THE WORLD IS YOURS

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2018)

"Scarface" (1983) was produced by Martin Bregman with others and directed by Brian De Palma, who is known in the crime drama, psychological thriller and suspense genres. Tony Montana is the hero who was a Cuban refugee in Florida who becomes a drug kingpin through greed and violence, only to see his empire end due to his egotistical behavior and cocaine addiction. Villains appear throughout the movie because they keep getting killed off. The principal villains who last the longest are Frank Lopez then Alejandro Sosa after Lopez is killed by Tony Montana. Tony is called to adventure when he refuses a low-paying offer with low risk for a high-paying risky cocaine buy that turns out to be a trap. He survives the drug-deal ambush that was set-up by Omar Suarez and possesses both the money and the cocaine that Tony was supposed to buy. Montana then leverages his position to a successful meeting with Omar's boss, Frank Lopez.
Brian De Palma's aesthetic for well-placed violence is in its full style with "Scarface" (1983). The amount of violence seemed excessive for some at the time and it spawned much imitation, the highest form of flattery. I never thought that the quantity of violence in this movie was too much, but it was the quality of violence that was disturbing. From the villain's henchman being lynched from a helicopter to the hero surviving being hit with small bullets only to be killed by a single shotgun blast from behind showed things that had never been seen before in cinema.
The final challenge for Tony Montana is when he must try to survive (without his best friend) a hit squad that was sent to his mansion by the Colombian drug lords. He is internally tormented by the regrettable effects of his desires, be it a cocaine habit, wasted wealth or the deaths of his loyal friends and his sister. Tony Montana's original aspiration of wanting to be the top dog climaxes into a parable about extravagance and obsessions. This, combined with the director's strategically-placed ferocity throughout the film culminates into the final anxiety release of seeing Montana floating dead, face down in his indoor fountain, ironically under the golden sculpture (that was alluded to earlier) that says "The World Is Yours."
This business model's ROE ratio of 1.82 (domestic) and a Box Office almost twice the budget, "Scarface" (1983) is a successful movie venture. After 1983, excessive violence-as-art spawned whole new ways of showing interesting ways to kill people. It's not that this Everyman has a preference for killing others in weird ways, he just finds himself in odd everyday situations (for a drug dealer) and reacting violently in his journey. The "Scarface" imitators have mostly enjoyed their killing, for Tony Montana it's just the cost of doing business. Al Pacino knew that showing happiness or sadness after any death would just complicate the character. Because of this insight, most everything the charming Pacino touches turns to gold.