The first of director Brian De Palma’s indirect ‘Gangster Trilogy’, which continued with THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) and CARLITO’S WAY (1992), the 1983 remake of the 1930’s Paul Muni classic SCARFACE came about based on a rep screening in the early 80s Al Pacino attended, according to a documentary on the making of the film.
Like John Carpenter’s THE THING, De Palma’s version of SCARFACE updates the story, this time set in the dawn of the new decade when thousands of Cuba refugees arrive in Miami, kicked out of Cuba by Fidel Castro, who outlines in archive footage at the very outset of the film that they ‘are unwilling to adapt to the spirit of our revolution’
One such individual is Tony Montana (Pacino), who with his best friend Manny (Steven Bauer) is part of the influx of illegals who are taken to the immigration camp of Freedomtown, where they are kept.
Three months after arriving, Montana and Manny are given a chance to get a green card by doing a favour for somebody who got bigger in Miami by offing an old honcho called Rivenga. Their deed attracts the attention of local drug lord Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) who offers them the chance to collect some cash for some drugs from a Miami hotel room, but in the confusion a back-up man of Montana’s gets a chainsaw and Montana kills the man responsible.
Montana takes the drugs to Suarez’s boss, Lopez (Robert Loggia, INDEPENDENCE DAY, PSYCHO II) where he begins his rise to the top. In the process, he takes more than a passing interest in Lopez’s girlfriend, Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer). A visit to the family home where he is reunited with his mother (Miriam Colon) and younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, THE ABYSS, THE COLOR OF MONEY), who herself begins to bond more with Montana as he becomes part of the bigger scene.
However, with being bigger comes bigger complications, as the American Dream begins to impact of Montana’s own reality – and the potential to be the main man….
Regarded as one of the most violent offerings of the 1980s (Joan Collins famously commented after the premiere of the film words to the extent of the film ‘having more f***s than I have got in a lifetime’), but which has found a growing legion of admirers (it is claimed that more celebrities have done their own impression of Pacino as Montana than any other impression), it also demonstrates De Palma’s skill as a director and as a stylist when it comes to camera co-ordination.
Along with the 1981 thriller BLOW OUT with John Travolta (one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite films and part of the reason he cast him as Vincent Vega in PULP FICTION (1994), De Palma uses incredible composition in the 2.35:1 Scope ratio in a film that has influenced music and video game creators (notably the GRAND THEFT AUTO series and there has even been a video game based on the film as well in which you can play Montana).
The action sequences, particularly one shoot out in the nightclub Montana inhabits and the overblown, bravura climax of the film at Montana’s house, are amazing to behold. Add to this the wonderful 1980s soundtrack, with special synth based music from Giorgio Moroder (who composed some of the late Donna Summer’s disco classics, as well as the Philip Oakey classic from the motion picture ELECTRIC DREAMS with Virginia Madsen (CANDYMAN)), the cinematic world portrayed in SCARFACE is yours as much as Pacino’s, for the duration of its’ near-three hour running time.