American Gangster

American Gangster (2007) — watch online on iFILM — a crime drama directed by Ridley Scott, with Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as the detective hunting him. Universal Pictures and Scott Free Productions spent $100 million on a story ripped from 1970s Harlem.

Lucas starts as a driver for a Harlem crime boss. After his boss dies, he skips the Italian middlemen entirely and flies to Southeast Asia to cut his own supply deal — bringing product back through military cargo channels. Cheaper on the street, more potent than the competition. Harlem lines up. On the other side of the city, Newark detective Richie Roberts is building a task force — the only cop on the payroll nobody can buy. Josh Brolin plays the dirty detective Trupo; Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Cuba Gooding Jr. fill out a cast that reads like a who's who of early 2000s cinema.

The script by Steven Zaillian is based on journalist Mark Jacobson's interviews with Lucas himself. Scott and cinematographer Harris Savides frame the decade in fur coats, earth tones and fluorescent precinct lights — two worlds that mirror each other more than either man would admit. Stream American Gangster (2007) in full on iFILM.