A rare example of an updated film version equalling, if not surpassing, a classic TV series, Brian De Palma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES proved to be a winner on several levels when it bowed in 1987, with a stellar cast and a brilliant script by playwright David Mamet (GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, itself made into a film in the 1990s starring Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin.
Fresh faced Treasury Officer Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is assigned to Chicago to stem the flow of illegal liquor during the Prohibition Years in 1930 Chicago, ruled with an iron fist by Al Capone (Robert De Niro). His first attempt at stopping it proves in vain, as Capone has eyes and ears within the Police Department.
Whilst drowning his sorrows on a bridge, he meets beat cop Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery, Best Supporting Actor for the role) who educates and motivates Ness into the real truth of the situation. They recruit rookie cop George Stone (Andy Garcia) and have additional help from accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), who become know in as ‘The Untouchables’ because of their seemingly exempt quality in crime prevention.
However, Capone has his own plan, with help from Frank Nitti (Billy Drago), a ruthless assassin in the wings and it becomes a race against time for the quartet of good guys to do their best….
Mamet claimed in interviews it was more about the myth of Eliot Ness (and original TV lead Robert Stack was allegedly not happy with the portrayal of Ness by Costner in the film) and THE UNTOUCHABLES at times plays less like a Gangster-genre piece and more like an early 20th Century urban Western.
Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking this if you wandered in half-way through the film when you watch the spectacular and well-staged action scene set on the Canadian border, as the heroes with help from the Mounties corner a shipment of booze in a bravura shootout on horseback. However, the scene returns to Chicago and there are at least two sequences later on in the film that are well worth the watch, notably the Grand Central Station scene, which was created as a homage to Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Odessa Steps’ sequence in BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1922) due to their being a lack of money.
Ennio Morricone’s uplifting score keeps the attention and this film is one of three gangster-themed films De Palma did, starting with the 1983 remake of SCARFACE with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer and moving onto CARLITO’S WAY (1992), based on the Edwin Torres novels AFTER HOURS and CARLITO’S WAY, although this film is based more on the former novel.
The film is quite violent on occasion, but the context of this is apt for the story being told.
One of the true classics of 1980s cinema.