Scarface

Plot synopsis:
In May 1980, a Cuban man named Tony Montana (Al Pacino) claims asylum, in Florida, USA, and is in search of the "American Dream" after departing Cuba in the Mariel boatlift of 1980. When questioned by three tough-talking INS officials, they notice a tattoo on Tony's left arm of a black heart with a pitchfork through it, which identifies him as a hitman, and detain him in a camp called 'Freedomtown' with other Cubans, including Tony's best friend and former Cuban Army buddy Manolo "Manny Ray" Ribiera (Steven Bauer), under the local I-95 expressway while the government evaluates their visa petitions.After 30 days of governmental dithering and camp rumors, Manny receives an offer from the Cuban Mafia which he quickly relays to Tony. If they kill Emilio Rebenga (Roberto Contreras) a former aide to Fidel Castro who is now detained in Freedomtown, they will receive green cards. Tony agrees, and kills Rebenga during a riot at Freedomtown. The murder of Rebenga was requested by Frank López, a wealthy, politically astute man who deals cars and trades in cocaine, as Rebenga had tortured López's brother to death while still in Cuba many years earlier.After getting their Green Cards, Tony Montana and Manny Ray find work as dishwashers in a corner sandwich/taco shop. Some weeks later, a López henchman and underboss, Omar Suárez (F. Murray Abraham), the man who contacted Manny for the Rebenga hit job, offers Tony and Manny a low-risk job of unloading marijuana from a boat from Mexico to arrive in Miami the following night for $500 each. Tony insults Suárez by turning down the job over the little money they will receive, and demands at least $1,000 for the work. After an altercation, Suárez sets Tony up on another job to purchase two kilograms of cocaine worth around $25,000 a piece from a Colombian dealer, named Hector The Toad, a medium to high-risk job for which Tony and Manny will receive $5,000 for their work.That weekend, Tony, Manny, and two other Marielitos in his crew whom they met in Freedomtown, Angel Fernández (Pepe Serna), and Chi Chi (Ángel Salazar) then set out to meet "Hector the Toad" (Al Israel) at a seedy motel on the boulevard in Miami Beach. While Manny and Chi Chi wait in the car on the street, Tony and Angel go up to the hotel room to meet with Hector. The meeting does not go smoothly, as Tony grows irritated with Hector, who is slow to give him the cocaine in exchange for money. Suddenly, Tony and Angel are double-crossed by the Colombian. It becomes apparent that Hector does not intend to sell Tony the cocaine he has; he only wants to steal the money Tony has been given to purchase the product. To convince Tony to give over the cash, Hector dismembers Angel in a shower stall with a chainsaw. After Angel is dead, Tony, about to suffer the same fate, is saved by Chi Chi and Manny who arrive in the nick of time to gun down Hector's henchmen. Manny receives a minor bullet wound in his shoulder when his Uzi sub-machine gun jams. Hector escapes but Tony vengefully confronts him in the street and shoots him dead in the middle of the crowded Ocean Drive (the now famous Miami South Beach boulevard). Tony and his crew then get away with both the cocaine and the money before the police arrive.The following night, Tony and Manny meet López (Robert Loggia) at his house for the first time where Tony impresses Lopez with not only the return of his cash but with a gift of the cocaine, a prize from the botched rip off. Frank immediately hires Tony and his crew into his criminal hierarchy, a representative of a Cuban mafia. But during this initial get together Tony also meets Lopez's lady, the blond and beautiful Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), who will eventually become the source of tension between the two men. Taking Tony and Manny out to a local nightclub, called The Babylon Club where Frank frequently attends, Tony and Manny see first-hand the high standard of living they have come to acquire. Though Frank actually warns against these excesses, Tony is seduced by them regardless. Thus, Tony Montana begins his rise through the ranks of the Miami cocaine underworld.Three months later. Tony Montana attempts to make amends by meeting with his estranged family. It is implied that Tony's father, a former U.S. Navy sailor, abandoned the family when Tony was little. Since then, his mother (Miriam Colon) and younger 19-year-old sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) have been living in Miami. Tony shows up at his mother's and Gina's house one evening, fashionably dressed, and offers them $1,000 in cash for financial support. Gina is overjoyed to see her older brother whom they have not seen for five years. But Tony's mother has only scorn for him since he turned his back on them many years ago for the quick and easy life