The overall feeling of the whole film is: uncomfortable!
Because this is a movie adapted from reality, which highly restores the real life of the character prototype. Therefore, many regrets were left, such as:
I hope that those dirty policemen will die, but in the United States, no criminal will kill the police casually. That will put the entire police system into an endless entanglement with you;
I want to see the gangs fighting against Frank, but in reality, the gangs and the gangs, the gangs and the police, politicians, and businessmen have intricate relationships. Especially for the big guys, killing is the most stupid. An approach.
Why Frank Lucas failed? The answer was revealed in the first 5 minutes of the movie. Johnson, his most admired boss, said: "Why do they skip the middlemen and go directly to the source to get the goods." This is a finishing touch, not only in the 1980s, but also in describing Johnson's interpersonal relationship. Relationship concept.
What is a "middleman" looks like the circulation of goods, but the essence is actually the balance of wealth.
Frank studied Johnson everywhere. It can be said that he learned ninety-nine percent, but he didn't learn the most essential point, that is-if you have money, everyone should make it together! Frank directly took 100% pure goods from Vietnam, and made them more than twice the purity of the local products, but sold them at half price. At the same time, the Frank family and the black boys who indirectly served him wandered around 16 streets and put them there. Become their dumping paradise. Except for cash flow and inventory in New York, Frank has $250 million in overseas accounts.
While gathering huge wealth, the shadow of failure is gradually covering Frank.
The director seems to want to make Frank a godfather of the poison king. Frank thinks about himself in the same way, but unfortunately, he will never be a godfather. Because the godfather is not at all how strong he is, but to maintain a huge, complex, and fair system. Frank's system is obviously not huge and fair. He is the only king and emperor. Most of the profits go to him personally, so failure is inevitable.
In the film, apart from Johnson at the beginning, there were two scenes that broke Frank’s dilemma. One was another gangster who told Frank that he was “against monopoly”, and the other was a wise Vietnamese general who said to Frank, “Sometimes, the rapids can’t retreat. It is equal to failure." Unfortunately, Frank, who was born in poverty, had no riches and fate, and turned a deaf ear to the words of the three wise men.
What is a mafia, why the most famous mafia is Italy, and what is wealth. In my opinion, it is basically culture and education level. The underworld forces formed by people from poor areas or from poor backgrounds are often more cruel and evil than those formed by white Americans and Italians, but they don’t last long, and disappear in a flash. Because they have no culture, lack of principles and purposes, and these are precisely the necessary conditions for maintaining a person or organization's sustainable survival.
I hope to see an ending like "New World", but this is reality.
View more about American Gangster reviews
