Goofs for
American Gangster (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: Moses Jones (played by 'RZA' of the Wu Tang Clan) sports a prominent Wu Tang Clan tattoo on his left upper arm, especially visible in the first briefing scene of the newly formed narcotics unit. Additionally, upon close examination, the tattoo features his name 'RZA' set inside the Wu Tang Clan logo.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Just after Frank hears the news of the imminent fall of Saigon on TV and goes to ring his contact, we see a modern car drive past the window.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The subway train shown going into the Manhattan Valley tunnel was built in 1986.
  
  

• Errors in geography: The scene where Richie and his partner find money in the trunk of a car has a caption that says "New Jersey". The view in the beginning of the scene is of the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to the Lower East Side in Manhattan.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In some scenes we can see Citicorp Center. This building was not present in the early 1970s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In some scenes when snow is falling, the broad-leaf trees in the background have green (summer) leaves.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene set in 1968 where Frank prepares to call his cousin in Bangkok for the first time, an Internet URL is clearly seen on a billboard across the street.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Frank drives past a sign saying I-395, when in fact, the road in Washington, D.C. was not named so until the late seventies.
  
  
• Continuity: When detective Richie is chasing the guy in the apartment complex he pumps his shot gun and points it in the face of a woman. After realizing this mistake he resumes his pursuit and pumps the shotgun yet again in the face of the man on the ground without firing a round.
  
  
• Errors in geography: A distant mountain range is visible in a location identified as Fort Bragg, NC; no such mountains exist around Pope Air Force Base which serves Ft. Bragg.
  
  
• Anachronisms: On the payphone the label "A NYNEX Company" is visible; NYNEX didn't exist until after the AT&T breakup in 1984.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Javier jumps from the ambulance, a postal service truck with the current logo is visible; this logo wasn't used until the 1990s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When speaking with his nephew the baseball player in a scene set in 1972, Frank confronts him because the nephew missed a meeting he set up with the New York Yankees and Billy Martin. However, Martin did not manage the Yankees until 1975; he was managing the Detroit Tigers from 1971 to 1973.
  
  
• Continuity: In the movie they said Stevie is a southpaw, but you can see that when he throws the ball in the backyard of Frank's house, he is clearly right handed.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Early in the film, about 1970, we see the Staten Island Ferry passing the Statue of Liberty holding a gilded torch. The statue's internally lit torch wasn't replaced with the gilded one until 1986.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Ritchie chases the car over the George Washington Bridge, the film claims that Ritchie is coming from New Jersey to Manhattan, where he doesn't have jurisdiction. In fact, he begins to tail the suspect on the Manhattan side of the George Washington Bridge going into New Jersey, then winds back up in New York.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There is a scene of Frank Lucas watching Nicky Barnes passing out copies of the NY Times magazine where he was the cover story. The issue with Barnes on the cover was not published until 1977, Lucas was arrested and convicted before 1977.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Frank first calls his cousin in Bangkok, he gives the operator the country code for Thailand as 376. Later, as the war is ending, he gives the operator the country code as 367. (Thailand's actual calling code is 66).
  
  
• Anachronisms: In one of the scenes at Fort Bragg/Pope AFB, you can clearly see a modern-day C-17 Globemaster III in the background. These planes weren't added to the Air Forces inventory until 1993.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, Frank Lucas was said to have been incarcerated from 1976 to 1991 continuously. In real life, Lucas was in fact paroled in 1981. He remained free for three years until he was arrested and convicted of parole violations and drug offenses in 1984 and was sent back to prison until he was released in 1991.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first courtroom scene, when Richie is speaking with his attorney, the camera angle alternates between a wide shot of both and one of Richie from behind his attorney. In the wide shot, his arm is straight across the bench behind her, while in the shot from her back, his arm is hanging behind the bench. This alternation between shots occurs many times.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Frank Lucas confronts 'Tango' outside the shop, he pulls out a chrome .45 Colt automatic, then the weapon changes to a chrome Browning Hi-Power in the subsequent scene.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Night time shots clearly show streets lit with high pressure sodium lamps that give a warm red/orange glow. These were not introduced until the mid 1980's.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Subway trains: During the period of the film's setting, acceptable subway trains would have been anything from R40 and before. The popular subway cars would have been any of the BMT standard, R1/9, R10-R33 cars. Even though cars of a similar design to the 1986 one shown would have been in existence, they would have been very new and very rare.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Richie receives a letter sometime around 1970 saying that he has been admitted to the New Jersey bar. The letter refers to his passing the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. In 1975, California became the first state to introduce a Professional Responsibility Examination. The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, based on California's test, wasn't introduced until 1980.
  
