Diet Coke please

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2018)

I wrote a comment for Carlito's Way so I figured I would do one for this movie, they are considered companion pieces. I'll let others comment on the circumstances of the movie. Yes, Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay. Yes, the boat lift really happened. Yes, America still loved cocaine. The movie is colorful, over the top, and vulgar. Pacino imitated a sledgehammer. And this is just exactly what Pacino does best. But dePalma made an interesting decision.
Never once does the camera eye share Tony's perspective. The perspective is from a distance, always outside personal spaces until the very end when he murders his brand new brother in law. Since we don't share any personal perspectives, the camera crane swoops and relentless panning have to emote so the narrative has substance.
There are three cruxes to the narrative: the stereotype of the Latin manner of self-satisfaction, the gangster movie ethic of gimme gimme gimme, and the church of sex & drugs. Stone does a good job with the tension among these three. Sex is ultimately what everyone in this movie thinks they desire, but they end up like zombines being zonked out on cocaine all the time, so they can't even be bothered to have sex. dePalma uses each excess in his style: sometimes with great effect. The sets are so theatrical they approach fantasy; the moves of the camera are greater when the architecture has grand features. When Montana is stoned, the camera is stationary. When he is jumpy and agitated, the cutting suddenly takes on energy. The ambush in the nightclub was masterfully staged and edited.
The best sequence cinematically (to my mind) is the attack in the Babylon, with the pans and mirrors, but there are other fine visual treats here. Credit the director. Most films are about other films -- this one is largely original.
The women here are interesting. The scornful mother, the perpetually stoned trophy girlfriend and the sister - the actress playing her is on fire! Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who would largely disappear from Hollywood films after "The Abyss", which by all accounts was a very unpleasant production so who can blame her.