American Gangster: Denzel Washington
November 8, 2007
“What’s wrong with America? It’s gotten so big you just can’t find your way.”
American Gangster is a story about the business of profit, getting ahead, race and family.
Based on the true life story of Frank Lucas, American Gangster starring Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning actor and director Denzel Washington and Academy Award winning actor Russell Crowe was a box office hit during its first weekend in November premiere showing across the country and is being heralded as a possible Academy Award contender.
Denzel Washington plays 1970s Harlem heroin crime lord Frank Lucas with Russell Crowe as the New Jersey detective Richie Roberts out to take Lucas and his drug empire down. Lucas smuggled heroin into the US by stashing the drug in soldiers coffins on their route home from the Vietnam War. American Gangster is based on a New York magazine story The Return of Superfly by Mark Jacobson which chronicles the rise and fall of Frank Lucas.
American Gangster has a star-studded and seasoned cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor as Huey Lucas, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Nicky Barnes, Josh Brolin as Detective Trupo, Ted Levine as Lou Toback, Armand Assante as Dominic Cattano, John Ortiz as Detective Javier J. Rivera, and John Hawkes as Detective Freddy Spearman.