A crime classic! Quite possibly Brian De Palma's best film to date, and look ma, no Hitchcock!

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2003)

Brian De Palma was so good at making Hitchcock pastiches ('Sisters', 'Obsession', 'Dressed To Kill', all highly recommended) that he is often unfairly dismissed as a major American film maker. Those movies, as great as they are, are only a very small part of his output which has covered a lot of ground stylistically, from zany comedy ('The Phantom Of Paradise') to thought provoking drama ('Casualties Of War') to superior horror ('Carrie'). 'Scarface' is a case in point. Arguably his best movie overall, certainly his most entertaining, and it's a Mob thriller, with absolutely no Hitchcock connections. Leonard Maltin inexplicably dismissed this as slow. I really cannot see what he was getting at. 'Scarface' is full of energy and never lets up for a minute. The plot sucks you in immediately, and never lets you go. The movie almost reaches the three hour mark but it is so compulsive you'd think it went for half the time. De Palma is really on top form here, and the script by Oliver Stone (before he decided he was "a serious artiste") is action packed AND character driven. Al Pacino gives one of his finest performances as Tony Montana, and he is supported by a first rate cast. Steven Bauer ('The Beast') in particular shows lots of potential, which sadly he has never fulfilled, mainly being trapped in b-grade hell ever since. Robert Loggia ('Lost Highway') and F. Murray Abraham ('Amadeus') are both excellent as Montana's "friends", but also keep an eye out for Harris Yulin ('Training Day') as a corrupt cop, Paul Shenar ('The Big Blue') as a drug lord, and Mark Margolis ('Pi') as one of Shenar's "soldiers". All three actors rarely get a mention, but are just as good, if not better as the more celebrated performers in this film. Margolis is especially chilling as a Colombian hitman in a very different role to his invalid mathematician in 'Pi'. An extremely underrated actor! But hell, even Michelle Pfeiffer is good here as Montana's coked up "ice queen" wife. It's really hard to fault ANY of the performances in the movie. 'Scarface' is a modern crime classic that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the best of Scorsese, Coppola, Ferrara, Takeshi or Tarantino. A superb movie experience that I cannot recommend highly enough!