Watch Mr. Untouchable For Free

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The most powerful black drug kingpin in New York City history, Nicky Barnes came from humble beginnings to make himself and his comrades rich beyond their wildest dreams, ultimately reaching national infamy in 1977 when the New York Times put him on the front cover of their magazine.In organized crime, there is a theory called ethnic succession that explains how the Italians took over criminal enterprise from the Irish. For decades there was speculation that the black community would take over from the Italians. For the most part, this has failed to materialize, with black gangs being largely unprofessional and unorganized. Nicky Barnes and his organization is the big exception.Everything I know about Barnes I learned from this documentary, which does a great job of explaining his place in history and how he was targeted by law enforcement. Some interesting points are made. Certainly he deserved to be targeted. But was it a real conspiracy?

The real star of the film is Barnes, who shines in his interviews: he's menacing but charming, erudite but ruthless. He matter of factly discourses on the 'terminate or be terminated' aspect of the drug trade. Another aspect of this documentary is that it NEVER condescends, with silly anti-drug messages. It allows Barnes to be see, good and bad, and let the viewer decide if he's a hero, a thug, or both. Interestingly, many negative reviews of the film excoriate it for exactly this excellent tack. Brain dead moralism, it seems, never goes out of fashion for some wannabe critics. What these critics never seem to attack is the outrageous waste of taxpayer money that is the infamously failed Drug War. If the stuff were not illegal, guys like Barnes would not exist. It's the illegality, in the face of a high demand, that causes the problem; not to mention the Federal government's own involvement in propping up the drug trade in Third World Countries as an economic force against, first, communism, and, now, Islamofascism. The real thugs are not the Barneses of the world, who were just slick operators in a system they inherited, but the framers of the system that has kept a majority of black and other minority youth from realizing their full potential.And, the thing is, if one heads into this documentary with no knowledge of the drug trade, and an open mind, one will come away thinking how heinous and narrow-minded the Feds are, because this film relentlessly shows these flaws in the often smug cops who, it's obvious, would much rather have been Barnes than convict him. Any work of art that can do that is achieving something rare. And credit must go to director Levin, cinematographer Henry Adebonojo, and editor Emir Lewis for a terrific piece of cinema that draws one in from the get go and never lets go. Mr. Untouchable may have been a perfect appellation for Barnes and this film about him, but untouchable is not a term to describe this film, for it touches on Barnes and things beyond, like few films in its genre, and with this subject ever have. It is deep, profound, daring, provocative, and, well….great. And if you need any more reason than that to see it, then you don't understand nor care for art.

Mr. Untouchable tells the story of the Harlem drug kingpin Nicky Barnes who had built up a multi million dollar empire in New York City into the 1970s and because of his nickname which is used in the title, drew the attention of then President Jimmy Carter who was so incensed that he made it a priority of the attorney general to take down the notorious criminal. Director Marc Levin relies heavily on Mr. Barnes during extensive interviews for most of the documentary, and what should be a riveting tale somehow becomes tedious as the former convict is just not all that interesting. He complains about former associates turning against him and the deal he made to become an informant with d.a. Rudy Guliani to shorten his prison sentence. I was expecting a charismatic, charming, insightful man due to his wide ranging experiences, but instead a crashing bore who belongs in jail.

Sitting at the Cinema Village the other night was a mind-blowing experience.There was more to Leroy "Nicky" Barnes: the man, then Cuba Gooding Jr: the actor could have ever portrayed in "American Gangster". Marc Levin has captured the real deal with "Mr. Untouchable", he paints a picture of the drug-infested landscape of the forgotten Harlem in the 1970's.We are reminded of how Harlem was before the War on Drugs was initiated in the Nixon administration.This was a true story of cops and robbers, dealers and kingpins, junkies and victims.Where bodies were dumped in the 1970's-hipsters now guzzle down Pumpkin Spice Lattes at the newest Harlem Starbucks.There will never be another Nicky Barnes.