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List Price: $22.99 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 15507
Released: June 10, 2008 |
| Our Price: $13.48 |
| Used Price: $13.28 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The record-breaking, suspense-filled American Gangster is back! See an in-depth look into the life and times of the 20th century’s most notorious African American crime figures. In a forensic survey of the rise and fall of these plagues to the community, American Gangster speaks to a generation who isn’t sure if crime pays. After viewing this hard-hitting show, there will be no doubt that the wages of sin are death.
American Gangster - The Complete Second Season Reviews:
A Twisted Version of the Dream 
2009-11-17 - For public consumption, BET contends that 'American Gangster' "explores without glorifying, and investigates without celebrating" the black criminals who are its subjects. In practice, 'American Gangster' wears its admiration for such thugs on its sleeve. In Season 2's first episode, devoted to the Philly Black Mafia, Barry Michael Cooper shows how it's done. Having written the screenplay for the 1991 Wesley Snipes crime thriller 'New Jack City,' Cooper serves as an authority on all things street for 'American Gangster.' "Maybe this sounds twisted," he says, "but I think there was a sense of accomplishment that we could organize and get things done amongst ourselves. Now it just happened to be that the milieu was crime. Maybe this is a twisted version of having the Dream and overcome [sic] it."
Cooper is right about one thing. This is twisted. "As young black males, we grow up saluting and celebrating death," remarks rapper Mistah F.A.B. in the episode devoted to Oakland heroin kingpin Felix (Fee) Mitchell, stabbed to death by fellow inmates in Leavenworth Penitentiary two days before his 32nd birthday. "We grow up idolizing these street icons. You know, we don't grow up sayin' I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a doctor. We say, man, I want to be like Fee." Delivering a similar testimonial outside the projects decades after Fee met his untimely demise, a resident named Shamu swears, "Felix Mitchell was the guy. Straight up. The man loved his people. You know what I'm sayin'? When we was growing up in here, you can't tell me one family that went hongry in these two projects. Not one family!" No word from Shamu as to how many of these well-fed families paid with their lives for the heroin that financed Mitchell's largess.
But this silence is in keeping with 'American Gangster's pretense that the only victims of black criminals are the criminals themselves, who are persecuted by the white power structure. In an episode dealing with multistate bank robber Chaz Williams, for example, narrator Ving Rhames asserts, "All of the banks that Chaz's crew robbed were federally insured. No citizens lost savings." Say what? Evidently Ving thinks that the FDIC, which guarantees deposits in member banks against institutional failure, also covers losses due to theft, which is untrue. Moreover, who if not citizens does Mr. Rhames suppose pays for the insurance policies that banks buy from private carriers?
Slyly weaving such falsehoods into elaborate conspiracy theories, 'American Gangster' has propelled BET (which reaches more than 88 million households in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean) to the highest ratings in their 26-year history. But not everyone is thrilled. "Some of these Satanic Jews have taken over BET," railed the Nation of Islam's Minister Louis Farrakhan, deploring the image 'American Gangster' presents of black people. "See, we look like we're the murderers; we look like we're the gangsters." Anti-Semitism aside, Farrakhan has a point. 'American Gangster' isn't out to instill black pride. (Four of the show's five executive producers are white.) The show's mission is to score big ratings for Viacom, the $22 billion conglomerate that owns BET. By that standard, 'American Gangster' is a smashing success. Not only is it cable's #1 weekday original series among black households, it has crossed over to the white market, with A&E airing reruns on both its international Crime & Investigation programming and its domestic Biography Channel, and Paramount Home Entertainment attending to worldwide sales of DVDs. Obviously, lionizing black gangsters is big business, and crime after all does pay.
American Gangster - The first & second Season 
2009-03-16 - Both DVD's deal with black gangsters and their survival in the drug world. These documentaries uniquely include the gangsters telling their life's experiences concommitently with law enforcement personel who worked their cases. Listening to these gangsters gives one insite into the criminal mind. Excellent DVD's for college courses in sociology, psychology, and criminal behavior, law enforsement, and criminal profiling.
UPBEAT AND PERSONAL!!!! 
2009-01-26 - If you ever want to know what has or is going on in your neighborhood, then you need to watch any of the "American Gangster" cd's. Take it from me i never knew so much has taken place right in my own backyard!!!
American Gangster - The Complete Second Season 
2008-09-09 - The DC sniper is not Gangster in any way shape or form. If there is a season three which I am hoping and waiting for, I would like to see REAL GANGSTERS like the real 50 Cent and others.
Too good to miss!
2008-08-31 - Not only do you get a real look into the lives of mostly high profile drug dealers and those people and large communities (often metropolitan cities) affected by the drug dealers' actions, you also get an look at the corruption within the United States government, FBI, CIA, and other government divisions which is far too often kept under the radar by the mainstream media. It is very sad to know how corrupt the government is, how free speech within the United States media is just an illusion (you'll notice a reoccurring true life theme of how those journalists who exposed government corruption were always blackballed in their media careers and harassed by the government), AND have a close up into what some people would do to their own neighborhoods and families for money.
Not only do I highly recommend both the 1st and 2nd season DVDs but I would want every single American to view it. I WOULD REALLY URGE PARENTS TO VIEW THESE DVDs WITH THEIR CHILDREN (probably ages 13-17). These documentaries are that important!
In addition to being an excellent educational tool both DVDs are intense, thrilling, and easily kept the attention of myself and my friends. It is worth every penny of its price!
