Al Pacino delivers pure movie dynamite!

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2001)

I just read Leonard Maltin's review and I'm in shock. He claims that this movie wallows in "excess and unpleasantness for nearly three hours with no new insights". Let me tear apart his opinion, if you will:

#1: Hollywood films are supposed to be excessive. Although I hold much disdain for the shallowness of Hollywood productions, this is one instance where they got it right. What do you expect from coke dealers? The dope dealers life is one of excess. Hollywood usually entertains the audience with car chases and shoot outs and I think that Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma handled it with a keen sense of detail.
#2. The life of a drug dealer is unpleasant to the common citizen. Murder, corruption, and violence go hand-in-hand when it comes to cocaine smuggling. What the hell did Leonard Maltin expect?
#3. I can't stand it when people complain about movies being too long. I love long movies, as long as the film makers keep it interesting. Long movies usually deliver an epic movie experience that's well worth the price of admission or rental.
#4. "Scarface" does in fact offer new insight. This film was made during the '80's when the rich got richer and coke flooded the streets of the U.S. and the rest of the world. While yuppies moved their way up the corporate ladder, bought the new car and penthouse, they also snorted mountains. Oliver Stone's script points out the excess of capitalism. The best example is Pacino's speech in the restaurant: "is this what i work for?...eating, drinking, focking, sucking, snorting...". Scarface has it all: the biggest house, the most expensive car, the best clothes, the finest woman, $$$, power, an arsenal of weapons, and all the coke you could inhale. Tony Montana comes from a communist country where all these things are unattainable, but he accomplishes success across the pond and he's still unhappy. Yeah, maybe the theme 'crime doesn't pay' isn't that original, but it does speak volumes about the greed and excess of the 1980's.
Finally, Al Pacino's performance is stunning. I can't think of any role he's played in that even comes close. Tony Montana makes Michael Corleone look like an alter boy, and yet it's 100% believable. I totally forgot it was Pacino in the role, I truly believed he was a Cuban refuge.
This movie is fantastic. It's one of the favorites of my generation x counterparts.