Jesus made it very clear, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). He holds us to a standard where “good” simply isn’t enough. So what does this mean, then, for “good” men? What does this mean for the just and upright, the honorable? What does it mean for good cops like Richie Robbins, who once found 5 million dollars and turned in every cent of it? And Richie is an especially worthy cop to mention here. He, with his team, brought down Harlem’s most dangerous drug lord and crime boss: Frank Lucas. Their story is the highlight of the big screen this fall as Ridley Scott’s latest film American Gangster has stormed the box office.

            This is an amazing real movie. Scott’s directorial gifts are in full display as he brings this true story to the big screen in not only epic proportions but with gritty realism and graphic detail (more on this in a moment). The movie chronicles the rise and fall of the Frank Lucas drug empire, and the cop that brought him down. The movie revels in contrasts. So in a brilliant scene we get the stark contrast between Frank Lucas’ family thanksgiving meal and the sickening decay of the drug users he has made his money off of. The one is a scene of love and warmth, split with other scene of coldness and death. This disturbing scene highlights even more the contrast within Frank Lucas himself. Here is a man who on the one hand loves his family and cares so deeply about their preservation that he will do anything for them. He teaches his brothers about the important features of business: integrity, honesty, and family. And in the same scene he gets up from their coffee shop table walks across the street and blows a hole in a man’s head for not paying for his drugs. Frank’s success, which is built of evil, is also contrasted with Richie’s meager life, which is the result of honesty. The two live in different worlds, but just how different are they.

            In what is surely one of the most striking scenes in the movie we see Richie Robbins, the good cop, battling for custody of his son. Across the isle sits his ex-wife and it is from her very lips that we get clued into one of the major themes of this movie. Richie apologizes to her for not being able to financial support their family, but begs her not to take his son away. He says that he should not be punished for being “honest.” What he implies here is that she is mad at him for not taking bribes or drug money (like all the other cops in New Jersey and New York). Her response is astounding. “You think you’re going to heaven for being honest,” she yells at Richie, “but you’re going to the same hell” as the dirty cops. Hypocrisy is prevalent throughout the film. As Scott continues to show us the terrible underbelly of the real 1970s drug scene, he joins it with a real picture of the sickness that is sin and total depravity. In this movie even the “good guys” are hell bound. Of course as Christians we know that there is redemption. Scott too has an idea about redemption, but his fails to do justice to reality of sin. No matter how many dirty cops Richie gets put away, no matter how many crime lords he brings down he still has to face up to his own internal sin, his own dishonesty to his ex-wife and son. If Ridley Scott is trying to create a picture of just how the real world, at least in the 1970s, was his form of humanistic redemption is also real, and it is just as ineffective on the big screen as it is in real life.

            I was thoroughly surprised by this film. Overall it is a thought provoking film, but one whose realistic portrayal and graphic violence and decay makes it at points almost unbearable.  It is as the friend who accompanied me to the movie said, “It’s not a film you enjoy watching, but it is definitely thought provoking.” I couldn’t agree more. I didn’t enjoy watching American Gangster, but I won’t soon forget its themes.