American Gangster is based on a true story of Frank Lucas (Washington), a Harlem kingpin in the 1960s with a heroin-smuggling corporation run by various members of his family. To smuggle the drug, Lucas transports his cargo aboard American service planes flying from Vietnam and back to the United States.

In the movie, Lucas begins as the lowly driver to Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (played by Clarence Williams III) until the day that this particular mob boss dies of a heart attack. From there, Lucas builds his heroin-selling empire by “cutting out the middle-man,” and acquiring pure heroin from the makers in Vietnam. This allows him to sell his product, “Blue Magic,” to his customers for half the price that his rivals are selling it for, greatly increasing his revenue (a rumored $1 million a day). With the money from this business, Lucas transports his family from their humble home in North Carolina to grand and lavish finery in Harlem, N.Y. There, he involves his cousins and brothers in working to build his empire. By then, his franchise has overtaken the Italian mafia itself.

Investigating the heroin ring is Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), an honest cop blacklisted for turning in $987,000 as evidence as opposed to keeping it for himself. Along with hunting down the person responsible for the drug empire in New York City, Roberts also seeks out the corrupt officers within his precinct. It was only a matter of time before Roberts finally got close to Lucas’ drug-dealing trail, and after numerous threats and betrayals, Lucas is finally apprehended. This is only the beginning, however.

As Lucas’ prosecutor, Roberts strikes a deal with the soon-to-be-imprisoned drug dealer, in order for Lucas to receive a remote chance of getting out of prison. If Lucas relinquishes the names of the cops that were involved in his drug dealing, his sentence will be more lenient. The Lucas-Roberts collaboration brings about the apprehension of a majority of cops from the Special Investigations Unit, which displays the amount of corruption inside the bureau.

In my opinion, the most pivotal scene wasn’t Roberts’ apprehension of Lucas and his workers, but rather the banter between the two as they finally sat face-to-face with each other. In that particular scene, all cards were on the table, and the suave and calm Lucas gave in to the policeman’s requests. The dialogue in that scene was quite riveting as well; it summarized the feel of the movie on both sides (gangster and cop) as well as opened up the inner conflicts of both men. Crowe was a perfect foil to Washington’s character, and watching them try to climb the ranks of their own part of society was entertaining.