Ridley Scott’s American Gangster Remains an Enduring Crime Drama

In Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic film The Dog Stars, misanthropic former marine Bangley (Josh Brolin) tells his partner Hig (Jacob Elordi) that their secure airstrip represents the American dream. A devastating virus has wiped out most of humanity, forcing the two men to shoot desperate invaders to survive, yet Bangley warns Hig against wishing for anything better.

Nineteen years earlier, Scott examined the American dream through a much darker historical lens rather than science fiction. American Gangster chronicles the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who exploited the Vietnam War to build a massive heroin smuggling ring in the United States. The crime epic recalls The Godfather and The Wire, carried by one of Washington’s strongest career performances.

Lucas begins his illicit career driving for Harlem mob boss Bumpy Johnson. When recruiting his younger brothers to move from North Carolina and join his operation, Lucas points out that Johnson never held total control because he depended on outside drug suppliers. Lucas bypasses domestic distributors entirely by purchasing pure heroin in Thailand and shipping it to America aboard military transports, allowing him to sell a purer product at lower prices.

The strategy disrupts New York’s criminal hierarchy, where rival bosses regularly underestimate Lucas because they expect Black criminals to answer to white handlers. His ascent mirrors the cultural rise of Muhammad Ali. Lucas eventually secures ringside seats at the Fight of the Century, an appearance that alerts local law enforcement to his standing as a major underworld figure.

Scott frames Washington as a calculating, detached presence amid street-level chaos. Lucas hides his violent tendencies behind calm composure, showing open disgust for flashy rival gangsters like Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Tango (Idris Elba). He favors plain clothes, frequently blends into crowds to monitor his business, and sharply reprimands his brother Huey (Chiwetel Ejiofor) for showing off sudden wealth.

Lucas clashes most intensely with Detective Nick Trupo (Brolin), a corrupt officer who drives a luxury car and extorts drug dealers. Their confrontations generate immense tension throughout the movie. In one pivotal sequence, Trupo and his squad smash a custom dresser Lucas had made for his mother to replace one she lost during his impoverished childhood. The gift represents his family’s temporary escape from poverty, and its destruction previews the complete collapse of his criminal network.

American Gangster is more like The Godfather than The Wire

Washington plays Lucas with steady composure, but Scott constantly highlights the misery beneath the drug empire. Scenes of Lucas relaxing in private clubs run parallel to harrowing sequences of intravenous drug addiction, including a mother overdosing beside a crying infant. Lucas profits directly from the horrors of the Vietnam War, turning addicted soldiers into a pipeline that brings deadlier drugs back home.

Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian focus heavily on the central character portrait, resembling the structure of The Godfather rather than the broad institutional scope of The Wire. A parallel storyline follows honest Newark detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) as he works to identify the primary supplier flooding the region with narcotics, though the investigation loses momentum whenever the narrative shifts to Roberts’ messy personal life.

While Scott built his reputation on large-scale action epics such as Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, American Gangster demonstrates his control over grounded crime drama. The film features his typical visual hallmarks, including morally conflicted leads, atmospheric urban landscapes, and sharp violence, while sharing the restrained character focus found in The Dog Stars.

American Gangster is streaming on Starz and is available to rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google Play.

Source: Polygon