Film
American Gangster
Ridley Scott's 1970s Harlem epic splits its attention evenly between a heroin kingpin building an empire on stolen Army planes and the incorruptible cop hunting him. It's glossy, patient, and more interested in parallel codes of honour than shootouts. Denzel and Crowe never share a scene until the end, and the film is richer for the wait. Good for anyone who likes their crime sagas slow-cooked and morally symmetrical.
If you liked this
The Departed2006
Scorsese's cop-and-criminal double structure is the closest cousin to what Scott's doing here, but faster, meaner, and funnier, with a cast that's basically showing off.
But The plotting gets baroque and the Boston accents are a lot to sit with for two and a half hours.

Scarface1983
The rise-and-fall drug epic that set the template Frank Lucas's story deliberately answers back to — same ambition, wildly different temperature and excess.
But It's loud, garish, and Pacino's performance is a firehose next to Denzel's control; not everyone wants that.

Training Day2001
Denzel again, this time playing the corruption from the inside as a dirty cop, and it's the performance that won him the Oscar for a reason.
But It's a tighter, pulpier, one-day thriller — none of American Gangster's patience or historical sweep.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Founder2016
Same engine, legal costume: an outsider spots a system nobody's exploiting properly, scales it ruthlessly, and pays for it in soul rather than prison time.
Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, ruthlessly building the McDonald's empire on borrowed ideas and broken partnerships — capitalism doing legally what Lucas does illegally.
But There's no violence and no cops, so if the crime itself was the draw, this will feel oddly toothless.

More like this (7)
Carlito's Way1993
A drug lord trying to go straight, told with real melancholy and De Palma's showiest camerawork — the tragic mirror to Lucas's empire-building.
But It's slower and sadder than you'd expect, more elegy than thriller.

The French Connection1971
The Richie Roberts side of the story, basically — a real detective grinding through a heroin case in grimy, unglamorous 1970s New York.
But No stars, no gloss, and the ending refuses you the satisfaction American Gangster gives.

American Made2017
Tom Cruise as a pilot smuggling drugs for the CIA — the same idea that America's own institutions enabled the trade, played with a lighter, breezier touch.
But It's a comedy-thriller at heart, and the tonal whiplash from Scott's film will be obvious.

New Jack City1991no page yet
Wesley Snipes runs a Harlem crack empire with cold corporate logic — a rawer, cheaper, more furious version of the same rise-and-fall story.
But The budget and pacing show; it's scrappier and more melodramatic than Scott's polish.
Blow Out1981
Another true-crime empire-builder, this time cocaine into America via a single charismatic hustler, with the same eventual reckoning with family and law.
But It leans harder into tragic-romantic biopic beats and less into procedural detail.

Public Enemies2009
Michael Mann's take on John Dillinger gives you the same handsome, doomed outlaw-versus-lawman shape, just moved back forty years to the Depression.
But Mann's digital cinematography is divisive, and the romance subplot slows the momentum.

Cocaine Cowboys2006
It's the nonfiction version of the same American-Dream-through-narcotics arc, minus the score and the cinematography, just people who lived it explaining why they did.
A documentary about the Miami drug trade of the 70s and 80s, told by the actual smugglers and cops involved — the real texture behind the myth Scott dramatizes.
But Talking-head interviews and archival footage instead of movie stars; it trades drama for testimony.

People
Cast
Denzel WashingtonFrank Lucas
Russell CroweRichie Roberts
Josh BrolinDetective Trupo
Chiwetel EjioforHuey Lucas
Cuba Gooding Jr.Nicky Barnes
Lymari NadalEva
Ted LevineLou Toback
Armand AssanteDominic Cattano
John OrtizJavier J. Rivera
John HawkesFreddie Spearman
RZAMoses Jones
Yul VazquezAlfonso Abruzzo
Directing
- Ridley ScottDirector
- Darin RivettiFirst Assistant Director
- Mary A. KellyScript Supervisor
- Noreen R. CheledenSecond Assistant Director
- Alexander WittSecond Unit Director
Writing
- Mark JacobsonAuthor
- Steven ZaillianScreenplay
Production
- Avy KaufmanCasting
- Elizabeth GreenbergCasting Associate
- Jonathan FilleyCo-Producer
- Andrew Francis FenadyExecutive In Charge Of Production
- Branko LustigExecutive Producer
- Jim WhitakerExecutive Producer
- Michael CostiganExecutive Producer
- Nicholas PileggiExecutive Producer
- Steven ZaillianExecutive Producer
- Brian GrazerProducer
- Ridley ScottProducer
- Patrick Tendai PfupajenaProduction Assistant
- Angela QuilesProduction Coordinator
Recommended by
GoodFellas, The Departed, The Godfather Part II, Donnie Brasco, The Town, The Public Enemy, Scarface, The Seven Five, Traffic, American Hustle, Inside Man, Layer Cake, Training Day, Malcolm X, Power, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger, Prince of the City, Carlito's Way, Public Enemies, Snowfall, Body of Lies, The Irishman, Black Mass