Scarface – 25 Years
1983
India won the World Cup in Cricket converting yours truly into a total cricket fan.
The Star Wars series continued its success with Return of the Jedi topping the charts.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller becomes a rage.
And in the same year on Dec 9, was released a movie that would polarize the movie lovers community into 2 camps, those who hated it and those who loved it.
Many hated the movie on release, it was torn apart by critics, but there were a few who loved it for its edgy style. 25 years later, the movie still continues to be fiercely debated and discussed. But a growing legion of admirers, have conferred it a cult classic status. And yours truly is one in that group.
The movie i am referring to of course is Scarface, the Al Pacino movie , about the rise and fall of Tony Montana, a Cuban gangster. This is not a review of the movie per se,just some random ramblings on one of my favorite movies.
One common criticism levelled against Scarface is that both the movie and Al Pacino’s performance are over the top. I think many do that in relation to The Godfather, which frankly makes no sense to me. Though they both are Gangster movies, Godfather and Scarface are as similar as Star Wars and 2001. Tony Montana is a totally different case from Michael Corleone. Michael was born with a silver spoon, into a powerful family, he had everything going from him. In fact he was more of a reluctant leader, taking up the position, only because of circumstances. Tony on the other hand was a man from the streets, he had to use his wits to survive at every second.
In Godfather Michael was already powerful, he did not need to say it aloud. Every one in Michael’s circle respected him, knew his authority. Tony on the other hand, fights a lone battle. He is a person comming from Ground Zero, so at every instance he has to scream out loud, to get noticed. Unlike Michael who crafts every strategy, and plans his moves, Tony is an impulsive figure, who takes decisions on the spot. He has no go, he has to survive, he does not have the luxury of thinking. Also Tony was a totally uncouth, illiterate guy, some one who comes from a poor background. So i think taking into account, i felt Pacino’s performance was totally in tune with the character.
Again Brian De Palma is a director, not exactly known for being understated. Most of his movies before Scarface, were the kind of edgy thrillers, with lot of graphic violence and an in your face treatment. In fact Scarface was his first mainstream venture, but even otherwise it was not the typical Hollywood one. The action is faster, more rapid, more energetic. Even the background score by Girogio Moroder was more of new wave, synthesizer electronic music. Moroder was noted for his new wave scores in movies like Flashdance, American Gigolo, Electric Dreams to name a few.
And that brings us to Oliver Stone, who wrote the script for Scarface. Stone was in France, recovering from a cocaine addiction, and he incorporated his real life experiences into the script.
Pacino's famous cocaine scene
Considering Stone’s liberal bias, Scarface could also be seen as his attack on the 80’s “Greed is Good” principle. If we consider the 60’s and 70’s it was an era of counter culture, anti war protests, hippie lifestyle, LSD in the US. But as the counter culture movement faded way, the US again returned to the free market with a vengenance back in the 80’s. It was the era of Reaganomics, the get rich quick at any cost mentality which characterized the decade. Other than the fact that Tony Montana is a gangster, there really is not much difference between him and a Wall Street raider. Both are aggresive, ambitious and would do anything to make it to top. Both really don’t care about ethics or values, they are just bothered with end result. Michael Corleone is an old school gangster, someone who draws the line, has a code of honor.
Tony Montana, does not know any line, he just wants to get what he wants, consequences be damned. He has everything he dreamed of, a huge mansion, all the luxury toys and the woman he loves. However his picture perfect world is hollow. His wife Elvira(Michelle Pfeiffer) becames a cocaine addict like him, and their relationship is barely going along. When Tony blows up at a restaurant, the famous Make way for a Bad man scene, Elvira leaves him. His best friend Manny is dating Gina, Tony’s sister, but afraid to reveal to him. In effect his success has totally destroyed Tony, as it did many high flying achievers of that decade. Oliver Stone, would do a full take on the Wall Street gliterrati in the movie of the same name later. But Scarface is a kind of metaphor for those times.
In fact Martin Scorcese was one of the few persons who loved the movie when it was premiered. He said
“You guys are great – but be prepared, because they’re going to hate it in Hollywood . . . because it’s about them.
