Review: `Chi-Chi. Chi-Chi. Get the yeyo.'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 5, 2013
Los Angeles writer Damian Stevenson comes to this project of a thorough examination of the 1983 classic film noir SCARFACE, probably one of Brian de Palma's, Oliver Stone's and Al Pacino's most major contributions to cinema. But the 1983 classic is not the beginning in Stevenson's survey: he goes back to the 1932 Howard Hawks original version with Paul Muni and George Raft which was based on a 1929 novel by Armitage Trail (aka Maurice Coons) loosely based on the character of Al Capone. Stevenson takes us through all the negotiations to bring a new SCARFACE, moving the story to Miami, having the screenplay eventually land in the hands of Oliver Stone and under the direction of Brian De Palma.Damian Stevenson's credentials are exemplary: his books `The Ian Fleming Files: Operation Armada'  (he is a bonafide expert on Ian Fleming and James Bond) and `Solstice' show his polish and skill as a writer and he gains his inside information of what makes cinema tick through his close association with the likes of Steven Spielberg and the fact that he has written his own screenplays and has been a teacher of writing at the Academy in Beijing, China.But nothing prepares the reader for this enormously entertaining, skillfully dissected and researched volume that once and for all establishes the film SCARFACE as on of the most important matrix references for all gangster films. Page by page we begin to appreciate the dialogue (the source for much of rap music phrases), the motivation of each of the characters to the theme of the film, the `in' arguments and plans that coat the film like a gangster itself, the intricacies of production, the motivation of Al Pacino, the `accidents' of merit in molding the script, and all the information that in another writer's hands would seem like gossip, but in Stevenson's literary style becomes quality documentation.For a thorough look at an important landmark film and a taste of what filmmaking is all about, this easy to read and completely entertaining book is a must. Grady Harp, August 13