One of the Seminal Crime Films of the 1980s!

Rating: 10/10 (14 June 2010)

Brian De Palma's contribution to crime movies is a splendid but extended remake of the Howard Hawks classic that toplined Paul Muni. Al Pacino of "The Godfather" trilogy plays the eponymous Cuban refugee sent to America during the infamous Mariel wave of boat people when Castro emptied his jails. This lengthy but engrossing drama depicts how the protagonist made it to the top of the world. When they made this movie in 1983, the producers probably had no idea about either the controversy that would erupt during the lensing in south Florida or the ultimate cult status that this corrosive tragedy would generate. Eventually, the film stirred up so much ill feeling that Universal had to complete the shooting in California. De Palma and scenarist Oliver Stone took one of the three greatest crime movies of the century and exploited a historical event to make their gangsters reminiscent of the immigrant gangsters during the era of the first "Scarface" movie. Indeed, at one point, Tony Montana explains that he learned English because his American father took him to see Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney movies. Considering that the film runs just shy of three hours, the filmmakers do a good job of balancing the violent empire building scenes with Tony's domestic life. Composer Giorgio Moroder's disco soundtrack is surely one of the classics. Lenser John A. Alonzo's widescreen color photography is elegant. Squeamish people should probably avoid this trigger-happy, shoot'em up saga, the chainsaw scene in the bathroom of a motel is pretty gory stuff.
Our protagonist Tony (Al Pacino) rises from the streets literally after he performs a murder for Miami drug dealer Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia of "Prizzi's Honor") and obtains a greed card for his closest pal Manny (Steven Bauer of "Raising Cain") and himself. They start out a dishwashers for a street vendor, but it doesn't take them long to put on their suits and ties and then they never look back. Later, Lopez henchman Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham of "Amadeus") offers Tony and Manny $500 to unload a marijuana boat. Tony thinks the deal stinks; he has heard $1000 was that the going price for unloading pot. Omar winds up offering them a bigger paycheck. If they can pick up twp keys of cocaine from a gang of Colombians arriving in Miami, Tony and Manny can earn $5000.
Tony and Manny along with a couple of their Cuban buddies pull up to the Sun Ray Motel, and life is never the same afterward Tony enters the room. The Colombian and Tony play cat and mouse to start with, but things change quickly when the Colombians demand to see Tony's money is. They grab Tony's back-up man Angel Fernandez (Pepe Sernaat of "Honeysuckle Rose") the door and cut him up with the chainsaw before Manny bursts in the room with a machine gun and blasts away at everybody in sight. The evil Colombian chieftain who wielded the chainsaw tries to escape, but Tony chases him down in the middle of the street in front of everybody and puts a bullet in his head. Not only does Tony bring Lopez the coke but also the money. Lopez takes an immediate liking to Tony, and Tony sets his sights on Lopez's slinky but gorgeous squeeze, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer of "The Hollywood Knights"), but she seems more intent on snorting cocaine. Lopez assures Tony that if he flies straight with him that he will enjoy a long, happy life. He tells him that the biggest problem that Tony will face is what to do with all the stinking money.
Lopez sends Omar and Tony to South America to talk with a major drug-lord Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar of "The End of August") about cocaine. Sosa smells a rat and has Omar taken up in a helicopter and thrown out with a noose around his throat. According to Sosa, Omar had informed on a couple of drug dealers. Predictably, Lopez is furious when Tony comes back with Omar and has a deal of a lifetime for Lopez that the crime kingpin cannot afford to buy. Tony assures Lopez that he can make up any difference in the lack of money by going out and hitting the streets. When Lopez argues that the Diaz brothers won't take kindly to Tony's ambitious movie, Tony erupts in a rage at Lopez. He is prepared to kill anybody that gets in his way. Lopez puts a contract out on Tony and two killers try to mow him down at the Babylon Club. Tony and his men kill both Lopez and Tony takes Elvira as his wife. He buys an estate, sets up a real estate business, and lives large, installing a 24-hour security monitoring system at his home. Ironically, Tony's affection for children bring him down along with his ferocious coke habit. When the cartel finds itself in the spotlight because of an anti-narcotic activist, Sosa appeals to Tony to help them. Tony is facing a stretch in prison, but Sosa assures him that he will come out clean if he helps his non-English speaking killer murder the activist with a car bomb. Tony betrays Sosa and kills his man when the man tries to blow up the activist's car with the man's wife and two children. Sosa hits back with a gang of gunmen who descend on Tony's estate.
The themes of trust, greed, betrayal and cocaine abuse permeate Oliver Stone's screenplay, and he has penned some memorable dialogue. "Nothing exceeds like excess," Elvira observes as she snorts some coke. The performances are all excellent, especially Loggia. De Palma and Stone carefully stage a terrific finale when dozens of armed Colombians attack his home and he breaks out a deadly assault rifle with a rocket launcher.