of crime back in Cuba, and wants nothing to do with Tony, and she is too full of pride to accept his money despite being financially stricken. But Gina, who idolizes her brother, follows him outside where he slips her the money secretly. Gina tells Tony that she wants in on the flashy life that he has going for him. Tony's love for Gina is clearly genuine for she's the only person that he trusts, and is also very protective of her. Afterwords, Manny makes a comment to Tony about how attractive Gina is, but Tony angrily warns him to avoid courting her.Several months later, Tony is sent to Bolivia to help Omar set up a new distribution deal with Bolivian kingpin Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), since Frank is having legal troubles that preclude him from leaving the country. Though Tony was supposed to let Omar do all the talking, Omar proves to be a poor negotiator, prompting Tony to step in and save the deal. They seem to negotiate a deal that, on the surface seems favorable to both sides, but Omar insists that Frank would not approve. Sosa then sides with Omar on this and suggests that Omar use his phone to call Frank. A few minutes later, Sosa hands Tony binoculars, and he sees two menacing assassins, Alberto the Shadow (Mark Margolis) and the Skull (Geno Silva), execute Omar by hanging him by the neck from an airborne helicopter. Sosa reveals that Alberto recognized Omar as once being an informant for the police several years ago, and he has a zero tolerance for disloyalty. Tony insists that he never goes back on his word, and that he never trusted Omar. Sosa agrees to bring Tony on board with him as his North American distributor of cocaine and other drugs. But upon their agreement, Sosa sternly warns Tony never to betray or double-cross him in any way.Upon his return to Florida, Tony is chewed out by Frank for overstepping his authority as well as hearing about Omar's death. Tony explains to Frank that for a price of $18 million to pay Sosa for the manufacturing and transportation costs, they will receive 2,000 kilograms of cocaine from Bolivia for nationwide sale and distribution which will earn them $75 million over a period of one year. Frank is worried because he does not have the many millions to pay Sosa for the cocaine, but Tony says that he is in tight with Sosa and he has established a "credit line" with him as well as work out a payment plan where they will pay Sosa $5 million up front and the rest in monthly installments. Plus, in case Frank comes up short a few million, Tony will earn the money needed through his own street contacts. Frank angrily tells Tony that he did not negotiate a good deal, for Sosa merely tricked him into thinking he did. Tony replies that it's time for them to "think big," and to expand the cartel for nationwide distribution of cocaine. With them as the main North American distributors and wholesalers of the Sosa cartel, they will make millions and become the biggest cartel in the continent. Frank warns Tony that Sosa cannot be trusted and that he will sooner or later turn against them for any slight deviation or compromise of his business. Frank orders Tony to stall his deal with Sosa for the time being. Frank then promptly tells Tony that ambitious drug dealers, such at himself, who want too much and crave money, power and attention, do not last long in the business. Tony leaves shrugging with indifference and strikes out on his own.(Note: Frank López's two warnings about Tony's greed and Sosa's violence will be later proven true.)After this incident, Tony then seeks out Elvira to whom he makes an unexpected marriage proposal. She is shaken by this, but agrees to think about it. Frank López is none too happy when he hears about this and decides to take out Tony.At the Babylon nightclub that evening, Tony is approached and shaken down by a Miami police detective, named Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin). He proposes to "tax" Tony on his transactions in return for police protection and information. Tony is distracted by the sight of Gina dancing with a local drug dealer. He follows the two to a restroom stall where he berates Gina for her promiscuous conduct. He asks Manny to take her home. On the way Gina admits she is attracted to Manny. Manny wards her off, mindful of Tony's extreme protectiveness.Back at the nightclub, Tony is attacked by two gunmen but manages to escape, killing them both despite being wounded by a gunshot to his left shoulder. Suspecting Frank sent Bernstein and the hitmen, Tony asks one of his bodyguards, Nick The Pig, to call Frank after Tony arrives at Frank's office at 3:00 a.m. that very night and inform him the hit failed. Tony, Manny and Chi Chi visit Frank at his car dealership back office, who is with Det. Bernstein. Nick calls Frank, who confirms his involvement