Hacker Cinema
American Gangster
2007 · Film · 157 min
Directed by Ridley Scott
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
3 negative3 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Part of the movie “American Gangster” was filmed in the neighborhood I lived in. When I watched it, the breaks in continuity versus actual physical reality were so distracting that I had to turn it off within the first ten minutes.
I’m sure for anyone who didn’t literally live on the block where they were filming, this is an issue they would have never ever ever noticed, but for me it felt very much like a plumber problem and was basically a showstopper in terms of my ability to enjoy the movie.
It's a sort of hustler's paradise I imagine. Probably makes the "War Dogs" movie look amatuerish in retrospect. Or perhaps "American Gangster" is a more apt reference.
I'm sort of guessing here based on movies/things I have read since I ain't no money launderer, but I think locality to the source of money makes a huge difference. If you are a local drug dealer who makes all their money in their local currency in cash, then it is probably most efficient to open up some local business like a dry cleaner (i believe that's what one of the "businesses" they had in the movie american gangster) which "happens to make a bunch of money through pseudonymous cash". That way, you would only have to pay sales tax.
If you are selling to people outside your main currency though, you need someway to convert it back and "digital" transactions seem ideal so I can see the extra cost being worth it (you just happen to have a lot of american customers who like your digital product...)
> Are you not able to watch movies with guns because Rainbow Six taught you how guns work and now you're just too woke to suspend disbelief?
The people I know who shoot recreationally do get annoyed gun use in movies. Not "all movies are unwatchable", but OP specifically gave examples of movies he didn't object to. Sit down with a trap shooter and watch American Gangster - they'll probably grimace as the protagonist needlessly racks the gun over and over to make a cool noise.
If the rebuttal is "but that's real, not a game!", I think the point is being missed. Target shooting is not combat, after all. If someone spends hundreds of hours on a recreational version of something, they're that much more likely to be irritated by failures of research or realism.
I just watched the movie last night for the 2nd time, thinking that I was in for a completely fictionalized story, because I had uncritically accepted sensational blog titles like the one you linked to.
Turns out, the movie is a rather good depiction of the struggles that Nash went through. He published a groundbreaking paper as a grad student, married Alicia, suffered from schizophrenia, and learned how to manage it, eventually going back to Princeton as a damaged but wiser man, and worthy of a Nobel prize in economics. All of these major points were covered in the movie.
Nash himself found the movie to be close to reality, except that it may have suggested that he went back on newer antipsychotics--see the interview he gave to a Nobel reporter 10 years ago[1]. In fact, the movie was much more fair to his point of view than he admitted in the interview.
Some details of his life were left out, but his reputation as the "Ghost of Fine Hall" was preserved. I see the film as a fair presentation of his life, especially compared to the Hollywood standard for "true stories"--see The Hurricane, American Gangster, JFK, etc.
[1] http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=429
As in any genre there is a wide range of talent and musical ability among rap artists. The record industry is really good at printing one hit wonders and then burning them up. Those are probably the guys who are making the songs you are referring to. This is not unique to rap, it happens in pop, alternative, rock and roll, heavy metal and any other genre. I could easily say "metal is just screaming" or "alternative is all the same crappy guitar chords" and I would be kind of half right some of the time.
If you take a look at some of the more accomplished artists with staying power you will discover thoughtful lyrics and complicated music. Jay Z has been getting more and more musical over time. The American Gangster soundtrack was an explosion of funky horns and beats that really set the tone of the album to that of the film. Death of Autotune doesn't have an electronic note on the track. This is not to mention the vast pool of talent in the underground hip hop and rap scene, which is something you should really investigate if you are going to give the genre an honest examination.
If you don't care for rap music that's fine, but saying "it all sounds the same" just makes it obvious you don't ever listen to rap music. What would you think of me if I said all classical music sounds the same?