‘American Gangster’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan
Episode
120 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Career Growth, Productivity, Leadership
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Production Evolution: American Gangster cycled through multiple directors including David Fincher, Brian De Palma, and Antoine Fuqua before Ridley Scott took over. Denzel Washington received his first $20 million paycheck as pay-or-play, meaning he kept the money even when production stalled, demonstrating how star power protects actors during development hell.
- ✓Structural Imbalance: The film attempts to balance two separate narratives—Frank Lucas building his heroin empire and detective Richie Roberts investigating corruption—but neither story receives adequate focus. Removing the fabricated child custody subplot and expanding Frank's Vietnam drug operation or Trupo's corruption would have created a more cohesive film with stronger thematic resonance.
- ✓Josh Brolin's Breakout: Brolin delivered career-defining performances in both American Gangster and No Country for Old Men in 2007 after years in the wilderness following child actor roles. His portrayal of corrupt detective Trupo showcased range that launched him into consistent A-list work including Sicario, True Grit, and the Dune franchise over the next fifteen years.
- ✓Denzel's Career Shift: American Gangster marks the beginning of Denzel Washington's transition from traditional leading man to selective entity who chooses projects based purely on personal interest rather than commercial appeal. His 2000-2007 run from Remember the Titans through American Gangster represents an eight-year peak with consistent high-quality output across multiple genres.
- ✓Historical Fabrication Backlash: The film faced Oscar campaign sabotage when fact-checking revealed 99% of the story was fabricated—Frank Lucas never dominated the mafia, the coffin heroin smuggling operation likely never existed, and Richie Roberts never had a child. This represented an early example of accuracy controversies affecting awards consideration in the internet era.
What It Covers
The Rewatchables celebrates its 400th movie with American Gangster, analyzing Ridley Scott's 2007 crime epic starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, examining its troubled production history, casting choices, and legacy in the gangster film canon.
Key Questions Answered
- •Production Evolution: American Gangster cycled through multiple directors including David Fincher, Brian De Palma, and Antoine Fuqua before Ridley Scott took over. Denzel Washington received his first $20 million paycheck as pay-or-play, meaning he kept the money even when production stalled, demonstrating how star power protects actors during development hell.
- •Structural Imbalance: The film attempts to balance two separate narratives—Frank Lucas building his heroin empire and detective Richie Roberts investigating corruption—but neither story receives adequate focus. Removing the fabricated child custody subplot and expanding Frank's Vietnam drug operation or Trupo's corruption would have created a more cohesive film with stronger thematic resonance.
- •Josh Brolin's Breakout: Brolin delivered career-defining performances in both American Gangster and No Country for Old Men in 2007 after years in the wilderness following child actor roles. His portrayal of corrupt detective Trupo showcased range that launched him into consistent A-list work including Sicario, True Grit, and the Dune franchise over the next fifteen years.
- •Denzel's Career Shift: American Gangster marks the beginning of Denzel Washington's transition from traditional leading man to selective entity who chooses projects based purely on personal interest rather than commercial appeal. His 2000-2007 run from Remember the Titans through American Gangster represents an eight-year peak with consistent high-quality output across multiple genres.
- •Historical Fabrication Backlash: The film faced Oscar campaign sabotage when fact-checking revealed 99% of the story was fabricated—Frank Lucas never dominated the mafia, the coffin heroin smuggling operation likely never existed, and Richie Roberts never had a child. This represented an early example of accuracy controversies affecting awards consideration in the internet era.
Notable Moment
The hosts debate whether Michael Mann directing American Gangster would have created his second-greatest film after Heat, arguing Mann's expertise with period crime stories, complex character dynamics, and location shooting in places like the Golden Triangle would have elevated the material beyond Ridley Scott's overstuffed approach.
Episode Transcript
This podcast is sponsored by PayPal. Let's talk holiday shopping. Make the most of your money with PayPal. They give you the flexibility to pay in four. No fees. No interest. So whether it's the must have toy or a tiered cheese board, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/payin for PayPal Inc, n m l s, nine one zero four five seven. This episode is brought to you by United Airlines. Here's something worth watching, the award winning United Airlines app. On every trip, you can flip through time saving travel hacks, like a personalized airport map with door to gate directions, binge watch real time flight updates, like a live calendar boarding, even if your home screen's locked, and watch it automatically move you from a middle seat to an aisle or a window if one opens up on your flight. Get it before your next trip at united.com/app. The rewatchables brought to you by the ringer podcast network, where you can find the watch with Chris Ryan still cranking you back. Yeah. Ben Lathan. You got urine three podcasts now. Yeah. College football tailgate. The we call it the ringer tailgates college football podcast. Yep. Coming live on Saturdays. Yeah. Wednesdays as well, plus student higher learning plus, midnight. Pew pew pew. There you go. Yeah. Finally onboarding. I'm Bill Simmons. This is the four hundredth movie we've done on the rewatchables. Wow. I was looking back at all the people. So Fantasy is in Telluride, so he couldn't be here. But Fantasy was a huge part of this podcast really since we launched it in 2017. We'll tell the story in a second. Shay Serrano, Jay Concepcion Yeah. Really big parts of the first, like, first half of of the feed. Kyle Brandt, huge part of the last five years. We've had Mallory and Dobbins and Wesley, Koppelman, Rossello, Juliet. All of them popped out many times. Tarantino toys. Three times. I was, I was getting to that. Oh, sorry. Three times. We've had some, some extended cameos from Joe, Joe, Joanna Robinson, big waz, green wild, Rember Chang, Mina Kimes, Logan Murdoch, Cousin Sal, Chuck Klosterman, the Dannies with Craig a couple times. We had Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, Bill Hader, Aaron Sorkin, Judd Apatow, Bill Lawrence, Jimmy Kimmel, all making memorable stop bys. Jennifer Lawrence has stopped by not as memorable. She didn't understand the categories. My wife was on an episode. Oh, that's right. My dad was on an episode with me and CR for my fiftieth birthday. We did Shawshank Redemption. That was great. Craig's wife was on an episode. When she was my assistant, she requested country strong polarizing strong. Polarizing episode. We originally produced by wife. Liz Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. Liz Kelly. Yeah. I'm just saying Craig's wife. No. Yeah. He said his wife, the Conners. That's true. Yeah. Zach Mack, original producer. Nephew Kyle did a few. Jason …
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“Brolin delivered career-defining performances in both American Gangster and No Country for Old Men in 2007”
“His 2000-2007 run from Remember the Titans through American Gangster represents an eight-year peak with consistent high-quality output”
“The Rewatchables celebrates its 400th movie with American Gangster, analyzing Ridley Scott's 2007 crime epic starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe”
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