by playing the call off as Elvira telling him she'll be late home. When it becomes apparent that Bernstein (who is armed) will not help him, Frank begs for Tony's forgiveness, saying that he can have Elvira and ten million dollars in exchange for sparing his life. Tony will have none of it, and Manny coldly executes Frank. Bernstein insists that he could be a valuable ally for Tony, but Tony disagrees, and kills him too.His problems apparently solved, Tony begins a profitable relationship with Sosa, marries Elvira, buys a new mansion complete with surveillance cameras and numerous luxury items, and Tony even sets Gina up in business with her own beauty salon. Manny and Gina soon begin a romantic relationship, but they keep it secret from Tony who had firmly stated to Gina that he does not want her dating anybody.As Tony's business grows, so does his cocaine addiction and paranoia, and he begins to spiral out of control... the beginning of the end. His wife, who becomes further addicted to cocaine, becomes bored and emotionally distant. Tony's banker informs him that laundering the increasing flow of drug money has become increasingly difficult, so he will be charging higher fees, up to 10%. A Jewish mob boss, Mel Seidelbaum (Ted Beniades), contacts Manny, offering his assistance. However, as they are cleaning out the money, Seidelbaum reveals himself to be an undercover cop and arrests Tony. After posting a $5 million in bail, Tony's corrupt lawyer, Sheffield, tells him that although he may get him cleared of the corruption and money laundering charges, Tony will probably have to serve at least three years in prison for tax evasion. Manny suggests that he take it, as the American prison system is nowhere near as harsh as its Cuban counterpart, and the right legal loopholes could trim the sentence down to six months. However, the strung-out Tony yells that he would rather die than spend a single day in jail.After hearing about Tony's arrest, Sosa, not wanting to lose his main distributor, steps in to intervene by offering Tony a way out of going to prison. He calls Tony back to Bolivia where he introduces him to his cocaine "board of directors" a group that includes a sugar baron, Bolivia's military chief, and a mysterious American named Charles Goodson (Gregg Henry). We assume he is a corrupt CIA officer because Sosa guarantees that the IRS will not be able to send Tony to jail. But this help comes at a price. A Bolivian journalist is attempting to expose the ongoing corruption in the Bolivian government involvement in drug trafficking, and his crusade is beginning to hurt Sosa and his partners. Sosa will be sending Alberto to New York assassinate the journalist, but he needs Tony and his crew to provide some extra muscle. Tony is clearly disturbed by the assassination since it is against his custom to kill a man whom he sees as a civilian, plus Tony has never killed anybody who didn't wrong him personally. But seeing no other options, Tony reluctantly agrees to help Sosa with the hit.In the meantime, Tony's marriage with Elvira finally ends when after a bitter altercation at a local restaurant, she finally expresses her contempt for him and the lives he had led her on, and walks out of the restaurant, and out of his life. Tony, punch-drunk on cocaine, tells the restaurant's other patrons that his existence is necessary since society needs a man like him to call a criminal. Tony also informs Manny to look after things while he travels to New York on business (but he doesn't tell him about the Sosa assassination deal.)Tony, with his henchmen, Chi Chi and Reuben, and Alberto travel to New York City and Alberto places a bomb under the journalist's car in with the intention of detonating it outside the UN building before the journalist addresses the General Assembly and exposes Sosa's cartel. But Tony has second thoughts when the journalist unexpectedly picks up his wife and children. Tony, saying that the team was only supposed to kill only the journalist, shoots Alberto to prevent the journalist's family from being killed. When authorities later discover the unexploded bomb underneath the journalist's car, they realize that an execution had been planned and increase the amount of security protecting the journalist. Sosa is now the primary suspect and Sosa vows to get even with Tony.Returning to Miami, Tony discovers that Gina and Manny (who opposed the trip to New York) have disappeared. Tony has long harbored an apparent unnatural obsession for his sister and is overly protective of her for reasons that he may not understand himself. Tony visits his mother again where she angrily tells him about Gina's descent into an immoral life and accuses him of corrupting her with his flashy lifestyle. After getting Gina's home address from Mrs. Montana, who doesn't know who else