American Gangster (2007)
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Ridley Scott's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- The incredible score for American Gangster was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- Before Denzel Washington was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime drama directed by Ridley Scott. Denzel Washington stars as Frank Lucas, a real-life Harlem drug lord in the late 1960s and 1970s who built a heroin empire by cutting out the middlemen and importing pure product directly from Southeast Asia, hidden in the coffins of American soldiers returning from Vietnam. Russell Crowe co-stars as Richie Roberts, a doggedly honest Newark detective whose investigation of the heroin epidemic leads him to Lucas โ a man so disciplined and discreet that law enforcement doesn't even know he exists for years.
Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas was a fascinating study in contradictions โ a man who attended church with his mother, bought her a mansion, and maintained impeccable manners while running an operation that devastated an entire community. Ridley Scott's direction emphasized the parallel lives structure, intercutting Lucas's rise with Roberts's investigation to show how both men operated outside the corrupt systems around them. American Gangster earned $266 million worldwide on a $100 million budget.
