I can't wait to rewatch this, one of the best films of the year! “I am not one to condemn anyone for anything that they do,” Roberts said after Lucas’s death. And living in the Jim Crow South took a toll on him. Frank Lucas in his later years. Frank Dux's Kumite Story Explained Bloodsport 's plot is based on Dux's own account that was originally published in Black Belt magazine by writer John Stewart. After supposedly hobnobbing with some of New York’s wealthiest and most famous folks in the early 1970s, the famously fur-clad Lucas was arrested in 1975, thanks in part to Roberts’ efforts (and some Mafia snitching). Although he was aware that Lucas was in poor health, he still found it hard to believe that he was really gone. “Bet your life on that.”) He instead said that he had a carpenter buddy flown in to make “28 copies” of government coffins rigged up with false bottoms. If this so-called “Cadaver Connection” story sounds like an impossible operation, it just might have been. In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina, for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover, Walid. Alan Ball is back with a new directorial feature, Uncle Frank, which whisks audiences back to the year of 1973. Veronica is based on a true story about the unsolved case of a young girl in Madrid in 1992 named Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro, who mysteriously died after using an Ouija board. ... Is 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' Based on a True Story? He said $100,000 of that was on a plane carrying Henry Kissinger, and that he at one point dressed up as a lieutenant colonel to aide in the operation. Loosely inspired by his family’s roots in Marietta, Georgia, Uncle Frank is a tender look at a closeted gay man in the 1970s (played by Paul Bettany) who returns home for his father’s funeral. With Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Steve Zahn. The image of Uncle Ben itself is based on that of a hotel employee. He eventually caught the eye of drug trafficker Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson — who acted as a mentor of sorts to Lucas and taught him everything he knew. What better medium to tell such a trumped-up tale than a Hollywood blockbuster? 41 horrifying photos of life in 1970s New York. Let’s explore the Uncle Frank character, while considering Alan Ball and Paul Bettany’s thoughts. Lucas likely would’ve been in prison for the rest of his life — if he didn’t become a government informant, enter the witness protection program, and ultimately help the DEA nab more than 100 drug-related convictions. How do you get past that?”, He continued to explain the parallels between Uncle Frank and his own experiences: “I think the way that he’s dealt with it is to leave town and build a new life for himself in New York, and think, ‘Okay, well, I left all that behind me.’ But you never really leave it behind you.”, Reflecting on the film’s message of “it’s never too late to start to heal from the worst thing that ever happened to you,” he adds: “In a way, Frank’s beginning of his healing process is a way for me to work on my continual healing process of my own.”. What better medium to tell such a trumped-up tale than a Hollywood blockbuster? The actors are excellent and the story rings true. He could be very likable, but I wouldn’t want to, well, I was on the wrong end of him. Based on a mid-2000s scandal in Roslyn, a well-off suburb of New York City, the movie tells the story of Superintendent Frank Tassone (a brilliantly creepy … Uncle Frank is a 2020 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Alan Ball. The former gangster died of natural causes in 2019. Read 2 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. It is also a film about the burden of the past in choices we make that can never be reversed. Alan himself is gay. With help from former U.S. Army sergeant Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, who just so happened to be married to one of his cousins, Lucas claimed to have smuggled more than $50 million worth of heroin into the U.S. But at the end of the day, beyond the ravages of his famous “Blue Magic,” Lucas was an admitted killer (“I killed the baddest motherf–ker. pic.twitter.com/shp5GSSJfV. While Lucas took Johnson’s teachings to the next level with his crime organization, there was a sad and ironic twist to Lucas’s desire to get back at the KKK members who murdered his cousin. Roberts had the chance to talk to Lucas just a few weeks before he died, and was able to tell him goodbye. Overall, Lucas managed to get through everything relatively unscathed and reportedly enriched. Lois, you've worked with him on True Blood in the past. YouTubeDuring the late 1960s and early 1970s, Frank Lucas built a heroin empire in Harlem. Yeah. According to the New York Post, Lucas received “$300,000 from Universal Pictures and another $500,000 from the studio and [Denzel] Washington to buy a house and a new car.”. But the core of the film is the emotional pain of her Uncle Frank. His nephew, who confirmed his death to the press, said that he died of natural causes. (“You should have seen me — I could really salute.”). (“No way I’m touching a dead anything,” he told Jacobson. No, Frank Bledsoe is not a real person. The True Story Of Frank Lucas, The Harlem Drug Lord Who Built A Heroin Empire. With time, the story has kept getting longer like Pinocchio’s nose.”. Director Alan Ball and actor Paul Bettany reimagine their own family histories in new movie Uncle Frank, about a closeted gay man coming out in the 1970s. She was driving and he describes that the loss changed his life: “… it’s something I’ve been running from for most of my early life… For years, I blamed myself because she was driving me to my piano lesson. Then, explore the rest of the city in 41 horrifying photos of life in 1970s New York. I am Frank's sister-in-law, so I'm a little bit of an outsider in the family too. Yes. True Blood and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball, who is gay, wrote and directed the new film, which takes place in 1973. Additionally, the theme of hidden sexuality struck a chord with Paul Bettany, who explained in an interview with CinemaBlend that he knows this still remains an issue: “I have a friend who is a first assistant director, who will remain nameless, who is still closeted to his family. “It is a total lie that’s fueled by Frank Lucas for personal gain,” Atkinson told the Toronto Star in 2008. The True Story Behind the Movie ... Based on the best-selling book I Heard You Paint ... the real Frank Sheeran was something between a crooked … Directed by Alan Ball. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt, with various anecdotes and stories of his childhood.It details his very early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, US but focuses primarily on his life in Limerick, Ireland.It also includes his struggles with poverty and his father's alcoholism.. David Howells/Corbis/Getty ImagesRichie Roberts, who is portrayed by actor Russell Crowe in the film American Gangster. “I wanted to be Donald Trump rich, and so help me God, I made it.” He claimed to be making $1 million per day at one point, but that, too, was later discovered to be an exaggeration. Have something to tell us about this article? And this movie is a gift. And ironically enough, Roberts eventually ended up getting in some trouble with the law himself — pleading guilty to tax crimes in 2017. (Roberts was later portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie.). But is it really true? Written and directed by Ball, “Uncle Frank” follows Beth Bledsoe (played by Sophia Lillis), a young woman eager to escape small-town South Carolina in the early 1970s. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Frank Lucas built a heroin empire in Harlem. But as he later wrote, this was a “massive mistake.” Apparently, Lucas’s coat caught the eye of law enforcement — who were surprised that he had better seats than Diana Ross and Frank Sinatra. If you’re unfamiliar with Lucas or with the film, here are some of the wildest details about his life (have a few grains of salt handy). And in America, and found himself in an industry where that is entirely acceptable, and he has still hidden that aspect of his life to protect his mother.”. Though the 2007 movie is supposedly “based on a true story” — starring Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas — many in Lucas’s orbit have said that the film is largely fabricated. “I wanted to be rich,” he told Jacobson. Frank did the right thing [by cooperating].”, “Did he cause a lot of pain and hardship? Is Frank Bledsoe based on a real person? But piecing together the truth of his life and his many misdeeds is a daunting task. 2007. It’s no wonder why Ridley Scott made American Gangster, a movie based on the life of Harlem heroin kingpin Frank “Superfly” Lucas. What a pleasure to watch. The Klan claimed that Obadiah had engaged in some “reckless eyeballing” of a white woman, so they fatally shot him. It is published by Picador as an ebook on 16 January. But is it a true story? So the two men decided to con their way to the top via a scandal that landed both of them in jail in 1964. Alan Ball wrote and directed Uncle Frank, and it's such a personal story to him. As Lucas put it: “I left that fight a marked man.”. {{#media.media_details}} Set in the 1970s, Uncle Frank is a road movie about a gay man who confronts his past. Thanks to his deadly brand of imported heroin, known as “Blue Magic,” he ended up wreaking havoc in Harlem — one of New York City’s most iconic Black neighborhoods. On a personal level, he was very charismatic. DEA agent Joseph Sullivan, who raided Lucas’s home back in 1975, said it’s closer to the single digits. The story of Uncle Frank was also inspired by the time Alan’s mother revealed to him that his father might have been gay. To his credit, Lucas said that he didn’t put the smack next to the bodies or inside the bodies as some legends have suggested. I laughed, I cried and from beginning to end I was thoroughly engaged. This is an edited extract from Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie. pic.twitter.com/I5pIy6a5W6, If you have not watched Uncle Frank, I highly recommend it. There was a contract on me at one time.”. ‘In Las Vegas I lost 500 Gs in half an hour playing baccarat with a green haired whore.’ Later, Superfly would tell a television interviewer that the figure was actually $20 million. Jacobson calls it his “most culturally pungent” claim to fame: “Of all the dreadful iconography of Vietnam — the napalmed girl running down the road, Calley at My Lai, etc., etc. The film adaptation of The Man From U.N.C.L.E imagines the origin story of this awkward duo, and, if the trailer is anything to go on, it wasn't always smooth sailings for the CIA-KGB duo. Not just in Harlem but in the world.”) and an admitted liar, on a grand scale. Find out where Uncle Frank (2020) is streaming, if Uncle Frank (2020) is on Netflix, and get news and updates, on Decider. The film stars Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis. From robbing local bars at gunpoint to swiping diamonds from jewelry stores, he slowly became bolder and bolder with his crimes. “Uncle Frank” was both written and directed by Mr. Ball, who won a screenplay Oscar 20 years ago for “American Beauty” and has since been a major force behind such series as … But that is all business. The former gangster died of natural causes in 2019. In any case, he was still determined to show off his newly acquired wealth. It's a beautifully heartbreaking film that's all too real with a excellent performance by Paul Bettany. The most well-known profile of the man, Mark Jacobson’s “The Return of Superfly” (which the film is largely based on), relies mostly on Lucas’s own firsthand account, which is full of boasts and braggadocio from a notorious “braggart, trickster, and fibber.”. THE TRUE STORY BEHIND ... claiming that the film “chronicles the true story of Frank Sheeran”—the real-life truck driver De Niro plays. — dope in the body bag, death begetting death, most hideously conveys ‘Nam’s spreading pestilence. Lucas reportedly fled to New York in 1946 — after beating up his former boss at a pipe company and robbing him of $400. Kellen Perry writes about television, history, music, art, video games, and food for ATI, 17 Photos That Show How Excruciating The Bataan Death March Really Was, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. He said, “You expected him to live forever.”. {{#media.focal_point}}. "Jack Seki is an extended Tanaka family member and is related to my other instructor who I met through Seki, Senzo Tanaka," Frank said. When he was 13-years-old, he was in a car accident which resulted in the death of his sister. 'Uncle Frank' wastes so many natural resources it's hard to know where to begin. “I never had anything to do with transporting heroin in coffins or cadavers.” Though Atkinson fessed up to smuggling, he said it was inside furniture, and that Lucas wasn’t involved with making the connection. Lucas later bristled at such a low count of cash money, and accused the DEA of stealing from him, according to Superfly: The True Untold Story of Frank Lucas, American Gangster: “‘Five hundred and eighty-four thousand. In some of his last interviews, Lucas walked back a bit of the braggadocio, admitting, for instance, that he only had one false-bottom coffin made. Uncle Frank book. In wake of the film’s release on Amazon Prime Video, a number of viewers have taken the time to praise the film on Twitter. How Lucas managed to get his hands on “Blue Magic” might’ve been a fabrication, but there’s no denying that it made him a rich man. After learning about Frank Lucas, take a look at the history of 1970s Harlem in pictures. Unlike other famous gangsters, Lucas didn’t go out in a blaze of glory. The series certainly hits all the hallmarks of a true crime drama series, but is Defending Jacob based on a true story? Throw in Steve Zahn, Judy Greer and rising star Sophia Lillis of 'It' fame, and you've got all the talent a sensitive drama could demand. And he quickly realized there was much more money to be made in the Big Apple. Hugh Jackman plays the Roslyn district superintendent on Long … The conceit of the film is a coming of age tale about young Beth ("Betty") Bledsoe. I've been a part of the family for a really long time, but I feel probably like I can relate to Frank a little bit more. They’re headed to a family funeral when Frank’s lover – Walid (played by Peter Macdissi) – joins them along the way. The details of his ascent to the upper echelon of the 1970s drug trade are as wildly cinematic as they are likely exaggerated. How Lucas supposedly got his hands on this “Blue Magic” is perhaps the wildest detail of all: He allegedly smuggled the 98-percent-pure heroin into the United States by using the coffins of dead soldiers — coming home from Vietnam. And for what it’s worth, Lucas also admitted that only “20 percent” of American Gangster is true, but the guys that busted him said that’s also an exaggeration. He grew up poor and spent a lot of time looking after his siblings. So in 1971, he decided to wear a $100,000 full-length chinchilla coat — at a Muhammad Ali boxing match. This is one of the most memorable, true movies I have seen in many years. The True Story Behind 