Harlem’s Hero And Heroin

I also watched this movie but did not walk away so enthralled by it as some. Rather, I walked away confused at how I was almost sympathetic in the end to Frank Lucas (Washington). I credit
my initial emotional reaction to the acting of Mr. Washington. I understand the story and I get why there are people who look up to criminals like him. I would ask them to look again at the damage and destruction that they did to this country and their supposive communities. After re-examining these people, I'm confident that viewers will find the Lucas' of this world much more harmful than good.

I am a complete advocate of artistic expression and telling a good story. However, this particular movie comes very close to lacking a moral conscience. What ever happened to social responsibility? I would hate to think what some poor 18 year old young man who scrapped up enough money to watch the movie (who may have not had a good male role model in his life) might think when he walks away. Myself, I'm grown up enough to know good vs bad, right vs wrong. The way this story is told almost blurs those distinctions.

The movie was fine, I won't argue that. However, I believe too much has been said about how these people should be looked up to. I guess I just had stronger role models in my life and for that I am thankful. I never looked up to businessmen or politicians. I looked up to blue collared, hard working men and women who earned every honest penny that they made in their lives (teachers, construction workers, nurses, or anyone for that matter who worked a steady 9-5). I still look up to these people today.

Frank Lucas might have been smart and he might have worked hard at what he did. In the end though, I'm sure he looked at himself in the mirror a few times and saw a person that was none of the above. He didn't redeem himself by snitching to the police, he was just looking out for #1 (the person he was looking out for all along).

Mr Ansen, I read your review of American Gangster in the November 12th edition of Newsweek Magazine. I am going to have to totally disagree with your review about this movie. It has been along time since I have watched a movie voluntarily three times in a row. This movie, i would have to say, is not Denzel's best, in my opinion, but the movie itself was riveting, had lots of action, and showed the strength of black men during this era. I think alot of times what you get from movies like this is a stereotype that people have about black men not being able to have this much power and influence and for them to see a real life movie of this sort based on a black man that had these capabilites, it just makes mainstream white America not to want to belive or buy into it. You said "it's a movie that's always watching its own shadow", I dont know what you meant by this but i can honestly tell you that this movie will be one that I store in my memory bank as a classic that i will make sure i watch at least once per year, like Scarface.