lives there, Tony goes to the house in nearby Palm Grove. Much to Tony's surprise, Manny unexpectedly opens the door in his bathrobe. Tony then sees Gina in a night gown at the top of the stairs. Enraged that another man has obviously slept with his sister, Tony shoots Manny dead. Hysterical, Gina reveals to Tony that they had just been married and were going to surprise him. Tony, riddled with guilt, has Gina taken back to his mansion.In revenge for Tony's failure to kill the journalist, who has now exposed Sosa and his partners to the world as drug lords, Sosa sends a Latino mercenary hit squad (the size of a large platoon), to Tony's mansion to kill him that very evening. Sitting at his desk snorting from an enormous pile of cocaine, Tony realizes and regrets what he has done to his best friend. When Tony is contemplating his actions, Sosa's mercenaries breach the main gate at Tony's estate and quietly begin to kill all the guards around the mansion. At the same time, a distraught Gina, wearing only an unbuttoned sleep shirt and armed with a revolver, enters Tony's office to confront him with the truth about his feelings for her. She now realizes that Tony loves her in an unnatural way and demands, at gunpoint, that he make love to her. She begins to shoot at him while demanding he take her. A Sosa assassin hiding on the balcony, thinking Gina is shooting at him, leaps in and riddles her with bullets. An enraged Tony throws the man off the balcony and kills him with his sub-machine gun creating a storm of chaos at the mansion. At this point, the mercenaries, robbed of the element of surprise by the gunshots, swarm in to attack Tony's mansion from all directions.As all his men are being killed, Tony, still delirious from the cocaine, leans over Gina's dead body begging for forgiveness, at the same time the mercs break into the mansion, Chi Chi opens fire with an Uzi as he falls back and ends up banging on the door to Tony's office (it has been locked from the inside by Gina who was planning to kill Tony). Unfortunately, Tony does not seem to hear him. Chi Chi is shot in the back and Tony sees it on the security cameras.As the hit men prepare to storm his office, Tony finally snaps out of his drug-induced state, arms himself with an AR-15 assault rifle with an under-mounted M203 grenade launcher and blows down the door. A huge climatic gun battle begins as Tony takes position atop the grand staircase and guns down dozens of Sosa's men who try to storm the balcony. Tony is hit a number of times by return fire, but he keeps shooting. With most of Sosa's men dead, Tony, strung-out on drugs, defiantly yells out at the assassins, not realizing that the Skull has sneaked into the room behind him. The Skull shoots Tony in the back with a 12-Gauge shotgun. Tony falls off the balcony and into a reflecting pool at the base of the grand staircase. In the final shot, as the Skull and the few surviving assassins look on, Tony Montana lies dead... face down in the reflecting pool which is located below a large brass globe that says: THE WORLD IS YOURS.

Tags: cruelty, murder, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, action, romantic, revenge, sadist

Review:
In fact the film practically borderlines satire, ironic considering all the gangsta rappers that were positively inspired by the lifestyle of Tony Montana.This isn't Brian DePalma's strongest directorial effort, it is occasionally excellent and well-handled (particularly the memorable finale), but frequently sinks to sloppy and misled.
But how about considering that that is precisely the way the film-makers wanted Tony Montana's character to be!
He is Tony Montana, a very tacky, uneducated individual who doesn't really think much and gets angry all the time!There is definitely a very 80s feel to this movie.
I love some of the songs, including 'Gina and Elvira's theme', 'Push it to the limit' and the title track instrumental.There are some memorable and beautifully shot sequences, including the famous chainsaw scene, the Rebenga hit, the first meeting with Sosa and Tony's visit to his mother's.About the performances: Al Pacino is brilliant as the angry Cuban refugee.
A classic is also something that everyone praises but no one has read." -Mark Twain'Classic' seems to be the word used to describe "Scarface", Brian DePalma's 1983 film about opulence, self surrender, greed, and danger among Florida's drug ring.
Yes. But the layers of De Palma's directing genius, and the great story written by Oliver Stone (yes I know, he actually wrote a real good one here) play into all of it.
To these immigrants, there was only one way to get it in Florida where they were..by having lots of money and to get the money, you had to take over running a drug empire.Al Pacino was fantastic to me as Tony Montana, the "little train that could".
