Movies are not reality. This is especially true if they are based on a true story. In the case of the mafia epic American Gangster, however, there was a heated argument between the producers of the film and the role models of the story, who felt vilified by the film.
American gangsters on TV: The big highlight of the film is supposed to be fictitious
The film by master director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) revolves around the gangster Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who rises to become one of the most feared drug lords in the USA in Harlem in the 1970s. His method of smuggling heroin is as ingenious as it is immoral: He brings the goods to the US on military planes returning from Vietnam. At some point, investigator Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) catches on to him.
Roberts, Lucas and his inventive methods really existed. According to the real models many other parts of the film are fictitious. For example, Russell Crowe’s investigators in the film got into a violent custody battle, even though his real-life role model didn’t have a child at the time (via the New York Post).
Several employees of the American anti-drug agency DEA even sued the film (via WPRI). The arrests of corrupt anti-drug officers at the height of American Gangster never happened and casts the institution in an extremely bad light. In the end, the lawsuit was dismissed because the film did not identify any individual corrupt cops.
When is American Gangster on TV?
American Gangster is running this Thursday, June 15, 2023 at 10:55 p.m. on Arte. Joining Washington and Crowe in front of the camera are Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) and Idris Elba (The Suicide Squad).
Podcast: Is Netflix worth it or a waste of money?
Popular series are being discontinued, password sharing is being prevented and prices are increasing: In this podcast episode, we therefore ask ourselves a question: Is the Netflix subscription still worth it?
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We present the arguments for and against Netflix, explain the current price structure and the measures against account sharing. We also take a look at the attractive content that the streaming service still offers and thus arrive at the answer: to unsubscribe or not?
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