American Gangster (Arte) – Ridley Scott: "This shoot was the most complicated of my entire career."

In 1968, Harlem’s “godfather” gangster Bumpy Johnson died of a heart attack. His second and confidant, Frank Lucas, engages in the organization of unprecedented traffic to secure his successor. In Bangkok, accomplices hide heroin packages in the coffins of American soldiers killed in Vietnam before they are sealed by military aircraft and sent back to their countries. Thanks to this trick and its Blue Magic-labeled powder, which is purer and cheaper than the Italian’s, Lucas became the first drug supplier in the United States. Until his wealth catches the attention of detective Richie Roberts… Ridley Scott hires two actors at the height of this hyper-productive script: Denzel Washington for the role of Lucas and Russell Crowe for the role of Roberts. The latter finds Scott seven years after Gladiator. The director had not forgotten that the Australian actor’s suggestions greatly improved his master peplum, which was released in 2000 and helped him restart his career.

INSPIRING POLICE AND THUG

Russell Crowe is fascinated by the detective’s personality. He uses recordings of his interrogations to mimic his voice: “When Roberts and Lucas face off, there are no barriers and the line between good and evil gets blurred. Such a role reflects the reality of humanity. “Denzel Washington is also fascinated by the course of his character:” When Frank Lucas was 6 years old, he watched his cousin get killed by Ku Klux Klan sociopaths. It shaped his life. He started stealing outside of school at a very young age, took the wrong path, and used his wits to become an organized crime master responsible for many deaths. This is tragic because if he had had a good education and had better influences, Lucas would probably have become a leader in a legal profession. For Ridley Scott, describing the gangster’s actions and the police investigation was a logistical challenge: “Cshooting it was the most complex of my entire career: we shot three hundred and sixty scenes in more than one hundred and eighty different locations in New York and Asia. »

ELECTION NUMBERS!

Tasty detail: During filming in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai, Ridley Scott hired extras in villages, some of whom were ex-soldiers involved in drug trafficking organized by Lucas in the 70s! Across the Atlantic, the real eighty-year-old Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts, then registered as consultants, gave the director sound advice. The former gangster has admitted that only a small part of the story is true, although he likes to see himself camped out by Denzel Washington. Richie Roberts blew up the embellishments to add width to the film and lamented that Lucas was made too noble. Despite these liberties taken with reality, American Gangster was one of the biggest hits of 2007, grossing $265 million at the box office.

American Gangster is on Arte on Sunday, June 4th at 20:50

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