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Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2005)

One of the most iconic films there has ever been, Scarface requires little introduction. A colourful, explicit tale of one man's journey from flipping burgers to the world being his, Scarface is, behind the Godfather, the best gangster film ever made.
Al Pacino is Tony Montana and plays the ambitious, ruthless Cuban gangster to perfection. At times, his accent is a bit off but the performance is now legendary and deservedly so. Martin Bregman knew Pacino well, thus knew how to make Montana a 'shoe-in' part for Pacino. Pacino's passionate performance ignites the film to life and immediately grabs the audience's attention. His charisma makes Montana a likable character in spite of his actions. Scarface is possibly Pacino's most famous role and with his career, that says a lot. Steve Bauer is excellent as Manny Ray, Montana's sidekick. The look of the character and the sleazy personality fantastically portrays the stereotype that Americans had of Cubans at the time the film was made. Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Robert Loggia are also very effective in support.
Stone did a great job with the screen play and imprints his legacy on the film. There seem to be plenty of political stabs during this film which Stone is famous for but they fit in due to the situation arising from politics. If Stone had directed too, however, I suspect the film may have been drowned with politics. Scarface proved a great building block in Stone's career, leading him to make Salvador a few years later. De Palma does a great job with the action scenes and fills the senses with colour, noise and bad language. Possibly too much bad language, to the point where the 'f' word loses its power. The only down point of the film is the soundtrack. It is very 80s and is the only thing that risks making the film appear dated.
The film makes an example out of Montana for breaking the rules of the crime underworld. Getting high off his own supply, underestimating Sosa, he was warned but ignored all advice thinking he was indestructible. One of the best aspects of the film is how over the top some of it is, it withdraws the audience's sense of reality, only to bring them back down to earth with a bang at the end.
Scarface is one of the best films ever made, despite being slightly overshadowed by Pacino. A true classic!