Never underestimate the lure of ambition...

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2007)

I love this film, and I'm not someone who's weighed down by gold chains or sees it as an instructional tool. Nor is Roger Ebert, so that dismantles one stereotype right from the start. I love the moody synthesized music used as an opener. I love the film's first stroke of genius in updating the basic story so that it includes footage of Castro's actions, and the subsequent arrival of many Cubans on American shores. Straight away an ominous feeling kicks in and you understand that you have a whole subculture of people starting at the bottom rung on the economic ladder. Some will want to make their way honestly and contribute positively to the community around them, but there will always be a few individuals who choose to circumvent the hard-working route and instead get rich and fat quickly on ill-gotten gains.
I love Al Pacino's perfect display of sneering insouciance, directed at everyone right from his introduction as Tony Montana. I love the way he embraces the myriad flaws of the man and expands upon them the further into the story we get. I love the honesty with which the narrative details his ruthlessness - there are no friends in Montana's world, only people who can do something for him. I love it when he achieves every material pleasure he wants and is still not happy. I love his topple from the peak of an empire. I love the sheer braggadocio with which Pacino executes every last defiant gesture. I love the fact that Oliver Stone's script was written from experience during a time when he was a man who had been seduced by demons of his own. All of this I love, and yet I would hate to idolise Tony. It's a warning against over-reaching oneself that is the equal of anything Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, for example... Literary parallels are not impossible - nor are they foolish to make - for this film.