Crude, realistic and powerful

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2015)

"Scarface" is a movie which portrays a mob lord in all of his characteristics that, in my opinion, truly make a person of that social position. Lust for power and greed are presented in its pure form and are drives that define Tony Montana with sincerity and crudeness only Al Pacino could present. These drives are human-all- too-human and we all possess them in a certain measure, but our self- constraint and so-called moral sentiments cloak these drives so we can appear as decent human beings. In Tony Montana's case, the veil has dropped and we see a machiavellian figure in abstract form clensed of all higher ends but power itself. The only thing he wants is possession of everything life can offer, of course in a narrowed materialistic form.Tony Montana sees himself as an honest person, because unlike the others he celebrates instincts of lust and greed and doesn't cloak them in humanistic values like others. Everyone sees him as bad, as he emphasises, so they can point fingers and see him as a negative of themselves, declaring themselves "good". His sincerity he sees as a virtue and distinguishes himself from the other hipocrites like bankers or politicians who lie and pretend. A parallel can be found with Mario Puzo's book "The Godfather" in which a mob member says that since politicians enforce laws only for their benefit, they must ensure theirs - cosa nostra. He doesn't have calmness or elegance as Michael Corleone, he is crude, violent and direct in his approach.
Tony Montana is a criminal from Cuba that Castro banishes to US. His hatred towards communism is expressed when he says that he can kill communist for fun, but for a green card, he can carve him nicely. He hates communism because they "tell him what to do" and this lack of freedom and spontaneity in one's actions disgust him, since he wants to be his own person, doing what he thinks he is born for, rise up in the world, acquire power and get everything life offers, things he was deprived of earlier. The interesting thing is, when he eventually gets to the top, he finds it isn't as he imagined, it's dull. Everything is based on acquiring and keeping money and he feels more like an accountant and a sleeping dragon on a pile of treasure than someone who is truly doing something with his life.
His human side is expressed throughout the whole film but mostly in a scene when he doesn't permit the killing of two children and a woman. He has moral principles as we can see and acts on them even if it could mean his doom (which he out of his arrogance doesn't predict). His other moral principle is that he keeps his word because along his balls, it's the only thing he has. Italian republican political theorists Machiavelli and Guicciardini thought that keeping one's word can be damaging to one's status since others don't intend to keep their word either, but it creates an aura of sincerity and integrity which Tony Montana thinks necessary. Keeping one's word can also make you predictable in your actions, but Tony makes up for that with his impulsiveness and aggression he expresses often.
Music in the film is pop of the 80's which can seem cheesy, but banality of the music corresponds with the banality of his instincts, greed and lust and ends which they procure - money and power. They are hard to get and require certain attributes you have to possess, you feel alive while you are acquiring them, but as we can see, when we get them and don't have developed interpersonal relationships they seem utterly superficial. He becomes somewhat fearful for his life (surveillance cameras) and alienates himself from his friend, his wife, and his family. All in all, Al Pacino's marvelous performance in this movie shows as the negative of ourselves, radical exponent of our own desires and something that we point fingers at, but is in its crudeness, if nothing - sincere.