HollywoodMemorabilia Blog

Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors. I love Spike Lee movies and I thought that “Jungle Fever” was one of his best. Of course, with Spike Lee for me there are many movies he has made that are in my top 20 all timers. But Jungle Fever had a certain kind of tension going on, a feeling of opposition that was presented gently though you felt that at any moment could explode into violence both, physically and emotionally. And it does.

When I recently saw Denzel in American Gangster though, he seemed to have evolved in many ways as an actor. He usually has a tremendous amount of confidence in the roles he plays, but in American Gangster he exuded so much confidence, so much leadership, that he was more compelling than any movie I had seen him in before. Of course the director, Martin Scorsese is so amazing in telling a story and in his ability to get the best performances from his actors, that I knew this movie was going to be an instant classic.

American Gangster was an incredibly well done film. Of course it is almost redundant to say that every film Martin Scorsese does is well crafted and visually exciting, but this one affected me very strongly. Maybe it is because I grew up in New York and although I had never heard of Frank Lucas, I did know about the fact that dope was being smuggled in from Vietnam. I had also heard that it was brought in, sewn into dead soldiers bodies, but thought that was most likely an urban legend.

All the acting in the movie was superb and the realism that the actors brought to the screen, and the editing pace, created a great masterpiece of cinema.

I was fortunate to catch an amazing show on Charlie Rose, the day before I saw the film. On the show was the real Frank Lucas, Ridley Scott (director), Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, the real detective that Russell played, and two writers who were instrumental in getting the story told and the film made. I think You Tube has some clips from that show. For me it was an historical event.