Pacino gives an amazing performance that is both comic and tragic in this remake of the 1932 classic about corruption in America.Brian De Palma updated the original Prohibition story to the era of the Mariel boat-lift and the heavy traffic in drugs that still infest the United States.
A remake of a 1932 classic of the same name, Scarface portrays the life of a young, tempestuous Cuban émigré named Tony Montana, highlighting his sanguinary journey from being a thug to becoming a kingpin of drug mafia.
The scene in which Tony Montana asseverates his innocence and loyalty to the drug kingpin Frank Lopez elevates cinema to a new zenith, while the Macbeth like climax gives the movie an operatic feel that is seldom associated with cinema.Scarface marked the upsurge of a new force in cinema: the triumvirate of De Palma, Stone and Pacino.
In 1983, Director Brian De Palma set out to make a film about the rise and fall of an American gangster, and that he did-- with the help of a terrific screenplay by Oliver Stone and some impeccable work by an outstanding cast.
Scarface should be liked and loved but not in the way it has been or is.Many people say the acting was over-the-top, but who better to do an over-the-top character than Al Pacino.
A vigilante would be like Mother Tereasa next to Scarface.The good thing about this movie though is that it shows that the Tony Montanas' are not the real problem.
Later on , Tony reunites with his mother and sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).This exciting film packs thrills , chills , noisy action violence and results to be pretty entertaining , in spite of its long runtime , as it runs nearly three hours .
Scarface is surely one of the best crime movie ever made.Al Pacino's performance as a sharp minded,angry,dangerous and powerful criminal is phenomenal.Al Pacino is playing a character which is brutal,angry,fearless and at the same time has love for his sister.
Although movie is 2 hours and 50 mins long,but you will not find any dull moment in the movie.Alhough Al Pacino is playing a drug dealer but you will still like him as a person.Dialogues were excellent and there were couple of good songs in movie too.I also liked the way in which Al Pacino's character used to flirt with Michelle Pfeiffer's character.It was funny sometimes and was gentle too.I have seen many criminal movies but there is something special in Scarface.It is realistic and touching.This is Al Pacino's one of the finest performance.There was violence in some scenes but this is a crime movie and we expect some fighting scenes with violence.I heard a lot of positive things about this movie and when I finally watched it, I became its fan too.
If you walk into someone's house for the first time, and he quotes "Scarface" twice in the first 15 minutes, you know it's time to leave.After escaping his native Cuba during 1980's Mariel boatlift, former jailbird Tony Montana (Al Pacino) gets a second life in the land of opportunity, which he takes full advantage of as one of Miami's leading cocaine cowboys.
Tony wants it all, including his boss's wife, his sister's devotion, and a mountain of blow to call his own, but once he gets it, he starts on a downhill trajectory with fatal consequences.The fact so many people like "Scarface" is testament to the intensity of Pacino's performance more than the intelligence behind it.
Murray Abraham, who gave one of the great screen performances in the following year's "Amadeus." Michelle Pfeiffer does the best work for 10 minutes, but then the script seems to lose interest in her character and she ends up throwing out some random histrionics before exiting stage left.The storyline is simplistic and uninvolving.
There's a terrific sequence involving Montana and an assassination target that generates some real concern with the audience because you are actually meant to care a little about the people involved, and Tony for once is not acting according to type.But mostly "Scarface" is an '80s TV movie with marathon swearing and bloodletting, and a performance from Pacino that hopefully got it out of his system for a while.
De Palma's best works are Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. If you want to see Pacino in something where he's a gangster or shows off his skill with a weapon I'd say visit The Godfather films or Dog Day Afternoon.
It is a crime epic and if Al Pacino is one of your all time favorite actors like me and if you like De Palma's style, then there is no possible way to dislike the movie.
It was an early Warner Bros style gangster film and and this remake is one of the best movies of all time too..
This basically shows you how not to let greed take over.Although it is an excellent movie and has a great moral, the movie itself is really long and the whole time there is not 1 minute where the f word is not said.It is also very violent even though it has been 21 years since the film debuted.
There can be no question that Pacino thinks he is giving a great performance.This is basically a comic book level effort except the acting and story is not as subtle as comic book characterizations.That said this movie is entertaining and one of the all-time classics of the "unintentionally hilarious" genre.
