Violent but moralistic gangster tale

Rating: 9/10 (11 February 2005)

INCLUDES SPOILERS! This is one of the very best gangster films I've ever seen. Almost all of that brilliance derives from Al Pacino's performance...on every level Tony Montana should be a truly contemptible piece of work: a treacherous, foul-mouthed, coke-addicted murdering gangster. But you empathise with him, if not sympathise. You understand his mentality, you can see the twisted logic to his actions. He plays the big guys at their own game and does it smarter, more efficiently, and even more honestly than they do. He wastes anyone who stands between him and what he wants: he falls for his boss's girlfriend, so he ends up betraying his boss, shooting him and marrying his girlfriend. Nice behaviour! And yet the viewer comes away feeling the weaselly, irritating boss deserved everything he got.
Ultimately Tony's downfall becomes imminent because he has nothing left to prove, nothing left to offer, and so an entropy of paranoia, laziness and arrogance sets in. However the denouement is actually triggered by a momentary fit of anger, when he discovers his sister at the apartment of his sidekick Manny and he instantly shoots him. Like "Casino", all the power and money in the world cannot smooth over complex interpersonal relationships between gangsters, their girlfriends and their friends and family. "Scarface" combines the brutal, semi-dehumanised power of the Miami gangs with the more down-to-earth issues of having your mother disapprove of you, idolising your younger sister (to a point of suffocation where you refuse to accept that she has grown up and has her own life) and ultimately, the absolute futility of cocaine use.
As for the "cheesy" music, I'm a big fan of Giorgio Moroder and although I can see how the brash synthpop is not to everyone's tastes, it does work perfectly in the context of providing a loud, tasteless, gaudy sheen of 80s glamour to the lifestyle depicted in the movie. That is exactly the kind of music non-artistic, money-orientated people would have danced to in image-conscious, coke-sniffing 80s discos. In fact, that's still the kind of music those sort of people would listen to today, although with more updated synth sounds! What's noticeable as well is how as the movie progresses the music becomes steadily slower, less bubbly and more morose sounding. By the end, the synths themselves seem to be having trouble breathing, with long, ponderous minor chords replacing the sub-Madonna bounce of the early scenes. Pompous classical music would have glamorised the movie, lending it a somewhat bogus air of sophistication and culture. Shallow 80s synthpop is much more in keeping with shallow 80s gangsters! It's definitely a movie that turns you off cocaine (not that I was ever turned onto it). It should turn you off violence as well, because it clearly demonstrates that in the end there are no winners. Nobody walks away with their head held high (apart from the gangster at the very end who shoots Montana in the back...but even he seems to plod away dejectedly as he takes stock of the blood-red swimming pool and dozens of mutilated bodies lying around the remains of Montana's mansion.
The uneasy combination of shallow, cheesy glamour and extreme violence is what makes this movie stands out for me. Without the violence it would have just been cheesy. Without the cheesiness it would have just been violent. But juxtapose the two elements and suddenly each becomes more stark, more unnerving, more psychological. Like horror films that feature children singing nursery rhymes. There are loads of scenes that have this strange juxtaposition: such as after the chainsaw incident when Montana shoots the coke dealer in the street, in front of dozens of people, and then jumps into a car with blaring pop music as if shooting people is the most casual, everyday thing in the world. Or in the Babylon club where a ropey old cabaret act is suddenly interrupted by gunfire and an attempt to take Montana's life.
There's one person who in particular seemed to really take on board this combination of violence and cheesiness...Mr Quention Tarantino. The tone, style and aesthetics of Scarface formed a clear prototype for later movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
Who on earth would want to be a gangster?! If you were thinking of it as a career option, watch this movie and think again!