American Gangster: Sneak Preview

By Monica Medina 

We attended the pre-screening last night. American Gangster is worth every movie goer’s dollar. What made Frank Lucas different than most drug dealers was that there was literally no middleman.  Lucas would fly to Vietnam to the cocoa fields to order his keys directly from the source and have them flown into the country with assistance from the US government.  The drugs were stashed in the coffins of slain Vietnam soldiers being   returned to the US.  As pointed out in the film many times, it is rare that a Black drug dealers rises to that type of power in the drug game.

American Gangster has some very memorable scenes in the film.  The first scene of the movie begins violently with Denzel setting a rival on fire near the docks.  There is also the  “20%” scene where Denzel Washington, who plays Frank Lucas, murders a former rival in broad daylight.  This lets everyone know that there is a new man in town now that his mentor and boss Bumpy Johnson has passed away.  This is the first scene were we get a true sense of how Lucas will be running things in Harlem.  Unlike, his other rival Nicky Barnes (played by Cuba Gooding, who only gets a small role in the film), Frank Lucas is very low key and shuns away from flashy dressing.  It was a golden rule that Bumpy had taught him.  However since marrying his beautiful wife in the film, they decide to dress flashy attending a Muhammed Ali fight wearing extravagant fur coats.  His expensive wear is what began to put Lucas on the FBI’s radar.  It is also where the dirty cops began to bribe Frank Lucas for his drug revenue, requesting ten thousand dollars each month from his new found thriving drug empire. 

Lucas also incorporates his brothers and cousins into his thriving drug business, moving them and the family from the Carolinas into a beautiful mansion in the New York, New Jersey area.  His family sets up legitimate businesses in each of New York City’s five bureaus.  However, Lucas’ treatment of his brothers is harsh and cruel.  No preferential treatment is given because they are family.  He often threatens to kill them throughout the film.  I must admit I had some concerns that this film would glorify drug dealers and perhaps inspire some youth to enter into the drug game.  I guess that is up to the viewer to decide.   My only gripe with this film is that it does not go into depth about the generations of Black families that were killed due to drug addiction or violence and the devastation that it brought to the Black community due to Lucas’ drug game.  We can only wonder why Hollywood and underground filmmakers are not eager to make a film or documentary about that.