Wednesday, September 11, 2013

When Fidel Castro opens the harbor at Mariel Cuba he sends 125000 Cuban refugees to reunite with their relatives in the United States. Among all the refugees there is one who wants it all his name is Tony Montana. Tony and his friend Manny arrive in the United States and start in small time jobs. Soon they are hired by Omar Suarez to pay money to a group of Colombians. When the deal goes wrong Tony and Manny leave with the money and succeed in their job. Soon Tony meets with drug kingpin Frank Lopez and falls for his bosss girl Elvira. Pretty soon Tony will know that those who want it all do not last forever that is the price of power. The world will know Montana by one name....SCARFACE.

Review

I find myself enjoying this film when I watch it. Well perhaps enjoying is a bit of an odd verb when you think of the storyline its characters the amount of violence and of course the fbomb being dropped about 15000 times.

I like Pacino in this film. He shows us the violent anger we didnt see in Michael Corleone. Were Michael would say "Never hate your enemies it clouds your judgement" Tony Montanas out killing everybody. Now granted there are moments in his performance...or in the script where you have to laugh. The questioning scene in the beginning of the film is a fine example of this. When asked where he got that scar on his cheek...well I cant write what he says in the regular version but I will tell you that on edited version on TNT it from was "eating pine apple."

There is a great performance from Robert Loggia. Hes the only character I truly believed in the film. Frank was a businessman not a killer. All he wanted was the money. Greed killed him as it has killed so many people. I enjoyed the direction Loggia went with Frank. It has carried over his recent work and has made Loggia one of Hollywoods must durable supporting actors.

Brian DePalma adds his usual blend of violence but it seemed that for once he was trying to make his own film. Not borrowed. No guessing games on who he stole from this time. Although hes blasted for the films content it is a new beginning to his career which took off but it was really "The Untouchables" that made me consider him a serious director.