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' The Book that Rocked Pre-Civil War America When Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852, the anti-slavery novel flew off the shelves. As those who have seen the film will know, it deals with themes of concealing your sexuality, as Frank is a gay man who hasn’t yet come out to his family. Robin Hood, he was not. By the time Lucas died, he had become pretty good friends with Richie Roberts — the man who helped bust him. The Bankeris based on the true story of Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, two black men who endeavored to become bankers and landowners in the 1950s and 60s, at a time when racism made that nearly impossible thing for African American citizens to do. It tells the story of Frank Bledsoe (played by Paul Bettany), who takes a road trip with his 18-year-old niece Beth (Sophia Lillis) from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina. With his latest, Alan is telling a somewhat personal story, but is Frank Bledsoe a real person? Paul Bettany is unrecognisable as Frank and Peter Macdissi as Wally is great! Let's start with a killer cast, from the underrated Paul Bettany to the dame of modern matriarchs, Margo Martindale. Ball is back again with the film Uncle Frank. I loved this movie. Wikimedia Commons/YouTubeFrank Lucas’s federal mugshot and Denzel Washington as Lucas in American Gangster. According to Lucas, he was first inspired to enter a life of crime after he witnessed Ku Klux Klan members murder his 12-year-old cousin Obadiah when he was just six years old. “His name is Frank Lucas and he was a drug dealer — that’s where the truth in this movie ends.”. However, Uncle Frank serves as a semi-autobiographical piece of work in a sense. Just watched Uncle Frank on @PrimeVideo and I highly recommend ..so good , #UncleFrank was truly something special. “Frank Lucas has probably destroyed more Black lives than the KKK could ever dream of,” prosecutor Richie Roberts told The New York Times in 2007. His screenplay is “based on a true story.” And Fusco is standing firm: “Frank T. Hopkins was a true-life figure and his accomplishments were acknowledged by respected horsemen who knew him and wrote about him. HBO's new film, Bad Education, is based on the true story of Frank Tassone. The trailer bills the Disney/Touchstone movie as an “incredible true story,” and the tale of Hopkins’ travels is certainly incredible. But piecing together the truth of his life and his many misdeeds is a daunting task. "Uncle Frank" is a film about uncovering secrets. What’s that?’ Superfly boasted. Paul Bettany on Uncle Frank The story of Uncle Frank was also inspired by the time Alan’s mother revealed to him that his father might have been gay. David Howells/Corbis/Getty ImagesFrank Lucas in his later years. The next year, his second hit TV show, True Blood, premiered on HBO. The metaphor is almost too rich.”. Looking back, Alan won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 1999’s American Beauty, going on to create the TV shows Six Feet Under and True Blood. HBO’s Bad Education tells the wild tale of Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), a beloved educator who hoodwinked a Long Island town to the tune of $11.2 million over a dozen years. Richie Roberts, who is portrayed by actor Russell Crowe in the film, Frank Lucas’s federal mugshot and Denzel Washington as Lucas in. Frank’s experience with Sam and his blaming himself, although it’s not the exact same thing, it’s about how do you live with yourself when you survived something that took someone who you loved very, very much? Born on September 9, 1930, in rural North Carolina, Frank Lucas had a rough start to life. As those who have seen the … the true story behind McMillions: The Stranger-Than-Fiction Story of the $24-Million McDonald’s Monopoly Theft The complex crime web is the … Uncle Frank arrives on Amazon Prime on Wednesday and stars Paul Bettany in what Ball describes as a “what if” story about his father, rather than one based on his actual life. He died in 2019 at the age of 88 in New Jersey. The Bloodsport true story reveals that Frank Dux's instructor in the movie is a composite of two individuals, Jack Seki and Senzo Tanaka. Loved Peter Macdissi and Sophia Lillis in it as well. The drug lord’s assets were seized, including $584,683 in cash, and he was sentenced to 70 years in prison. In an interview with ScreenRant, the writer-director opened up about the connection between himself and the titular character. One relatively minor setback aside — a seven-year sentence for an attempted drug deal in his post-informant life — he went on parole in 1991. So regardless of how much money he was actually making, Lucas didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of his labor for very long. “Everyone gets a second a chance in my world. Though the 2007 movie is supposedly “based on a true story” — starring Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas — many in Lucas’s orbit have said that the film is largely fabricated. This is a story of love, of hate, of family, of heartbreak, of being true to oneself.