Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
Nominated for 2 Oscars. 12 wins & 38 nominations total
Top Critics Reviews
fresh:
Ridley Scott's gangster flick aims high and mostly measures up.
– Bob Mondello,
NPR.org,
18 Oct 2008
fresh:
Like much of his oeuvre, Scott's scaled-up movie is bigger than life - and lesser for it. But while never digging deeply or darkly enough to match its own grand vision of itself, slick technique drives the story forward with pace and style.
– Jonathan Crocker,
Time Out,
14 Nov 2007
rotten:
How much truth we get in the movie version is hard to say...nobody much cares if it's gospel, as long as it's riveting. Here, alas, it is not.
– Jonathan F. Richards,
Film.com,
6 Nov 2007
rotten:
For all its grit, style and atmosphere, Gangster never sweeps you away. It has neither the lurid bravado of De Palma's "Scarface" nor the intimate grasp of the criminal lifestyle you find in Scorsese or Coppola.
– David Ansen,
Newsweek,
5 Nov 2007
fresh:
Washington's steely grip on his impersonation of Frank Lucas holds the film together.