“A leader, like a shepherd.
He sends his fastest nimble sheep
out front and the others will fol-
low. While the shepherd, he walks
quietly behind it,” a philosophy
of a leadership agreed by his for-
mer boss and has been the root
of the way Frank deals his dirty
work as well as the exhibition
of explicit and undeniably real-
istic-looking intravenous drug
use and bloody gun violence by
the excellent cast in this film.
Frank decides to personal-
ly buy the dope or heroin during
the Vietnam war by flying to Thai-
land and using the trick of hiding
the heroin in the coffins of fallen
American army who has bravely
served for democracy. The heroin
is sold at a very cheap price, twice
as good for half as much, resulting
the people to buy his heroin, Blue
Magic rather than other brands in
the market. The character Frank
Lucas is really meant for Den-
zel Washington. He effortlessly
depicts the character of Frank, a
stubborn yet determine person,
as well as a grown man who sticks
to his own principle. Not to for-
get, Russell Crowe as an unkempt
officer who works day and night,
neglecting his family in order to
connect the dot and solve this no-
torious business he is coming after.
Scott is known for his se-
riousness and getting into detail. In
this film, audience will experience
how a drug addict slides his needle
into a clean arm and into the veins,
popping, and letting the audience
to be jumping in eagerness, waiting
to absorb the following hit scene.
There are moments where the cam-
era gives a close-up to the oozing
wound. In addition, the images are
metaphoric, something about the
oozing, bleeding and dead bodies of
the exploited underclass who suffers
from poverty and despair, never-
theless, mostly those are just graph-
ic evidence of the damage done.
Regardless of the irregular nod to
someone nodding out and even
dying, this is not about the suffer-
ing of addicts or of those forced to
watch their neighbourhoods per-
ish alongside them. It is mainly
about a classic story of good guys
versus bad guys, white hats and
black compromising at the corral
at 116th Street and Eighth Avenue.
The story teaches a lesson
or two on how business generally
110 . SASARAN JURNAL KRITIKAN MEDIA
works. He talks about the three fun-
damental things in business; hon-
esty, integrity and hard work. Even
though he is the head of a notori-
ous business, he profoundly shows
his affection and love towards his
family and reminding them not to
forget their roots. In this film, how-
ever, portrays the unpleasant and
nasty lesson about the logic of mar-
ket-driven radical individualism.
The evidence of racial prejudice and
the poverty environment that Frank
was born in has made him grow