"Scarface" (1983) My modest review

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2014)

Sometimes, the mere fact of entertaining is enough. This is what happens with "Scarface" (1983 ): hugely entertaining and enjoyable, but nor think is the masterpiece which all shout. In its premiere, received enormous negative reviews, but as often happens with many works, and as Tommy Duncan said, "Time changes everything". That axiom enthusiastically applied in the film, growing over the years to become a cult. The famous double DVD edition marked the success that it was not his first release. Everyone love the movie; Why not ? people crying: Tony Montana; mountains of drugs is what people crave to see, that fantasy and metaphor of the American Dream is what everyone wants to look
But if you momentarily abstracts that universe, "Scarface" has a facile and affected loading, that hardly combine with the less exhibitionist reality of drug trafficking. It's "Alice in the Wonderland", but Heroin and money version. Part of facility moves to aesthetics, a catalog of eccentricities invading. A soundtrack hyper-saturated of sensationalism stylization (the songs "Vamos a Bailar"; "She's On Fire"; "Push It On The Limit"), exotic and flashy suits, Cadillacs, mountains of cocaine, the "king" chair of Montana, etc. Blood, black and the white of the drugs are the three primary colors of the film, like a mafia cartoon at its best. Maybe the real problem is the movie length: if the movie was shorter, would win more precision, but nearly three hours where there are many good scenes but easily editable, so there are too much excess. Tony Montana fighting alone at the end of the film WITH ONLY A HANDFUL OF HELPERS is an excess, demagoguery of the script to boost the protagonist as hero or martyr
Oliver Stone's script for Al Pacino's version takes some elements of the 1932 version eg the obsession with sister, the murder of the husband of this sister, the phrase "The World Is Yours", the betrayal of Tony's boss, etc. Oliver Stone's problem is: transfers certain customs and details in a movie that strongly develops interpersonal relationships: in "Scarface" (1983) his sister's husband is a close friend of Montana, so the murder was nonsense. In the 1932 version, the husband was more a bully in the service of Tony. In addition, this 1932 film, obsession to his sister could be understood as the custom of those times where the role of women was too restricted, while in the 1983 production is a bit contradictory: as liberal and anti-communist as Tony Montana is so strict with Gina. In Scarface 1932, Tony Camonte was a coward which only had courage when he had a weapon, and that assumption is proved at the end of the film. In the 1983 version, Tony Montana is portrayed as a brave, intelligent and arrogant individual; but yet at the end of the film when he goes to kill Sosa's soldiers, this attitude is not so much like a super criminal individual, but of a vulgar and desperate man taking his last measure for not die
Tony Montana is arrogant, says phrases for a poster, he does not care about human life and makes apologist of guns. The problem is not that (ultimately all heroes like Terminator or McClaine do), but "Scarface" has two serious problems: one is Brian De Palma , who is unable to moderate the behavior of Al Pacino. Pacino is a great actor, but when he overreacts becomes a parody, and that excess is what happens with "Scarface" (1983). But actually the problem of Pacino would not be so terrible if the script did not makes a second fatal mistake. The real problem lethal in "Scarface" 1983 is: Stone tries to inject a tragedy where there is none. When an overwhelming person like Montana appears, is necessary to write a good core to his character, and so prepare him for the tragedy. The story of Tony Montana should be similar to that of a monster and a sinister sociopath, but the final quality offered by Al Pacino, De Palma and Oliver Stone is a "bad guy" who takes drugs to exhaustion
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