One might very well say it is indeed, untouchable; a superb observation of character and genre unfolding within the violent and unpredictable world of prohibition Chicago.

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2010)

Brian De Palma's 1987 crime feature The Untouchables begins in a small, but busy and somewhat plush room as crime kingpin Al Capone sits and receives a shave amongst bodyguards and the press. The film begins in earnest, combining shot composition with character action as this crime lord, quite literally, puts his neck on the line in front of everybody; for the sake of everybody and desperately attempting to keep his cool at the same time, thus echoing what his overall role in the piece will amount to. The shot composition is that of a bird's eye view, a shot that looks directly down into the room and all the activity as a caption informing us of America's anti-alcohol attitudes in prohibition era Chicago, circa 1930. The chosen shot suggests a vantage point, a 'see all' ability much akin to that of the birds which lend their name to the shot name. This is given to the audience as the entire situation is laid out to us by way of a caption, setting up a power struggle between righteous and the criminally minded of which we will go on to observe both sides of.
Very quickly, De Palma has drawn us into the world in which we will be spending the best part of two hours, as Robert De Niro's Capone and Kevin Costner's Treasury Department agent named Eliot Ness, plus their troops, engage in a battle between one another. Capone himself even compares what he has going on with Ness as a boxing match. The film is a triumph, bringing punch to a true story; gloriously recreating a city from a bygone era and additionally a film with a great attention towards its characters, simultaneously capturing the sorts of strenuous emotions and feelings one must go through as they begin a marathon task from the very beginning, in a wonderful manner.
Contrasted to Capone's introduction, which at once saw him in both a powerful and vulnerable position quickly followed by a zoom in on the man thus furthering a somewhat uncanny feel about things, is that of Eliot Ness. Ness sits in his study, at home, to melancholy music which begins when the scene starts with his wife clearing up in the kitchen. The entire sequence suggests a somewhat quaint; down-to-Earth; domesticated aura as this man has climbed whatever metaphorical ladder was in-front of him and is living whatever American Dream lifestyle he deems worthy of both him and his family. All this prior to his first day at work, as if everything he's lived and studied for has readied him for this: the job that is to take on Capone and his crime-infused, alcohol distributing team of lowlifes.
Ness is greeted on his first day by some members of the press, but the stark contrast the film implies is their attitudes towards him in comparison to Capone in the very first scene. Here, the journalists are on his back from the off and it doesn't get any better too quickly. This is in contrast to Capone, nonchalantly engaging with the press as he entrusts his life with another man whom has a razor at his neck as a shave is half way to being completed: he charms them, humours them and generally has them on his side. As a lead, Ness carries the necessary weight which enables us to relate to him and eventually get behind him in his goal; aided by his house-set introduction, his ideology of not recruiting men into his team of whom have families projects a thoughtful and level headed persona onto us.
Ness' team of untouchables to which the title relates are formed of an Irish-American cop, named Jim Malone (Connery); a young Italian-American sharp-shooter named Giuseppe Petri (Garcia), otherwise known as George Stone, and ex-Washington based number cruncher Oscar Wallace (Smith). Ness' initial meeting with Malone, an elderly man walking the nightly beat as a cop, takes place on a bridge; a symbolic place on which the ability to cross over on and into another locale whilst avoiding the troubles below is apparent. It's this initial meeting with Malone that sees Ness' world change, and their initial interaction half way across that bridge acts as the ultimate for the establishment of transition which certainly comes about.
The Untouchables balances its material between each opposing side wonderfully well, quite remarkably, seeing the two heads of these respective sides come face to face just the once prior to the denouement. It's a film that builds to an exciting climax but doesn't need a gunfight; an individual gunshot or an explosion to round things off, indeed just a singular word during which a change of plea acts as the fatal blow. It's additionally interested in more specific, intricate things; prior to a raid on a meeting between gangsters on the Canadian-American border, the characters take time to observe their rural surroundings and the mountains and fields are in stark, disorientating contrast to the mostly night-set, concrete jungle of Chicago. At one point, Malone recommends the rest of the team stamp their feet so as to block out the sensation of the cold as they wait for the dealers to arrive, further creating a more intimate and sensual feel to the hard-edged, male dominated crime saga than it need bothered to have done.
Such a sequence captures the film's overall attitudes to its characters and subject matter, that of intimate and respectful. Untarnished by later American crime films which would break-down the gangster archetype, most notably 1990's Goodfellas, and others which would add more of a visual flair to the 'crime saga' approach to the American gangster genre, such as 1995's Heat; The Untouchables acts as a wondrous example of right attempting to overcome wrong, all playing out with a meticulous level of attention to character and film-making.