A good gangster film but not a great one

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2011)

The Untouchables is just one of those movies that I just don't think is as good as it's made out to be. As a gangster movie it's pretty far away from the best the genre has to offer. I don't think it's a poor film by any means but I just can never get involved in it as much as I hope I will. It may be down to that fact that this is only really partially a gangster film. Al Capone and his cohorts really only play a relatively minor role in proceedings, the focus is squarely on the four law enforcement men. This is a problem for me seeing as Capone is by far the most interesting character in the film. The 'Untouchables' themselves are a strangely bland foursome that just aren't terribly great characters to base this film around. If the picture had dedicated more time to Capone, it would have been a great deal more compelling in my opinion.
Where the movie does work for me is in the Union Station set-piece. Brian De Palma has always been a director very much at home with cinematic stylistics, and this scene is him at his most showy. But it certainly works and it's a very well choreographed bit of action cinema. This, coupled with the rooftop chase are probably the highlights of the film as a whole. This should give you an indication that The Untouchables is a film that is more interested in thrilling the audience than giving them an authentic historical crime drama. I think maybe that's part of the problem that this movie has in that its peers in the gangster genre have often been so good that The Untouchables pales somewhat in comparison. It seems throwaway when compared to The Godfather or Goodfellas, while it lacks the sheer uncompromising attack of De Palma's earlier film Scarface. It's ultimately a good film but nothing more.