American Gangster & Two Sides to the American Dream

We have all seen the tag at the beginning of the film Based on a True Story.  The best film that I believe that I have ever seen with this line is the film American Gangster which hit theaters in 2007.  The film divulges into different aspects of the american life that we can relate to one way or another.  A way that this film was put that will forever stick with me is that "there is two sides of the American dream".  There are no better words to describe this film that that.

Frank Lucas who is played by Denzel Washington takes over a drug ring on the streets of Manhattan.  This already plays into the hands of the audience because it takes place in a big city which happens to be New York, which also is considered the melting pot of the world.  Frank takes over the ring and begins to see flaws right away with the way the system is working and how their is a middle man in his whole operation trying to get heroin back to the United States.  Franks American dream is to own the drug market in the city of New York and will stop at nothing to accomplish this.  You begin to see his humble upbringing when he calls his family to come live with him from the poverty that they are living down south.

Richie Roberts who is played by Russel Crowe has a different idea in mind when it comes to his American dream.  In a society that is full of crooked cops he remains to stay honest and loyal to what he was sworn to do.  We see this is the very beginning when he forces his partner to turn in the money that they find in a vehicle.  We later see the corruptness of the New York police department when they take the heroin cut it, then sell it back to the drug ring to make more money off of it.  Richie also plays a cop that is trying to make it the right way in America by trying to work his way up in the system to become a lawyer, father, and a good police officer.  As you can see the two have differing views on what the American dream can be but are both family men trying to produce something for their family that they have never had before.

The movie ties into society at this time very well with the trip to Vietnam and the involvement of government officials at the time helping to transport drugs into America.  It also shows the other side of a divorced man with a child that is trying to further himself in his career but is hitting road bumps of not being able to spend enough time with his family and become in danger of losing his son.  In the end the two somehow figure that the are not so different from one another and Richie gets Frank to agree to help him take down all of the crooked government officials that he has been involved with for a decrease in jail time.  We all are entitled to a piece of the American Dream, these two just had a differing view of what it meant to have that piece of the American Dream.

References

Chepesiuk, R., & Gonzalez, A. (2007). Super-fly: the true, untold story of Frank Lucas, American gangster. NY, NY: Street Certified Entertainment.

IMDb - American Gangster (2007). (n.d.). The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved December 5, 2011, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765429