Realistic portrayal of a cocaine kingpin

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2007)

As the entire drug culture segued from the psychedelic era of the 60s and early 70s to the Studio 54/Disco era of the late 70s, early 80s, an interesting phenomenon, the ultra-violent drug lord appeared. Americans who may have shunned LSD and marijuana became enrapt by the drug of glamor, cocaine. With the increased demand came huge profits to be made by those ruthless and violent enough to dominate the underground world of narcotics trafficking.
Enter Tony Montana, a man who was in the right place at the right time, and could parlay his own extreme amoral ambitions into untold wealth. The character played by Al Pacino in the movie Scarface is often written off as over the top, too violent and too extreme.
Far from it.
Men like Tony Montana were responsible for a murder rate that grew 500% in cities like Los Angeles and Miami. Places where authorities would estimate with total seriousness that two people would be killed by falling bullets fired from these gangster's automatic weapons in celebration of New Years.
Men like Tony Montana were responsible for the federal governments discontinuing the printing of higher denomination bills, since they were usually used by drug dealers. Men who not only used the famed automatic bill counter, but got to a point where they were weighing money instead of counting it.
That Tony was Cuban only fit the Mariel Boatlift plot device at the beginning; he could have been Colombian, Mexican or Jamaican, among others. That Tony suffered hubris and met his demise reflected events that were far too common. That he died in a hail of automatic weapons and that military style arms were used was also not an atypical death for one of these guys. Rocket launchers, hand grenades, armor piercing rounds--all occasionally used against adversaries.
Tony's descent into madness and paranoia was also typical of cocaine addiction--while most people don't suffer as flashy an end as Tony, thousands and thousands of people ended up as addled as he.
So for those of you out there who think this all just a big overwrought exercise in excess, think again.