Fascinating storytelling, not so fascinating lead performance

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2003)

Brian De Palma's Scarface, a remake of the 1932 gangster classic by Howard Hawks, changes locations to Miami where Tony Montana (Al Pacino) arrives without much going for him. Soon, under circumstances at his disposal, gets to the reign of the gangster's world of 80's cocaine, soon having a sort of empire around him that soon becomes too much to control under the influence of snow.
The elements that kept me interested the most while watching this film were Brian De Palma's direction and certain aspects of Oliver Stone's adaptation on Ben Hecht's material. The direction by De Palma (which owes a little credit to the cinematography by John A. Alonzo and the splendorous production design by Ferdinando Scarfiotti) is always at an edge and style to kept the audience hooked into where the story is going even if it seems inevitable in the sort of rise, seize, and fall saga of the money dream. Even though De Palma's presenting us with a more-often-than-not despicable character in Tony Montana, the techniques aren't tiresome or boring in the near 3-hour length of the film. It was by De Palma - and Stone's script, which delivers some good, tongue-in-cheek dialog, and tries to understand the scope of the characters in this world - that I stayed through till the end of this film. There were also a couple of surprises amid the conventions (i.e. the infamous "Chainsaw" scene).
And yet, I was not one of those who thought that Pacino's performance was something incredible. I'm sure it's been influential in the twenty years since the film's been out there (the DVD did a whole tribute special by various rappers and real-life hoodlums), but from my perspective it served as something of a big liability. The supporting roles are alright, but his bravado, heavily-dramatic style seems like it COULD fit this revised version of Paul Muni's performance. BUT the accent and accentuations he uses from start to finish become distracting, and overtly comical, very quickly. And his booming persona is misused here; I can think of at least a dozen other performances where Pacino's been able to utilize his presence and style magnificently for the sake of a picture (The Godfather movies and his movies with Sidney Lumet are great examples, but so are some of his recent films like Insomnia or even the Devil's Advocate). This isn't one of them- here he confuses theatrical, operatic acting with ridiculous showmanship. What's even more interesting to me is that Pacino and De Palma's second collaboration- Carlito's Way- was a bit more mature in dealing with the conventions within the crime genre, and found that balance of forceful directing and acting.
I do recommend Scarface and yet I don't recommend it as well. There were elements about the film that kept sturdy, even gripping (the last fifteen minutes or so is rather bloody though brilliantly filmed). However the film does have a number of flaws, and not just in Pacino's work (some scenes are a little too much for me, and I get a kick out of most crime films). 6.5/10