  
• Continuity: During the chase of the Bronco after the $20,000 drug purchase inner-vehicle shots of Roberts show a Torino name plate on the dash board although exterior shots of the chase show them in a Cadilac.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Cars with NJ license plates featured the present-day bright yellow and white plates, which were not introduced until the early 1990s. In the early 1970s, NJ used off-white license plates.
  
  
• Continuity: When Det. Roberts moves Frank Lucas' picture to the top of the board, Dominic Cattano's picture next to it goes from facing forward to facing sideways and back to facing forward in different shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Many of the movie's Harlem street scenes feature current-day spray-painted graffiti tags and even some much larger "pieces" that would not have existed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This appears to be a common problem for movie producers filming period pieces at the current time, due to the proliferation of graffiti tags in the urban landscape.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Frank arrives in Bangkok, there's a scene where a blue Vespa PK (or PX) appears in the road crowd. Unfortunately those models didn't came up in to the market before late-70s or early-80s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene set at Smalls, the camera looks up at the Funk band singer who appears on stage after Joe Louis. On the ceiling is a Martin Atomic 3000 strobe with a DMX cable connected. DMX was not created until 1986, and the Atomic was not introduced by Martin until 2001.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In a scene set around Harlem in 1968, Bumpy Johnson laments having a McDonald's fast food restaurant on every street corner. However, the first McDonald's in New York City wasn't opened until the early 1970s - in Harlem.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Banknote counter. In a scene we can see a bill counter with a numeric green LED display. Computerized bill counters were not introduced to the market before 1981.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Street signs shown in the movie are green with white lettering. Street signs in the 70's were actually yellow with black lettering.
  
  
• Continuity: When Detective Richie commandeers the cab and knocks the cab driver out, the knocked out driver disappears and reappears in scenes following the Ford Bronco through the turns on passenger side of cab.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The C-130 pictured carrying the first drug shipment (in the late 1960s) is a C-130H3, a type that was not produced until 1992.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In a scene in the winter of 1970-1, as the task force is tracking a sale of "Blue Magic" at night, the suspect is scene stepping out of a 1974 BMW 2002.
  
  
• Continuity: When Det. Roberts is lifting weights, discs attached to the olympic bar vary from shot to shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When the federal agents are leaving the office, after warning Richie he has a contract out for him, one agent puts his hat on and is seen putting it on again after a cutaway shot back to Richie.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where the dirty cops steal money from the drug dealer, a newer white service van can be seen in the background. This van is a 1990's model.
  
  
• Factual errors: The C-130 in the movie is actually a C-130A; check the pylon tanks and the 3-bladed props. Also, at that time period (Vietnam), C-130's were painted in a camouflage pattern. The gray overall paint scheme wasn't introduced until the late 1980's or early 1990's.
  
