Factual error: If you pay attention to the backgrounds of the scene where Frank is in the airport and when Frank is being arrested as he walks from the church, you can see two cars pass by which weren't produced until at least 2000.
American Gangster (2007)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Cuba Gooding Jr., Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Armand Assante
Factual error: At the end of the film, the subtitles say that Frank was convicted and incarcerated from 1976 to 1991, which implies a continuous sentence. Lucas was actually paroled in 1981, and served a separate sentence for other drug-related offenses from 1984-91.
Factual error: In a shot in Harlem, a Ford Econoline AVIS rental truck drives on the adjacent street. The specific Econoline van was at least a mid-90's to 2000+ model van and the movie takes place in the 70s.
Richie Roberts: This man murdered thousands, and he did it from a penthouse and driving a Lincoln.
Question: What was the whole thing of not wanting to turn in the $987,000 they found in the car because it would make them appear untrustworthy? Why would all cops distrust them for handing it in? I get that dirty cops would be annoyed but when they were counting it in the precinct, every cop was drawing them daggers.
Question: A "modified" racing stock car, white with the number 1 on it, appears in the scene when Frank Lucas is calling home to North Carolina for his brothers to join him up north. One brother answers the phone on the garage wall and when he heads toward the house the camera scans the yard following him and there is a white stock car parked in the yard, does anybody know the significance to the movie? Can you tell if it is a red, white and blue number 1 on the side? Charlie Jarzombek's car?
Question: The pharmacist from Desperate Housewives called Russell Crowe a kike. What's that?
Answer: "Kike" is an ethnic slur that refers to Jews. To elaborate, when illiterate Jewish immigrants would be asked to sign their names on Ellis Island, they would simply put a circle on the signature line. The Yiddish word for "circle" is "kikel."
Illiterate immigrant Jews were actually asked to sign "X," and it was their aversion to writing an "X" that compelled them to use a circle.
Answer: The idea is if cops wouldn't take a million dollars for themselves, free and clear without risk, they are impeccably honest. Therefore, they wouldn't accept bribes and probably not hold still for shakedowns or payoffs. They wouldn't cover up drug or weapon planting and would testify against crooked cops.