Tony Montana - a servant, a man, a king and the epitome of the 20th century movie gangster

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2005)

its pretty childish to use comments like "in these moments, it looks like Tony's sister has streaks of dried snot hanging from her hair". Hmm.... can you not see the movie as an art form, DePalma using his unique skills - a crane shot to bring us in to the depths and dregs of the given society?, the overwhelming soundtrack to drown the dialogue, that ultimately signifies emotional crescendos? , the cunning use of a pan - showing no contact between skin and chainsaw? The costumes are used as a motif not something thats just "porn moustaches and bad perms". All these motifs - the soundtrack, the crane shots, the costume are all DePalmas idiosyncrasies that shape 'Scarface'. Mr Al Pacino's staggering performance as a greedy, ambitious and strangely comedic lowlife aspiring to the heights of the cocaine industry is not something to be laughed at - and the compassion of the two children in the car bombing comes from his compassion to provide for his almost non - existent family. Even if "its not as good as Carlito's Way", they are two separate movies - this signals a change in narrative etc etc. It's quite interesting to see such distaste for a movie that defines a particular context, society and indeed a certain type of man. i don't believe "chavs and the hip hop community" are influenced by this movie, its anti-drugs (Tony ending up doing the one thing that should never be done - "dont get high on your own supply") and also violence shown in this movie is pivotal to the impact that DePalma wanted to create - a violence never seen before. To call Scarface "hilarious", is like calling DePalma "amateur" - its just not done.