  
• Factual errors: Richie Roberts drives a rear-engined Volkswagen 1600 Variant. Richie opens the front trunk without pulling the trunk opener located in glove compartment.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the scene where Richie is walking with his wife and son, the park is overflow by a 747, which would not have been possible for at least another year since they didn't start commercially flying until 1970.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Ridley Scott's reflection is visible on a television set during the scene where Detective Trupo is searching the Lucas residence. There's a brief glimpse of Scott while the television is showing the caskets of deceased American GIs, right before cutting away to Russell Crowe in the cargo hold of a C-130 examining caskets.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank is being released from prison, a woman with a purse is seen walking by from the left hand side of the screen. She appears at the same time as a man wearing an over sized t-shirt appears on the right hand side of the screen. The action cuts to a close up of Frank's face, then back to the street, where the same pair is seen walking by again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the film, when Frank Lucas is released from prison and is standing on the sidewalk in front of the prison, an 'extra' walks from the right of the screen to the left and passes. In the next shot the same man is shown passing the same way.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A number of cars in the 1968 scenes at the very beginning are actually 70's cars; one clear example is the 1973 boattail Buick Riviera.
  
  
• Anachronisms: American slang didn't include the word "aight" until the 1990s, yet it is heard all through this film by different characters.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where they are removing the drugs from the caskets. The use battery operated screw guns not available until the 90s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The style and complexity of the graffiti throughout the film is representative of styles from the '80s and on.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where Richie and Javier serve Campizi the subpoena, you can see fire alarm horn/strobes that were not available until the mid 1990's. Other instances of buildings with modern fire alarm system devices are viewable in the movie.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The street sign shown outside the store where Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson dies says "8 Ave". That corner is 135th Street and Broadway.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end of the movie, after Frank's initial court appearance, he and Richie are alone in a room talking. If you watch closely, the positions of the coffee stirrers in the cups change several times. From pointing in the same direction to different, then back again.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the extended version of the film, there is a scene in which Richie and his team are listening to a wiretap they have placed on a phone in a business that is supposed to be in New Jersey. The scene was actually filmed on West 125th Street, between Broadway and Riverside Drive in Harlem. Prominent in the scene is "The Cotton Club," which opened at that location in 1978, and is named after the legendary Harlem club of the 1920s and 1930s, which was located at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Richie Roberts is both the lead detective and the prosecutor in the case against Frank Lucas. This is not permitted in any American courtroom, as Richie as a potential witness could never act as an attorney in the same case.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Detective Roberts is driving a commandeered taxi as he follows a drug dealer with $20,000 bait money, Roberts drives the wrong way through some oncoming traffic before catching up to the car he's following. As he turns a corner three modern cars can quite clearly be seen parked on the left hand side, including a silver SUV (looks like a Porsche Cayenne), a blue saloon and a gold estate / station wagon.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, Bumpy Johnson dies in New York City on a day there are flurries outside. Bumpy Johnson died on July 7, 1968, during the summer.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Just after Bumpy is giving away turkeys, there is a Don't Walk sign at the left of the screen, and it's clear that "DON'T WALK" is written on a black sheet that has been attached to the sign.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The tops of the fire hydrants seen in the movies were not introduced until the 1990s. They would have a much different look if they were from the 1970s.
  
  
• Continuity: Frank is introduced to a Mr. Svbota at his cocktail party. Frank asks what he can get him, and Mr. Svbota responds with "how about a left hander Charlie says is your nephew." Later in the movie, Stevie Lucas can be seen in the backyard of Frank's house playing catch with another relative, and he's throwing the baseball right handed. Frank then goes on to ask him why he didn't show up for a meeting he scheduled with the Yankees and Billy Martin.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Frank's house is raided by federal agents in the 1970s, a set of mid-1990s Encyclopedia Brittanica can be seen clearly on his bookshelves.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Frank and Dominic are shooting clays and Dominic opens his breech to eject the spent shells, the sound of a pump action is heard, although the gun is an over-under with a break-open action.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In one of the early scenes, Frank is in his apartment recording some figures in a notebook. He reaches over to the table and keys in some numbers on a slim electronic calculator of the type not available until a decade later.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1968 Saigon, Frank's cousin Nate uses modern terms like "a'ight" for "all right" and "fiddy" for "fifty".
  
  

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