***I have not included anything in this Blog that would be considered a spoiler or something that isn’t common knowledge from trailers***
At 53 Denzel Washington is still a pleasure to watch on the big screen, especially when his character is acting on the wrong side of the law. Not since Training Day have we seen Denzel’s character as bad and motivated as he is in his portrayal of Frank Lucas, an organized crime boss known for controlling the drug trade in Harlem, New York in the 60’s & 70’s. The movie,
“American Gangster” tells the true story of this African-American’s rise to be one of the most successful and feared gangsters at in America. Frank Lucas is eventually brought down by an honest cop by the name of Richie Roberts (played by Russel Crowe).
Myself and a few friends attended the premier opening of the movie to a sell-out crowd in Richmond. We arrived at the move theatre 45 minutes early to a line-up that was close to 100 people deep.
My expectations for the movie were high as I have never really seen a bad Denzel “flick”. His recent filmography includes: Déjà vu, Inside Man, and the Manchurian Candidate. However, it was back in 2001 when “Training Day” became Denzel’s claim to the coveted Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This role had been such a departure from Denzel’s traditional good-guy roles but also proved to be his best performance. It was because of my infatuation with Training Day that I was hoping for another bad-ass performance from a similar role.
American gangster did not disappoint but is was also not Training Day. While Training Day developed characters through actions and dialogue, American Gangster was more autobiographic and focused to educated the viewer through a history of events. This movie was more dramatic and while it included periodic points of violence, the majority of the time was spent exploring the world of Harlem in the 60’s while American was at war with Vietnam and Denzel’s character was transporting heroine in soldier’s coffins returning home. The movie is very careful to subtly touch on racial implications of a “black man” superseding the mafia in the criminal world. Here is where I wish the movie had explored these racial tensions as I am sure they played a larger role then the movie leads you to believe.
Perhaps it is because I am more business minded, but one of Frank Lucas’s claims to fame is how he essentially cut-out the middle man in the drug trade by exporting heroine directly from Vietnam. By achieving this, he was able to reap a purer product and had the ability to sell it at half the price of market rates. As strange as this is going to sound, I was reflecting on this while leaving the movie and thinking of the Dell Direct model. Dell transformed the computer industry with its revolutionary mass customization model whereby sourcing products from contracted suppliers meant they could effectively cut-out retailers and sell directly to the consumer at a lower price. Not sure why I made the connection, but he more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Denzel’s character mentions that “he sells a product that people want, and he is able to sell it at half the price of the current market...that’s what makes him a wealthy business man.” While I am not encouraging everyone to embrace drugs, I am simply pointing out that every once in a while; someone comes along who thinks of the impossible as possible. I am sure Micheal Dell faced the same challenges (history tells us that he proposed the model in University only to be scoffed at by scholars) when thinking outside the box, albeit not life and death. While he revolutionized how computers our bought, Frank Lucas revolutionized what people thought was possible in the drug trade. Every time a product changes hands, a premium is added but in the case of drugs, the value-added also comes with an inferior product (often fractions of the original purity).
One of the best lines from the movie is the title of this particular blog, “You can be successful and have enemies, or you can be un-successful and have friends”.
I would definitely recommend watching American Gangster if you’re a history buff and into a strong dramatic role by to very qualified actors (Denzel and Russel Crowe ).
My 2 thoughts anyways….
At 53 Denzel Washington is still a pleasure to watch on the big screen, especially when his character is acting on the wrong side of the law. Not since Training Day have we seen Denzel’s character as bad and motivated as he is in his portrayal of Frank Lucas, an organized crime boss known for controlling the drug trade in Harlem, New York in the 60’s & 70’s. The movie,
“American Gangster” tells the true story of this African-American’s rise to be one of the most successful and feared gangsters at in America. Frank Lucas is eventually brought down by an honest cop by the name of Richie Roberts (played by Russel Crowe).
Myself and a few friends attended the premier opening of the movie to a sell-out crowd in Richmond. We arrived at the move theatre 45 minutes early to a line-up that was close to 100 people deep.
My expectations for the movie were high as I have never really seen a bad Denzel “flick”. His recent filmography includes: Déjà vu, Inside Man, and the Manchurian Candidate. However, it was back in 2001 when “Training Day” became Denzel’s claim to the coveted Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This role had been such a departure from Denzel’s traditional good-guy roles but also proved to be his best performance. It was because of my infatuation with Training Day that I was hoping for another bad-ass performance from a similar role.
American gangster did not disappoint but is was also not Training Day. While Training Day developed characters through actions and dialogue, American Gangster was more autobiographic and focused to educated the viewer through a history of events. This movie was more dramatic and while it included periodic points of violence, the majority of the time was spent exploring the world of Harlem in the 60’s while American was at war with Vietnam and Denzel’s character was transporting heroine in soldier’s coffins returning home. The movie is very careful to subtly touch on racial implications of a “black man” superseding the mafia in the criminal world. Here is where I wish the movie had explored these racial tensions as I am sure they played a larger role then the movie leads you to believe.
Perhaps it is because I am more business minded, but one of Frank Lucas’s claims to fame is how he essentially cut-out the middle man in the drug trade by exporting heroine directly from Vietnam. By achieving this, he was able to reap a purer product and had the ability to sell it at half the price of market rates. As strange as this is going to sound, I was reflecting on this while leaving the movie and thinking of the Dell Direct model. Dell transformed the computer industry with its revolutionary mass customization model whereby sourcing products from contracted suppliers meant they could effectively cut-out retailers and sell directly to the consumer at a lower price. Not sure why I made the connection, but he more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Denzel’s character mentions that “he sells a product that people want, and he is able to sell it at half the price of the current market...that’s what makes him a wealthy business man.” While I am not encouraging everyone to embrace drugs, I am simply pointing out that every once in a while; someone comes along who thinks of the impossible as possible. I am sure Micheal Dell faced the same challenges (history tells us that he proposed the model in University only to be scoffed at by scholars) when thinking outside the box, albeit not life and death. While he revolutionized how computers our bought, Frank Lucas revolutionized what people thought was possible in the drug trade. Every time a product changes hands, a premium is added but in the case of drugs, the value-added also comes with an inferior product (often fractions of the original purity).
One of the best lines from the movie is the title of this particular blog, “You can be successful and have enemies, or you can be un-successful and have friends”.
I would definitely recommend watching American Gangster if you’re a history buff and into a strong dramatic role by to very qualified actors (Denzel and Russel Crowe ).
My 2 thoughts anyways….
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