by Steve Hedgpeth/Star-Ledger StaffDOCUMENTARY: "Mr. Untouchable" Magnolia Home Entertainment. Single disc. $26.98. Rated R. Back in the Superfly '70s, Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas were rival drug lords up in the Harlem.
Some three decades later, after Lucas has been to prison and Barnes is in hiding, the two are still competing, only this time it's via a pair of films released in 2007.
Filmmaker Marc Levin, who knows both men, calls it "a battle of the legacies."
Lucas' story is told in "American Gangster," a big-budget crime drama directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington as Lucas and Russell Crowe as Richie Roberts, a New Jersey cop-turned-prosecutor who helped bring Lucas down.
Meanwhile, Barnes, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. as a minor character in "American Gangster," is the title subject of Levin's "Mr. Untouchable," a documentary coming to DVD Tuesday.
The doc makes ample use of vintage news footage and photographs, period music, including Curtis Mayfield's "Pusher Man" from "Superfly," and interviews with Barnes' old criminal associates and various law enforcement operatives.
But the main draw is Leroy Antonio "Nicky" Barnes himself, even if the 73-year-old original gangster turned Witness Protection Program "retiree" is wreathed in shadow to protect him.
Despite the shadow, he still radiates arrogance and charisma, his bejeweled hands playing with a bullet as he speaks, his account of himself sprinkled with allusions to Machiavelli, whose ruthless how-to, "The Prince," he'd read in prison as a younger man and adopted as his credo.
And other, latterday Italians, as in New York Mafiosi, figured greatly in Barnes' life and criminal career. Barnes, who came from the proverbial humble beginnings and first got involved with drugs as a young man, made important mob connections during a stint in prison in the '60s.
When he got out, he set about becoming a heroin merchant in the wake of a power vacuum created by the 1968 death of the legendary Harlem crime boss Bumpy Johnson (played in "American Gangster" by Clarence Williams III).
In imitation of the Mafia, Barnes created the Council, an inner circle of hoods with names like Scrap and Jazz. Soon, his was a multimillion-dollar drug empire and Barnes styled around Harlem flaunting his wealth, power and loud '70s wardrobe.
He wound up on the cover of the New York Times Magazine and was dubbed "Mr. Untouchable" for his ability to beat any charges brought against him. But ultimately he was brought down by the DEA and entered the Witness Protection Program after giving up names. A man who was viewed by many as a hero, however misguided the adulation, became reviled as a "snitch," in street parlance.
Years later, Barnes was pursued again, this time by Levin and a woman who had never heard of Barnes until she moved to New York City from London in 2003. Mary-Jane Robinson became fascinated with Barnes' story and set out to produce "Mr. Untouchable," seeing in Barnes' rise and fall the tragedy of gripping drama.
Through contacts in law enforcement and other sources, Levin and Robinson eventually got in touch with Barnes, who initially wasn't interested.
"I knew he was working on his own book," says Levin. "Over a good year's period, we were rebuffed. He saw no reason to do the film."
However, two other films help changed his mind. One was "Slam," a Levin feature on the world of poetry slams that Barnes, a would-be poet himself, enjoyed. The other was "American Gangster."
"He'd gotten ahold of a script," says Levin, and Barnes hadn't liked what he'd read. Not only was the film too fanciful, it made him look like a chump. So he agreed to meet with Levin and Robinson "in Middle America in a hotel," according to Levin.
"Mr. Untouchable," one of whose producers is hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, and "American Gangster" were released around the same time. Levin, who grew up in Elizabeth and Maplewood, actually wound up attended a screening in New Jersey of "American Gangster" with Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts.
"¤'American Gangster' is presented (inaccurately)," says Levin. "You expect Hollywood to fictionalize; the way Nicky is portrayed is the Hollywood version. We try to present it as Nicky telling his own story."
At one point, the two films intersected when a scene for "American Gangster" was being filmed on the same New York street where Robinson has her office.
Recalls Robinson, "We'd been wanting to reach out to Frank Lucas. So I just walked down on to the set and said, 'He's expecting me.' They took me at my word. He was in a wheelchair surrounded by his heavies. When I told him about Nicky, he was incredibly excited. He was calling Denzel (Washington) over."
Eventually, Robinson and Levin arranged for a reunion of Barnes and Lucas, in a phone call that's included as an extra on the "Mr. Untouchable" DVD. If producer and director were expecting fireworks from the two old rivals, that's not what happened.
"They were two old Army buddies or something," says Robinson.
Adds Levin, "These guys are both free somehow. They're overwhelmed that they survived. Here's two (drug) kingpins talking about two movies coming out. The mood was like, 'Who can believe this?'"
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