| Posted by: Brock Landers at December 5, 2000, 1:11 pm | | Topic: (VIDEO) "Scarface" (6/10) Forum: JoBlo | | "Scarface" A Brian De Palma Film (6/10) A Brock Landers Overview of a Brian Depalma Film "Scarface" is a corrosive morality tale of greediness and brutality similar in story dimensions to "Macbeth", tracing the rise and fall of a charismatic mobster. At times it borders greatness…but it falters, perhaps reflecting the descent of its protagonist, into mediocrity at the end…"Scarface" is at its best and most exciting in the beginning, when, like its hero, it is hungry…it has nothing to lose…nothing stands in its way…it is all new and fresh When we first see Tony Montana he seems to be a creature of extreme craftiness and cool…his self-esteem and will are ironclad…his reflexes are extraordinarily agile…As the scene begins, Tony (Al Pacino), his face mutilated to provide the necessary explanation about his nickname, his accent thick as dark Cuban java…is being interrogated by immigration officials. They don't buy his political victimization at the hands of the commie-fiend Castro story. (Castro has just exiled 25,000 other people from Cuba who are of various degrees of moral depravity.) It's a great scene, shot ingeniously. The camera moves around Tony, circling…but staying low to the ground. We see only the sitting Tony being attacked by gyrating guards who are thick-torsoed and faceless interrogators…and Tony plays them expertly…Tony is sent back to the jail-like pen where the exiles are stored as they await release into American society. Tony is cynical and ruthless about his fellow man…within minutes setting up a hit on a former castro official in exchange for his freedom. DePalma sets up the killing in such a way to explain Tony's soul to us…The hit is fast, merciless and effective…Tony moves into the frame like a bolt of lightning…striking without mercy. Soon afterwards, Tony hooks up with a sleazy cocaine dealer (Robert Loggia), the first of many cliches…and soon Tony gets dumped into a cheap motel as a payoff man with some Columbians Best scene in the flick: Ruthless and Crazy Columbians…A Rip-Off…Drugs…Guns…A Chainsaw…unfortunately, after this scene the film moves downhill…it turns into a condescending study of Tony's vulgarity…Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma take cheap thrills from Tony's wardrobe and bad taste…they turn Tony into nothing special, just a vengeful, violent punk...and the world is full of them...Pacino's performance, so invigorating in the beginning turns into a kind of catatonic exercise in drama…the decadence takes its toll…how does Tony survive? Dumb Luck…nothing more…take for instance the attempted assassination in the nightclub…Tony's old boss has hired two hitmen with machine-pistols to blow him away…from a range of about 15 feet…what happens? They miss…then Tony blows them away with two shots…(as the Churchlady would say, "How Con…veeeeeniant"…) Then along comes a sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio)…a little alluding to incest and obscure longings…that end up being overly awkward and underdeveloped (Oliver Stone's doing)…a useless Michelle Pfeiffer…and more stereotypes. Like Tony, "Scarface" hasn't any brains. No ideas come through the cursing and violence. "Scarface" is about machine guns and cocaine…plain and simple…it's about an hour too long |
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