The gangster is one of the most infamous American criminal figures. It has been a staple of many classic films including The Godfather series, Goodfellas, Scarface, and scores of others.

However, these gangster yarns were ripped from the stories of real-life mobsters who built an empire of crime that had tremendous influence in early 20th century America. Now much of the story is told in the video documentary The American Gangster, now available on DVD.

Narrated by Dennis Farina, it tells the story of various gangsters, including Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, Benhamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and Meyer Lansky. In the 1920's, in the midst of world war and Prohibition of alcohol, the mobsters soon capitalized and exploited on this as a means to gain prosperity for themselves and soon attained an enormous amount of fear, influence, and infamy in the country.

With the help of Luciano and Lansky, they soon put aside their differences, particularly ones based on race, and united into an organized criminal syndicate known as The Commission. However, it wasn't long before Prohibition repealed and caused some gangsters to defect and commit acts of violence and chaos. By the end of World War II, the Commission dwindled in power and the mob's reign was soon relegated to Italians controlling New York.

Through the use of archival footage and photos, The American Gangster does a fairy decent job of telling its story and hitting on all the basic historical points of Prohibition-era gangsters. While Farina does a pitch perfect job narrating the material, the brief 48 minute running time and static photo footage, in the midst of The History Channel and much more slickly-produced documentary fare, renders this 1992-released straight-to-video documentary a bit antiquated and limited in its content.

The DVD is presented in its original 1:33:1 full-screen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in standard Dolby Stereo 2.0. As fitting for a straight-to-VHS documentary of the era, there are absolutely no special features.

In the years since The American Gangster's release, there are much better documentaries with way more scope and detail on the subject matter of gangsters of the Prohibition-era. However, if you are looking for a really basic and concise telling of its history (and hopefully, at a really cheap price), then this VHS-era documentary will certainly not disappoint the more casual gangster enthusiasts.

Movie Grade: B-

DVD Features Grade: D

Overall Grade: B-