There's a reason why it's the most influential crime drama of the past 30 years

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2012)

In the 1980s, Scarface screenwriter Oliver Stone came up with two complete masterpieces that were years ahead of their time – Scarface and Wall Street. Both movies portrayed negative trends in America long before anyone was recognizing them or making commentaries about them. Both of them had heavy influence on their genre for decades to come, and both of them have held up over the years and are appropriately recognized as the masterpieces that they are.
With Scarface, Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma gave us an entirely fresh look at organized crime and the war on drugs. Far from the romanticized portrayal of organized crime in the Godfather series, Scarface showed us a brutal, unforgiving, and shockingly violent world where the ambitious have a short life expectancy. Years before America started wavering in its support for the war on drugs, Scarface showed us how futile it was. It showed us the hypocrisy of allying ourselves with third world, drug-dealing dictators while trying to stop them from flooding our streets with their cash crops. The movie almost predicts the stories of men like Panama's Manuel Noriega, who was our ally until the Cold War ended, at which time he became public enemy #1 because of his association with the drug industry. It showed us how drug production, distribution, and selling was a machine-like business that stretched from the plantations of South America, through the offices of "respectable" bankers, and all the way to the halls of Washington D.C. Unlike many other movies since 1983 that are critical of our foreign policy or the war on drugs, Scarface is never ham-fisted. It shows you how our world is, and it lets you come to your own conclusions.
Ultimately, Scarface plays out like a Greek tragedy, with our antihero on the rise until he reaches the climax, at which time he commits a critical mistake and his world begins to fall apart. The movie is paced somewhat slower than it probably would be today, and that is part of why it works so well. Tony's change from a hungry, street-smart thug on the rise to a coke-addicted millionaire on the decline is shown at a pace where it is believable. Specifically, Tony's gradually escalating use of drugs is brilliant. When we first see him use coke, he inhales a little pinch off of a toothpick. In a later scene, he's doing a whole line. By the end of the movie, he is burying his face into a pile of cocaine on his desk and coming apart at the seams. While we watch Tony's rise and fall, we are torn. We want him to succeed, but we also hate what he does, and that in the end, everything that happens to him is his own fault.
Without Oliver Stone's brilliant script, this movie might have been irrelevant, and without Brian De Palma's brilliant direction, it might have been mediocre. Every actor and actress in this movie gives the best performance of their careers. Al Pacino as Tony Montana is brilliant. Nothing that Pacino has done has ever approached the personality that he gives Tony in Scarface. His facial expressions, his swagger, and even the way that he leads with his crotch when he walks – it's all part of making Tony into the greatest antihero in the history of film. Scarface is the only Al Pacino movie that I have seen that makes me forget that I am watching Al Pacino. Steven Bauer, who slipped into obscurity after this movie, gives a great performance as Tony's more laid back BFF. Robert Loggia plays an outwardly chummy drug kingpin who lacks the cutthroat instincts to survive, and Michelle Pfeiffer plays his incredibly cold, unfriendly, and self-centered, anorexic-looking trophy wife. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio also gives an excellent performance in a supporting role as Tony's sister.
While Scarface is a great drama, it also has three of the greatest action scenes ever filmed. All of them feature an agonizing build-up of suspense as we watch the danger develop over a period of minutes, while the good guys indulge themselves in other activities. After what seems like an eternity, an explosion of gunfire and violence erupts in a short (by today's standards), well choreographed shootout. Despite being a drama, Scarface has about five minutes of action that easily rival the best scenes in any action movie ever made. Whenever I watch this movie, I usually watch these three scenes one extra time to get my fill.
If you have never seen Scarface, then chances are, you have seen numerous pop culture references to it, as well as movies and video games that draw heavily from it. The Grand Theft Auto series, Blow, Traffic, New Jack City – all of them in some way trace their lineage to Scarface. Scarface is easily the most influential crime drama of the past 30 years, and there is a good reason why. The movie is a masterpiece, both in its storytelling, and in the meaning of the story.