Title: American Gangster
Year: 2007
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Steven Zaillian, based on an article by Mark Jacobson
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin
Music: Marc Streitenfeld; also non-original music
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee) and Best Art Direction; formerly on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: an entrepreneur gangster revolutionizes the heroin industry
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), July 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for concept) c. 3.0/4 (Good).
Not my sort of thing, and far from the best gangster movie, but well done. The basic concept of the movie seems like it's been done a million times. Great performances, in spite of the guy from New Jersey who is clearly Australian.
This movie was based on the book by Mark Jacobson, which is actually really good. I recently got it as an audio book from http://www.audiobooks.net and have been really enjoying it. I haven't watched the movie yet, but I'm interested to see if it was done as well as Jacobson's work.
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