agents are prosecuted and found guilty of the crime (Chepesiuk 31). Richie succeeds in bringing down the drug empire in the city and sending to prison officers who were facilitating the illegal trade.
Elements in the Film
The film has received a positive review from many film critics because various elements are working. One of the elements in the film that has received positive criticism is cinematography. The location chosen for the film makes it as realistic as possible. Rahman and Hossen explain that when selecting the location of a film, care should be taken to ensure that it resonates with the narrative message (2). Part of the film was shot in Thailand, which was meant to make the film as authentic in passing the message as possible. The lighting, lenses, film stock, and filters create the perception that these events happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The narrative element is important in a film because it is the basis upon which the story is told. This is one area that this film has achieved positive criticism from the many critics who have reviewed it (Ceyhan 58). The narration starts with the time Frank’s boss suffers a heart attack and dies. Frank finds an opportunity to take over from his boss as the drug lord. The events in the narration are sequential, from the time he becomes the boss to the point where he develops new ways of smuggling the drug. His lifestyle changes as he continues to make more money. The rise to the top and the eventual fall of his empire is successfully told in the film.
Sound is another critical element in a film that defines its success. The directors were keen on ensuring that the background music did not affect the communication of the characters. In some instances, the background music is completely eliminated to help ensure that the audience can hear the conversation of these characters. Editing of the film can also be considered a working element. The director made sure that the editing process was done in a way that ensured the message was passed in the most convincing and realistic way possible.
The researcher believes that the element that was not successful was the choice of characters in the film. The two main characters, Richie and Frank, were given roles that did not reflect their personalities. Denzel Washington, who acts as Frank Lucas, is too clean-cut to represent a hardened criminal. His physical assaults do not appear real and convincing because of his neat and respectable demeanor. On the other hand, the facial attributes and physical appearance of Russell Crowe, acting as Richie Roberts, do not give the impression of a tough law-enforcement agent. Redefining the roles of these main characters would have made the film more successful.
Research Goals
The first research goal is to determine how accurate the film is in narrating the actual story of Frank Lucas. The second goal is to determine the intended impact that the film has on the audience. The researcher will focus on three websites that specialize in movie reviews. The first step will be to assess the reviews that have been made on the film on the website Rotten Tomatoes (Gillespie 71). Other websites that will also provide insights about the film include Metacritic and IMDB. New York Times and the Guardian are some newspapers that have extensively reviewed this film. They provide insightful information that can help understand the message presented in the film. Several books and journal articles have been published about this film. IMDB is a rich database that provides a detailed review of films and will be used to facilitate the review of films.
This film is considered a credible source of information about drug smuggling in the United States, specifically focusing on Frank Lucas, one of the most notorious criminals in the country. The film was based on actual reports from various media stations that reported events leading to and after the arrest of Frank and his gang members. The film was also based on actual reports that were filed by the DEA officers and local sheriffs and court documents. The directors made an effort to ensure that the message and narration were provided in the most accurate manner possible. However, it is necessary to admit that a few inaccuracies were meant to make it exciting. One of the inaccuracies is that the involvement of military personnel in drug trafficking was exaggerated.
Works Cited
Ceyhan, Migena. “An Approach for Movie Review Classification in Turkish.” European Journal of Formal Sciences and Engineering, vol. 4, no. 2, 2021, pp. 56–65.
Chepesiuk, Ron. American Gangster: The History of the Gangs of Harlem. Milo, 2007.
Collins, Allan. American Gangster: A Novelization. Tom Doherty Associates Book, 2007.
Gillespie, Michael. Film Appreciation through Genres. McFarland, 2019.
Jacobson, Mark. American Gangster: And Other Tales of New York. Atlantic Recorded Books Inc., 2007.
Rahman, Atiqur, and Sharif Hossen. “Sentiment Analysis on Movie Review Data Using Machine Learning Approach.” International Conference on Bangla Speech and Language Processing, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-4.