Cult classic of greed and excess

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2017)

Thirty four years old, but Brian De Palma's Scarface still to this very day stands as one of the all time great crime and gangster films.
Its premise is staggeringly simple, a Greek tragedy that sees the rise of one of cinema's greatest "villains", Tony Montana (Al Pacino), and subsequent downfall in sickening style.
Whereas other high-end crime films e.g. The Godfather, The Godfather part 2, Goodfellas and Casino succeed with an immaculately polished story that transcends beautifully onto the screen..., Scarface threw the rule book out and redefined the generally accepted guidelines.
So violent, brutal and politically incorrect, there are many faults to be found and one doesn't have to look too deep to find them, but why over-analyse such a disgustingly beautiful masterpiece?
For example, the chainsaw scene where Tony and his henchmen are making a drug deal in a hotel room, the deal goes south in a hurry and Tony and his "amigo" Angel end up chained up in the bathtub. Graphic scenes unsuitable for all ages quickly ensues, the stomach churning sounds of pain and desperation, the blood soaking into everything in sight..., no holds barred indeed!
Even the romantic element revolving around Tony and Elvira, Tony and his younger sister Gina, Manny and his budding romance with Gina, they are executed faithfully, at all times maintaining the hard-hitting, all out brutal style of Scarface. Elvira, whom Tony takes as his own roughly half way through the film, has very little patience or even any real attraction towards her man, she is clearly a gold-digger who takes whoever has the upper hand in the mob world, and whoever she can score some "yay" off. Gina is Tony's foil, genuine love, fear and and a feeling of over protection towards his little sister exists..., all the money, power and drugs in the world cannot come between the love of a brother towards his baby sister.
With a "remake" of Scarface due for release soon, that makes me a little sad, how can you better something this close to perfect? In no world can I see anybody other than Al Pacino play the title role, casting at its very finest, Alixe Gordin who did the casting for Scarface demonstrated true genius, not only by casting Pacino, but by casting the whole ensemble, Michelle Pfeiffer was fabulous, as was Steven Bauer.
Yes as I mentioned there is a new Scarface in the works, but nothing, and I mean nothing will stop the allure the "original-remake" possesses.
Top marks across the board and if you haven't watched Scarface yet, do so, it's vital viewing for any film fan.