Ness, Malone, Wallace & Stone: The Untouchables

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2010)

"The Untouchables" is one the most complete films of the 1980's and one of the most unforgettable films of Brian De Palma. An Untouchable classic. It has an great ensemble cast, the 1930's period re-enactment is excellent, the magical music by Ennio Morricone and the incredible cinematography and editing. If you didn't see it you must see it now!
1930. Chicago. During the Prphibition Al Capone (Robert De Niro) is flying high, making a lot of money with the bootleg of vast amounts of alcohol and of course the law is on his side (buying judges and corrupted officers). If you're against Capone get ready to run because he's implacable and kills those who betray him even bashing with a baseball bat the head of an colleague who failed in his duties. It's also the time of Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) an honest man working as Treasure Agent and he's in charge of putting Capone behind bars. Capone is untouchable, dishonest and got the most dangerous crew on his side. Ness has a chance?
Well, now he has three good souls on his side and things can be very different and Chicago might be another good place to live again. Ness's companies includes Malone (Sean Connery), an old and smart street officer who's up for anything, sometimes following rules and other times creating his own rules; Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) an accountant that wants to arrest Capone for not paying his taxes; and Stone (Andy Garcia) the best shooter of the police force. These are The Untouchables and with them there isn't things that they cannot solve it, no one can buy them, and those who are at the wrong side of the law are going to be killed or arrested.
Writer David Mamet opted for not writing the real story of the events or even make a film version of the series of the 1950's. Instead he opted for an original work about four simple guys fighting against injustice and facing mortal threats. And to tell a story like that in the 1980's was a completely risk of failure in the box-office if one considers that the movies of that decade that were real commercial success were muscular heroes like Rambo or Terminator and many others. But with Brian De Palma directing, a great story developed and a amazing ensemble cast "The Untouchables" turned out to be one of the most remarkable movies of that decade and Sean Connery proved to be a actor even more talented than he is, and earn a Oscar in the following year.
De Palma is known for his technique on editing, planning movies almost like Hitchcock (his idol) and here everything is done marvelously well. In the most climatic moment of the movie (the Stairway Shootout) he made a fantastic homage to "The Battleship Potemkin" (Sergei Eisenstein's film). Here Stone and Ness are in a shooting against Capone's thugs and in the middle of this shooting are Capone's accountant (Jack Kehoe), a woman and his baby in a baby carriage that runs out of control in the stairs. Unforgettable! And of course Ennio Morricone's memorable musical themes. He was robbed an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 1988. He has a tremendous job here, setting the music in the cold and dark Chicago atmosphere, and he knows how to use the variation of instruments in a same theme for different scenes (For instance: the "Death theme" is used twice, two different scenes, but if you notice Ennio makes little changes with instruments). Brilliant!
It's a mystery to me that there are people who simply just don't care about this film calling it superficial, or saying that everything was weak. I Disagree. I never get tired of watching this movie and see a great cast performing incredibly well, it has a good story (way better than some today's movies) and it's one of the best films of the 1980's. De Palma's top of that decade along with "Scarface", "Blown Out", "Body Double", "Dressed to Kill" and "Casualties of War" A must see film! 10/10