American Gangster Sociology

American Gangster Many issues affecting politics take place behind closed doors. Some of the events that take place which influence political decisions can stem from sociological, cultural, and political issues. American Gangster does a great job of conveying how each of these issues effect different aspects of today’s government. In this movie, Denzel Washington’s character (Frank Lucas) demonstrates how sociological influence can be exploited to gain power and wealth. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a disciplined and intelligent black gangster, runs much of Harlem and imparts his wisdom onto his former driver turned right-hand man, Frank Lucas. Frank was there with Bumpy when he did all of his drug deals and thus Lucas started to
Richie at one point in the movie reveals his good morals by opening up the trunk of a car loaded with money from a drug deal. He takes every bit of the money and turns it into his police department though his partner wants to take a portion, if not all of it, for themselves. He becomes a popular topic because everyone cannot believe he didn’t take any of the money. Most of the other cops take money or drugs during different oppurtunities in the movie. A few of these cops make Frank give them money in exchange for not getting arrested for selling drugs. As Frank gains more power and wealth he buys a nightclub where he furthers his image as the cultural head of the nightlife. Only the bad cops and a select few others knew Frank’s actual source of income was from being a drug lord. No one ever did anything about it because if Frank went to jail, they would have to pay more for a lesser drug. As the movie progresses, Frank becomes more and more sloppy and too confident in his power and authority. Frank eventually wears a fur coat to the “Fight of the Century” while sitting in better seats than the Italian mafia. Richie Roberts sees this and realizes that Frank has to have gained this status by means other than his night clubs. Politicians often use their cultural backgrounds to relate to the people whom are voting for them. For instance, Barack Obama uses the fact that he grew up as a poor black person as a common ground to gain votes from people who grew up in a similar manner or culture. In the film Lucas does almost the same thing- capitalizing on the fact he grew up in a black rural culture with drugs being prevalent. Not only does the film show that aspect of cultural implications, it also demonstrates how cultural influences and power helped Richie Roberts and led to the demise