A Nutshell Review: Scarface

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2011)

Even if you have never seen Scarface the movie, you may have heard about its notoriety for having some of the most F-bombs uttered on film, and one of the most violent of all time with more than two thousand bullets fired and pumped into the bodies of victims, and that infamous chain saw dismemberment scene which in all honesty pales in comparison to lesser made torture porn flicks, and frankly, it isn't explicit, and that goes to show the brilliance in the filmmaking that allowed you to feel all the same.
Directed by Brian De Palma from a script written by Oliver Stone, Scarface is a remake of sorts of an old 30s Hollywood film now updated for the early 80s, set against the historical event when Fidel Castro's Cuba allowed Cubans to flood to the USA, but more so allowing prisoners from his jails to set sail for its neighbour. As such, this accounts for an expected increase in problems since you now have more people in your land but not as much opportunities being presented, and a life of crime is always enticing for one to go into when forced into a corner. And for Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer), such is their introduction into a new life set about by their circumstances as new immigrants.
The film chronicles the meteoric rise of the foul mouthed Tony Montana from the lowest of the pecking order of a drug cartel, to his gaining of trust and proving of his usefulness to mob boss Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), before breaking it all off to fund his own racket with ties linked to Bolivia's drug baron Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), making tons of money, gaining plenty of influential power and the love of one his ex-boss' moll Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer), before falling prey to the long held mantra that one does not dabble into the bad habit one trafficked in, thus paving the way for increased paranoia to an inevitable, dramatic and violent downfall.
It puts under the microscope in some ways, a skewed scrutiny of the failed American dream, where it's applied to a life of crime with hard striving young men seeking the good life through shortcuts, seeing the money dished out by the barons as something to aspire to should they work at it in the same industry, where violence is part and parcel of the game to gain turf or get rid of competition. There's no right or wrong here since the authorities and help are easily available through the greasing of the right palms, where one can come to the country with nothing, and make it right to the top with the right connections and attitudes. But as they say, the power of greed knows no bounds, and
Al Pacino delivers a crazy, one hell of a kind performance as the cocksure Tony Montana from Cuba, eager to make it big in the world, and has only his balls and guts to rely on in his forceful barge into the big league of gangsters. Ruthless to the core with little positives to his character, Pacino portrays this gangster quite unlike the more quiet intellect required in his Godfather Michael Corleone role, and is in full contrast here though both also deal with his characters' ascension to power. Pacino owns Tony Montana in the way that can probably never be replicated, and goes down in cinematic history as one of the most foul-mouthed gangsters ever to grace the big screen. Steven Bauer puts up a commendable job as his right hand man Manny, though he disappears midway into the film before popping up in the last act, and a pity that the story didn't go beyond its potential of how this character could have, or not, had the world at his feet.
The two actresses in Michelle Pfeiffer and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio were really like gangster molls, seen and not heard for the most parts, except for the latter who as Gina Montana, Tony's sister, also undergo a transformation like her brother, though hers is for the worst. Introduced as sweet, nubile and full of innocence, we see how easy money from her brother's coffers turn her into what he loathes, and there's really that unnecessary hint of crossing that incestuous suggestion toward the end, which thankfully stopped at that. Michelle Pfeiffer was completed wasted as Elvira the classic gangster moll, a crack cocaine addict who preens and purrs most of the time, offering little except to look pretty in skimpy clothes.
Brian De Palma remains one of my favourite directors, and I've always associated him with a slickness in quality in his presentation. Scarface is no different, as he directs this violent epic filled with excesses and opulence to capture the spirit of the times and of the flamboyance of its characters, in a kind of operatic fashion laced with tragedy and poetic justice. While some aspects of the film didn't withstand the test of time, with the limit on how technology could have enhanced a scene through visual effects, De Palma though has crafted enough scenes on the whole to make Scarface one really memorable gangster film to have plenty of stuff to remember it by, and Stone's script has plenty of wonderful, iconic one liners that put Tony Montana on the pedestal with other contemporary gangster characters.