American Gangster
Overview
Frank Lucas didn't climb the ladder — he built his own, out of coffins coming home from Vietnam. Denzel Washington plays the Harlem drug lord who started as a driver for a mob boss and rose to become New York's most powerful dealer by cutting out every middleman and buying his heroin directly from Southeast Asia: purer, cheaper, unstoppable. On the other side of the law is Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), an honest, dedicated detective — so honest he's an outcast in his own department — put on a special task force to bring Lucas down. Ridley Scott's sprawling crime drama follows both men as their worlds close in on each other: ambition, corruption, and the American Dream, told through two powerful performances on opposite sides of the same war.
