American Gangster is a good film, though probably not a great one. The New York magazine article detailing the life and times of Frank Lucas is, however, pretty remarkable:
Of the dozens of smuggling operations he ran from Asia, Frank still rates "the Henry Kissinger deal" as an all-time favorite. To hear Frank tell it, he and Ike were desperate to get 125 keys out of town, but there weren't any "friendly" planes scheduled leaving. "All we had was Kissinger. He was on a mercy mission on account of big cyclones in Bangladesh. We knew a cook on the plane and gave $100,000 to some general to look the other way. I mean, who the fuck is gonna search fucking Henry Kissinger's plane?
". . . Henry Kissinger! Wonder what he'd say if knew he helped smuggle all that dope into the country? . . . Hoo hahz poot zum dope in my aero-plan? Ha ha ha . . ."
And I wonder if Tyler Cowen has seen this bit showing how mega-retailers eke out efficiencies by being too big for gangsters too coerce:
A couple of days later, eating at a T.G.I. Friday's, Lucas scowled through glareproof glass to the suburban strip beyond. "Look at this shit," he said. A giant Home Depot down the road especially bugged him. Bumpy Johnson himself couldn't have collected protection from a damn Home Depot, he said with disgust. "What would Bumpy do? Go in and ask to see the assistant manager? Place is so big, you get lost past the bathroom sinks. But that's the way it is now. You can't find the heart of anything to stick the knife into."
Without offering any spoilers, at the film's start, this comment is repurposed as Bumpy Johnson lamenting the end of a certain era in Harlem -- now the stores aren't part of the community, and the people don't know you. Lucas, who actually said it, gives it a rather more sinister spin.
