A big, broad glorious masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 2017)

It's difficult to see a film that's as big a part of the culture as this one with fresh eyes, but I must say, every time I watch this film, it feels like a slightly different and even better film. I think it's tonally a lot closer to it's source material than it's usually given credit for. It's in many ways an old fashioned film, even telling a very key part of it's story using the type of montage you see in films from the 30's and 40's. All of the 80's gloss and extreme violence is layered on a plot that's beat for beat the same as Hawks's film. Pacino's performance has often been ridiculed for being oh so very big, but I'm not sure what anybody should expect in a portrayal of Tony Montana. He's a character almost completely lacking an inner life who subsists entirely by bluffing and and convincing others that he's stronger than them. He's all action without thought.