I am sure that I'll probably get some nasty emails about this one, but I think SCARFACE might just be one of the worst movies of the last 25 years---especially since it is so adored by so many and been so readily accepted as a "great film".
I would rather have to say that this is one of the most overrated movies of our time.The story of the Cuban immigrant going from having nothing to controlling the drug-trade in Miami, making millions and millions of dollars, is nothing spectacular.
Instead of actually watching the movie, my husband could have explained to me that every other word was f***, and I would have understood the jokes completely without having to endure this film.The plot of the movie is extremely simplistic---man makes it to America, man does a lot of bad things, man gets justice in the end.
No matter, though, what the film looks like, or how it's written (poorly; example: Michelle Pfeiffer, sporting one of her other noses, just disappears towards the end), or how long it goes on (and on, and ON, AND ON...), people watch this for the acting, the violence, and the love of the "f" word (uttered 182 times), and they have dubbed this and "The Godfather" as "classics", all of which goes to show that if you say it long enough, some people believe it..
Al Pacino turns in a stunning performance as Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee than becomes a powerful player in the drug world as he ruthlessly runs his self made kingdom of crime in Florida.
More common among the Europeans but spectacular when an American puts his ego above the audience.So Scarface is a movie about nothing and no one, punctuated with a great deal of equally pointless violence.Many have pointed out that Pacino's overacting and the extreme of carnage were meant to makes points, to portray the real-world carnage of the drug trade.Pardon me?
But there are other reasons: More than any other gangster flick, it really is a film of its time, the 80s, which is great as far as it goes, but personally, I found a lot of it too staged and stylised - the scene where Tony goes to kill Frank and the cop coming to mind, it just seems overlong and ultimately disappointing; all you want is for him to go in and blow them away, but it's just really drawn out and then somehow when he does shoot them, it seems like a real anticlimax.
not only is it possibly the worst song ever made, but it actually plays over shots of Scarface talking, in a way that makes it look like a deleted scene from Miami Vice.
in an annoying fake accent al Pacino makes a fool of himself, as Oliver stone manifests one if his worst works I have seenThis movie is one of the worst works of pacinos, and I have seen two for the money with that faggot Matthew mchknahay or whatever his stupid name isMichael corleone was a real character: evolving to the needs of his family, changing feelings for his wife and children, not some coked up immigrant who has been drowned out by powerI am making a joke: Michael corleone and tony Montana are somewhat the same, i just really don't see the mystery and mystique and classic story telling that i fell in love with the godfather.
That's because he plays the lead Tony 'Scarface' Montana - a South American immigrant who comes to Miami and sets about taking over the local drug trade.
However, even his attempts to protect those he has some genuine feelings for (i.e. his family) often end up in disaster.I suppose it's worth mentioning about the protagonist's character as some may find it a little hard to watch a man like that for over two hours of screen time.
Nearly all the characters are fascinating and well created, like in his second best film "Carlito's Way", and the dramatic intensity remains as strong throughout the movie.
I was a Brian de Palma fan up till this film, and to my way of thinking, he's never recovered from it.It also marks a low point in Al Pacino's career, his most indulgent, excessive performance ever, but at least he bounced back.
He not only makes Paul Muni look great in the original, he even makes George Raft look good.The whole film looks like de Palma, Pacino, and everyone else involved in it, stuck too much of that white powder that figures so prominently up their noses.
I mean don't get me wrong the directing was good and editing was well done but the story wasn't that great, and I think the movie has gained so much of its status because of all of the MTV rappers and shows where it is promoted so these kids who want to be just like the celebrates buy the film, and are brainwashed to think they should like it because their favorite celebs do.
I'm always prepared for a heavily-hyped movie to fail to live up to the hype, but I was astonished at how p***-poor SCARFACE was, from the grotesque performances of Pacino and Loggia to the gawd-awful script, to the pointless little "hey-look-at-me!" directorial flourishes (my favorite: the little pullback/zoom-in move DePalma does *for no reason* outside the Porsche showroom), to the ending scene, which is just stupid.
Everyone should probably agree that it has one of the greatest acting ever witnessed in film history in Al Pacino's perfect portrayal of the ruthless Cuban crime boss Tony Montana.
