Who's the man in the fur coat?

by RICHARD JONES

BASED on a true facts story of 1970s Harlem drug boss Frank Lucas, director Ridley Scott's American Gangster is really a Godfather tale told from an African-American angle.

Lucas (Denzel Washington) hits on the virtually fail-safe scheme of shipping heroin out of Vietnam in the body bags of American servicemen.

Always meticulous in his planning, Lucas had made sure of his supply by visiting southeast Asia's Golden Triangle. There, he'd organised contracts with the drug lord at the production end of the chain.

But despite his low-key approach and desire not to attract any attention, Lucas does fire up a Serpico-like New Jersey cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe).

Other cops don't like Roberts and they don't trust him. After all, hadn't Roberts turned in $1 million worth of recovered drug money rather than keeping it for himself and sharing the proceeds with his partner?

So the corrupt NYPD Special Investigations Unit led by Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin) tries to run Roberts out of the city. They're unaware Roberts is heading up another special - and very secret - anti-corruption outfit.

Roberts becomes drug boss Lucas' nemesis. Scott's film plots the gangster's slide from power from the very day he wore a conspicuous fur coat and hat to the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier 1971 world heavyweight boxing decider at Madison Square Garden.

Lucas wore the clothes because they'd been a gift from his wife (Lymari Nadal), a former Miss Puerto Rico.

It was a mistake, and he knew it. Burn them he might when he got home, but Roberts was no fool. He'd stood at the entrance photographing all the celebrities entering the Garden to take up their ringside seats.

When he saw the frocked-up Lucas taking a premium seat in front of the New York Mafia bosses, his curiosity was sparked. Who was this man, known to the Mafia heavies and on such good terms with them all ?

From that day on, Lucas' fate was sealed.

18 February 2008

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