I think Marty was referring to the movie culture in 80’s Hollywood, where emphasis was more on big budgets and style, rather than the content. Where the 70’s had unleashed a New wave of creative and innovative movie making, with strong scripts, the 80’s saw a regression back to the studio system. In fact where Pacino lit up the screens in the 70’s with Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and And Justice For All, the 80’s was a rather forgettable decade, with both Author!Author! and Cruising, proving to be big time duds. In fact barring Scarface and Sea of Love, most of Pacino’s 80’s movies were forgettable, and he concentrated mostly on theater.
Scarface has many great scenes, but my favorite would be the opening scene, where Pacino is interrogated by the immigration officers. As we can see Pacino fooling around, bluffing with them, we get a glimpse of his character then and there itself. For me this was the most important part, because that gives an indication as to what kind of person is Tony Montana.
Another great scene is of course the restaurant scene, Say Good Night To The Bad Guy. The scene establishes the fact, that by then Tony had already gone beyond redemption, his relationship is at breaking point, and he shows his frustration. Just watch it here.
Well this was just some random ramblings of mine on Scarface. Would love to hear your take too.
Tags: 80's Hollywood, Al Pacino, brian de palma, gangster movies, oliver stone, scarface
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Onir
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Ramu Ramanathan
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Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
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Partho Sen-Gupta
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Satish Kasetty
Nice article there Ratnakar. My problem with Scarface is not its over-the-top performances (Pacino is quite good), but quite simply that the movie is highly overrated. It is not a masterpiece and many claim it to be. Barring a few memorable dialogues, it is not birlliant in any department. And I hated the soundtrack (a lot of 80s music was plain BAD). I do agree with you though, that it is wrong to compare Scarface with The Godfather.
But I don’t quite agree with you say that Michael Corleone represented the old-school gangster with a code of honor. That would be Vito Corleone. Michael, especially in Part II tries to go beyond his father by corporatizing his mafia business. He lies to Kay all the time, gets his relatives killed, alienates himself from the old New York family circle. I don’t see much honor in that. Of course he was not as ruthless as Tony Montana, but he did cross the line laid down by his father and the Sicilian mafia tradition.
Papaji, well to each his own. But though i did not like the soundtrack much, i felt the shot taking was pretty good. Yeah the climax was a cartoon, it looked straight out of a Mithun or Rajnikant movie.
Well if you take Michael in GFII, he was more ruthless, but we see that he ends up regretting in the ending, where he just sits totally empty, staring out blankly into the future.
In fact if you take Pacino’s Gangster roles, it has an interesting trajectory.
In GF he was the reluctant gangster, taking over his father’s empire.
In GF II, he was more ruthless as u said, but losing every one at the end.
In Scarface, he was the uncouth, gangster from the streets, who makes it to the top quickly and has a sudden fall.
In Carlito’s Way, he was the gangster wanting to go straight, but finding it hard.
And finally in Donnie Brasco, he is a totally used up, washed out gangster, a loser, who sees in Johnny Depp, someone who could be what he never was.
To be honest I am not that great a fan of Pacino (he is good, no doubt, but personally there are still a lot of names that come before him)… yet amongst his performances Scarface is sure one among the top. As a movie I just fell in love with it… I watched it long before Godfather and I craved (grovelled literally) in the halfway through Godfather for a similar performance! The denouement (basically the last 20 mins) knocked me cold!
i loved the interrogation scene as well…one of my most fav introductory scenes……..
but i agree with papaji ….its quite overrrated ..
infact the climax was annoying…..
its a good movie but not something i’d watch again and again….
‘The World is yours’
This film is chilling, Great Soundtrack (Tony’s Theme Music)
Love the scene in Conference hall, in the background you see wallpaper of Palm trees,.
Nice tense music,.
Tension aata hai
Love it to the core..The BGM is so haunting by Giorgoio Moroder.You nailed Ratnakr..I mean its so hauntin the movie..the very 80s feel cannot be missed..the synthesizer BGM..ohh man..awesome it was..” The World is yours”..i think this led to a spurt of gangster movies in the 80s and the 90s in Hindi Cinema.
