DePalma's Crime-Thriller Classic featuring Al Pacino

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2005)

Brian DePalma's crime-thriller "Scarface", follows the violent career of small-time Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Pacino), who rises up to the top of the Miami's cocaine scene.
A simple rise and fall tale, but something much more exceptional. Unlike most gangster movies, DePalma delivers more personality than action, as Montana comes to life through the justifiably outspoken talent of Al Pacino. Like "The Godfather," "Scarface" is willing to take a flawed, evil man and allow him to become human, ironically just as Pacino did with Michael Corleone.
However unlike Corleone, Montana has no real character and no real courage, although for a short time cocaine gives him the illusion of both. He is a lost man, in a new world  and finds his way to the top, however not by legal means. Montana seeks all that he has ever dreamed of at the peak of the movie, however this is at the cost of selling his soul.
"Scarface" takes it's title from the 1932 movie, which was inspired by the career of Al Capone. The original was the most violent gangster film of its time, and this 1983 film by Brian DePalma also gives it's fair share of controversy. The excessive display of violence isn't used for thrills, but for a sort of tormenting lesson of self-destruction, perhaps used as a modern day fable with a moral.
Pacino shines in every way possible throughout, conveying his lust for screen-attention - ranging from the climatic explosive finale, to Montana's destructive low points by sniffing a mini-mountain of cocaine. The supporting roles of Pfeiffer and Bauer define the term adept, as does Montana's socially deprived sister, played by Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
"Scarface" is rightly acclaimed throughout the film industry as a genre-defining classic, up there with the giants of crime-capers, worthy of an Oscar it never had.