American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime drama movie. It is set in New York City, New Jersey, Thailand and Vietnam. Denzel Washington stars as real life African American drug smuggler Frank Lucas. Russell Crowe stars as the detective determined to stop the drug empire controlled by Lucas. The movie was released in November 2007. Despite being set in the late 1960s and the 1970s, the movie has many anachronisms.