Al Pacino, the man is 68 now, and lives on in all our reruns of the unforgettable films, and numerous spoofs(SNL – Bill Hader does a rather well impersonation of him, or that typical Farrell-Apatow joke from Step Brothers – ‘say hello to my little friend- SCARFACE! SCARFACE!!). I think of him and I think of my comfortable film viewing- films that don’t necessarily demand much from me – films of Pacino, Depp, films on drugs, dementia, or films on the 60’s, or the films revolving around some comedy favorites or 70’s icons. Pacino films fall in that league. I have grown to like And justice for all, dog day afternoon, Carlito’s way a little above the others. The rest are all very much there – Scarface, Serpico, Scarecrow, Scent of a woman, Donnie Brasco. Scarface has an interesting trajectory from two powerful performers – Pacino & Pfeiffer. Watch this followed by Frankie & Johnny. And it is the same comfortable feeling again. Pacino is one guy who rises above the films, much like Amitabh Bachchan or Dileep Kumar. They make dialog writing cool and praiseworthy and sought-after.
this is one of my fave movies too; and one of the best performances on al pacino. i dont think it was over the top; it was just not under-stated, tats all. the character was a bit loud, but he was required to. i believe tat cubans/mexicans/latinos r tat kinda ppl who express and exalt, not subtle in their mannerism like englishman.
anyways, i also loved the way mukul anand adapted/indianized this when he made agneepath. the premise was very well done, and only bigB cud have done what he did. he was mindblowing, to say the least. agneepath covered the interrogation scenes, his mother’s unacceptability of her son, sister falling in love with his friend etc. similarity ends there and the movie took a bollywood turn
@ Somnath: Well Michael Corleone is a different kind of role, it required underplaying. But watch Pacino breaking down over his daughter’s dead body in GF III, that will really hit you hard.
GF III would have been a better movie, but for Sofia Copolla, she really ruined it.
@ Aswhin: The interrogation scene is one of the best though. It straight away establishes Tony’s character.
@ Shekar
Yeah the music score for Scarface is kinda 80ish. Synthesizer new age stuff.
@ Sourav
Precisely thats what i wanted to state. The 80’s saw the rise of Hispanic gangs like the Cuban, Puerto Rican in US and the Colombian drug cartels. These men were less organized and more dangerous than the Italian gangs. And yes more flashy too.
@ Tushar
The reason why i am such a big time Pacino fan is his monologues and his dialog delivery.
When he gives that famous locker room speech in Any Given Sunday, i just get that extra bit of josh.
And in Scent of a Woman, his famous “You Are out of Order” speech. Not to forget his Tango dance.
Pfeiffer though i felt had not much of a role in Scarface. In fact the chemistry between Pacino and Penelope Ann Miller was much beter in Carlito’s Way. Frankie and Johnny was nice though, and Pfeiffer had a more meaty role in that.
@ Crazyrals
Exactly, i felt Pacino’s performance was in keeping with the tune of character. Also Hispanics in general tend to be loud, flashy and exuberant.
Agneepath took a lot from Scarface, including the mother-sister angle, also the restaurant scene was influenced by Pacino’s famous “Bad Guy” scene. Only thing is that AB’s character was given a more positive spin, i guess keeping Indian audiences in mind.
In fact Vaastav had lot of Scarface influence too, especially Sunju’s drug addiction scenes.
I did not notice first time, but RGV also seemed to be influenced by Scarface while making Satya. If you take the dialog delivery in Satya,its more like Scarface kind, very rapid, very fast.
Also the scene in Satya,where Chakri is talking to Urmi, while the gang is torturing another person inside, has its echoes in that famous chainsaw scene in Scarface. There also you have one of the guys flirting outside, while Angel is being dismembered inside. While RGV did admit to his Godfather influence, i sometimes wonder why he never mentioned Scarface. I find RGV’s style more closer to Brian De Palma’s.
@ratnakar[cmnt #12]: in satya, rgv is more influenced by pulp fiction than scarface. if u observe the chillaxed manner in which they go abt their business, as if it was a routine job was so very very much like pulp fiction. typically, ganda hai par dhanda hai ye:)
. all in all, scarface was brilliant…
also, i just mentioned a few sequences of agneepath from scarface coz i knew u wud get the gist of it