Given its distinctly classy provenance, it’s no surprise that American Gangster is riddled not with bullets so much as grave pronouncements. Within the first five minutes “Bumpy” Johnson, a criminal with a stranglehold on Harlem, manages to throw out more than a few as he rails against a society changing in ways he doesn’t approve of: “What right,” he asks “do they have of cutting out the suppliers, pushing out all the middle-men?