The third of Brian De Palma’s period gangster films, after SCARFACE (1983) (set in the 1980s) and THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) set in 1930’s Chicago, CARLITO’S WAY takes us back to the heady days of New York in the 1970s, with the return from prison of Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino)
Scripted by David Koepp (JURASSIC PARK) and based on the Edwin Torres novels AFTER HOURS and CARLITO’S WAY, Brigante has only one goal in life – to work in a car business in the Bahamas, but his lawyer David Kleinfeld (Sean Penn in one of his best roles) has other ideas involving a local nightclub in trouble and also is in trouble himself, having botched a payoff of a million dollars to the son of a client in prison, who is now asking to be sprung from prison in return for not making the payoff.
Carlito takes the opportunity at the club to make $75k and head to the Bahamas, with old flame Gail (Penelope Ann Miller, KINDERGARTEN COP), but the past is about to catch up with him on all levels…
Each of De Palma’s works in this genre have paid off handsomely in one way or another – and CARLITO’S WAY is pretty entertaining (although you know from the opening frames how the film is going to pan out, which is a shame as it is riveting right up until the end of the film).
Another bonus of the film is the majestic score by Patrick Doyle, a collaborator of Kenneth Branagh on some of his early UK film offerings and some stunningly staged action sequences, particularly the climactic chase, firstly on a New York Subway train and then at Grand Central Station.
There is a restrained sense of violence that is lower than what we saw in the other two films, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful.