American Gangster Hollywood Vs History

Hollywood vs History: American Gangster
It was in 1968 when a notorious Harlem gangster would have came into power with a huge drug network that stretched from New York City to asia. The man’s name was Frank Lucas, once the right hand man of another Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson. Johnson would later on die of a heart attack and Lucas would become the next player in town. This story would later on lead up to his life of crime and how a detective named Robert Richie would later take him down. The movie was released in theaters November, 9 2007 based off the book called The Return of Superfly. Once it was released and then reviewed it got a lot of feedback on how inaccurate it was on the investigation of Frank Lucas. Many former

cops who were under the investigation of Lucas we’re upset because of how they didn’t get any screen time and how hollywood made detective Roberts the main character.

In the scene in the movie when Frank pulls out a gun on a rival drug dealer then shoots him.

Give the evidence or detail from the movie with citation: He shoots him in the head while his brothers are watching from inside the restaurant and then walks back in like nothing happened ( American Gangster). During the movie, Frank Lucas leaves the restaurant to confront a rival drug dealer and tells him to pay up. The rival drug dealer doesn’t listen and Lucas shoots him in the head while his brothers were still in the restaurant seeing everything. In American Gangster, Frank Lucas appeared on the New York Magazine in 2000 called “The Return of Superfly”. While discussing to Mark Jacobson about what actually happened and telling him the dealers real name Tango, he said: So I figured, Tango, you're my man." Frank confronted Tango and asked him for money that Tango owed him. Tango cursed at Frank. Unlike in the movie, Tango "broke" for Frank, prompting Frank to shoot him four times. "...bam, bam, bam, bam," Frank recounted. "The boy didn't have no head. The whole sh@t blowed out back there (Interview with Frank Lucas at Hot 97). The part where Frank shoots Tango is inaccurate because it showed Frank’’s brother’s watching the whole thing but they actually didn’t know it happened at the time and in the movie after Frank shoots the dealer it shows him going back to the restaurant

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Close to the end of the movie Frank would later on in the movie put a hit out on detective Richie telling him "I got no problem with you showin' up in court tomorrow with your head blown in half”. (American Gangster). The interview with Richie and Frank have two different views with what actually happened with the detective saying that their was a hit put out on him and they will later on catch the guy who was on the list, While Frank says he never put a hit on Richie.

Hollywood also fantasies detective Richie work on the investigation of Lucas’s drug network making the detective a lead character in the movie.

When asked in the if he was was the main one responsible for taking down Lucas’s drug operation, Richie said "The people who put Frank down. I'm more like a composite. We had a squad of guys that worked on him." (Radio show with Roberts). Richie also admitted that some other detectives were upset by the lack of screentime. This.This had upseted a lot of ex- cops who were on the case having no show time in the movie promoting detective Roberts as the main person responsible just shows how it was hollywood's

imagination.

The film does give off hollywood’s imagination when they are telling the story because half of the scenes do contain some inaccuracy with what really happened. Once the movie was released it was quickly reviewed and showed a lot of inaccuracy real quick. Mostly people who were working on the case said the the movie inaccurate and also saying that hollywood gave all the credit to detective Richie. Hollywood was wrong on that because the detective even stated that he was minor figure in the investigation. The three points of inaccuracy show that the movie is part of hollywood's imagination and that it is just another hollywood movie where they take the history and twist it up in their own hands.