The critics, meanwhile, loved "Casino," which - profanity- wise, made "Scarface" sound like "Mary Poppins." Go figure.Nonetheless, at the time, Al Pacino ("Tony Montana") probably set a new Hollywood record for using the f-word in a mainline film.
Scarface represents for a lot of people the quintessence of gangster movies, while other productions such as Goodfellas or Carlito's Way, from the same Brian de Palma, did a much better job..
There was no such thing as perspective in this movie which makes me appreciate other films within the genre like "The Godfather" movies, "GoodFellas" and in, arguably, Pacino's best performance, "Donnie Brasco".I don't think director Brian DePalma knew when to put on the brakes in some scenes and it made "Scarface" all the more worse while watching it.Sometimes some movies should not have been given the green light and I believe "Scarface" is one of them..
If someone show me the scene of the first encounter between Tony Montana, his Mom and his "Sister" Gina, without telling me that it was Scarface and If I magically would forget who were Pacino and Mastrantonio I could swear that it was a Scene from a B movie directed by Tommy Wiseau.
Everyone and their yokel stoner buddy is going to vote against me here, but outside of good acting, awesome scenes here and there, and memorable "cheesy" lines this version of Scarface simply does not hold a shadow to other so-called "great" mobster cinema.A few of my favorite movies are: Once Upon a Time in America, Little Caesar, and the original Scarface.
Then throughout the movie, Tony Montana (Pacino) makes one dumb decision after another because he thinks he's "too big" for the world and doesn't have to listen to "nobody." Montana is inevitably gunned down for his decisions in the famous "say hello to my little friend" scene.
Brian De Palma's Scarface, a remake of the 1932 gangster classic by Howard Hawks, changes locations to Miami where Tony Montana (Al Pacino) arrives without much going for him.
But that movie whilst a 1 out of 10 too actually tried to be a good film.This movie only has ONE thing going for it and thats Pacino talking like a South American person trying to talk more South American than any other South American has ever talked.
But if you wanna see one of the best pieces of acting in history, then sit down & enjoy watching Al Pacino play Tony Montana!
This movie was awful, there wasn't any single good thing about it.The performance of Al Pacino was dreadful and laughable, also all the characters of this movie are all boring and despicable.The only good film of Brian DePalma was "Carrie".
I finally had enough time to sit down to watch the icon Al Pacino at his best in the movie Scarface.
In this explosive story we are given a young and utterly ruthless Cuban immigrant named Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who aims for the top of the drug world and will destroy anyone who stands in his way.
In Miami during the 1980's, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) takes himself from nothing to becoming the biggest drug lord in Florida.
From women to money to power, Tony experiences everything could ever dream of and things he wished he hadn't.Being one of my most favorite films of all time, I decided that my 100th review should be Scarface.Tony Montana is perhaps one the greatest movie characters of all time, due to the amazing actor who played him (Al Pacino) and the incredible story behind him.
But no one will ever play a character such as Tony Montana like Al Pacino.
The film is almost 3 hours, which seems like it would be a drag and way too long to sit through, but it actually went by faster than many dumb films these days with no substance.Of course, Al Pacino's performance is perfect and amazing as Tony Montana.
It's not just some shallow dumb movie shooting random bad guys that many action films is only able to do and there's no character.Tony Montana, "Scarface", is a household name now because it's all about the depth of the character.
Personally, I really liked the cinematography and editing (It's actually some of the best I have ever seen) but there was just nobody in the entire three hour run time which I wanted to see get out of the movie okay.
I mean one of the only times I thought I would like Tony as a character is when he returns to his mother and sister and gives them some money to help them, throughout most of the movie he seemed to be some big-headed prick (which I guess for the last hour is the route they were going for).
I also think the story is pretty good, it's just that if they showed some more reasons for me to care about the characters then it could actually work.I'd say a movie like this is definitely either a hit or miss for most people.
This movie gets better with each watch as Pacino delivers a powerful and memorable performance.
Scarface is one of the best gangster films of all-time that doesn't only entertain, but it also a great character study, and has an underlying moral philosophy.
Director Brian De Palma's masterpiece Scarface is one of the best films ever, and in my opinion, we watch Al Pacino at its best.