Scarface (1983)

To say that this film has been the source of inspiration for gangsters in the eighties as The Godfather was in the seventies and Goodfellas was in the nineties is something of a drastic understatement. In fact, I am left wondering if Oliver Stone and Brian de Palma new what they were getting themselves into when they decided to remake the original 1932 gangster classic. Well, whatever it is, I doubt they were prepared for a film that has become such a staple in pop-culture that even Hip-Hop/ Rap artists credit this film as being the story of their lives (for those that do just to fit in, I hope they know how this film ends).But on the film itself, it will take a lot to cover in terms of my opinion. Like a lot of great films, this is one that took me a while to get into. The reason was simple: this is a long, mind-numbing film that takes it time to establish the world that our antihero (portrayed by Al Pacino) lives in. De Palma takes his time to show us how the women stand their grounds, how the drugs get distributed, and how dirty, sick, and blood soaked everything is. As I said, this was a film that takes a while to get into, no matter how many parodies or clips you have seen. Personally, looking back on the film, I feel like I can give this the benefit of the doubt. The reason is simple: this was the first time De Palma makes a film of this caliber. Now, is it a great direction piece? Honestly, no. But not as terrible as what some people think (this film did win the Razzie for Worst Direction). But, it is acceptable for the most part. Just wished it was more absorbing and more interesting at the beginning.This film, while sucks at direction, is made up for by two very powerful aspects: writing and acting. While doing research on this film, I ended up learning that Oliver Stone made a documentary about his stay in Cuba where he went and talked to Castro for a total of three days. My guess is that after that, after viewing the original, and after reflecting on his own rise to power as a director that he knew how to tell a story about obsession, greed, and power (he would do so again in the wonderful film Wall Street). What makes me love this film is how he is able to write a character like Tony Montana, make him likable yet hate-able, while showing us a reflection on a combination between the stereotypical, comedic gangsters of the thirties and the more respectable and intelligent gangsters of the seventies. The characters he writes are from good to over the top. With someone like Tony Montana, he needs to be over the top. Just think about him: how he acts, his morals, his loves, obsessions, ways, idea, logic, even ruthlessness and recklessness. These are all the characteristics for someone who has to be over the top and reckless as hell. But, in the end, while it seems Tony seems to be abnormal due to his ways, we learn to like Tony and in the end he is the only normal character there.Now for the acting. This film has mostly unknowns with two actors that are well known: Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. But when you ask people about this film, they will only remember Pacino due to his performance. Think back to the seventies when he established himself as an actor for the Godfather films that were made then. Now, think of the character he played in those films: Michael Corleone. Think of the characteristics of that character. Michael is intelligent, smooth, controlled, logical, moralistic, and cold when needed to be. Tony is the polar opposite in every way imaginable. For Pacino to play a character that will likely get into fights with Corleone, he does a performance that has been underestimated for some time. By being underestimated, I mean that people don't realize how good of a performance Pacio does in this film. Everything from the way he struts to his ridiculous voice is not that of a Cuban (I have yet to meet a Cuban that talks like that), but it is America's idea of Cubans. Now, this conclusion is created by the fact that he is the only Cuban that acts like this in the entire film. All of the other Cubans act like, well, normal Cubans. None of them have that accent, shoves their nose into mountains of cocaine, nor have odd attractions to their sisters (though I might be mistaken by that). Tony Montana is not a real Cuban. He is the idea of one, and that is what makes this film so grand.If this film should ever be remembered for anything, it will have to be how historic changing this film is. Like The Godfather before hand and Goodfellas afterwords, Scarface changed how people viewed gangsters with it's blood-soaked film, the gratuitous amounts of bullets, the legendary 'F-Bomb', and some of the most quotable lines in cinema. But, in terms of impact, this film beats Goodfellas simply because of the impact it has had on Cuban, Mexican, and African American pop-culture. I am still wondering if any of the people who worked on this film could have for seen that, but who knows. This is still a great film and one that is worth checking out.