at one point during brian de palma’s crime epic scarface , the radiant michelle pfeiffer turns to a ranting al pacino and pops a question that the audience has no doubt been wanting to ask for themselves : ” can’t you stop saying ‘fuck’ all the time ? ”
fucking good question , that .
it may not be an honour that instills the filmmakers with pride , but as far as i can tell oliver stone’s script contains the said expletitive more times than any other film in cinema history .
yet it would be a shame if bad language is all de palma’s scarface is remembered for , because this is a damn fine gangstar flick .
the overall structure is similar to howard hawks’ 1932 original , but this time the scene has switched to miami , florida and our anti-hero’s chosen vice is cocaine traffiking .
pacino , sporting a thick cuban accent , gives one the best performances of his career ( golden globe nominated ) as tony montana , a cuban refugee with a criminal past who flees castro and comes to america to live the american dream .
and live it out he does , with lashings of violence , abuse , murder and the funny white powder .
from his earliest jobs as a drug runner for various middlemen , tony montana makes it clear to everyone he meets that he’s not a man to be fucked ( sorry ) .
soon he’s the king of the cocaine heap , but his hot head and an increasingly out of control drug addiction prove his undoing .
” never do your own stash ” , warns one character early in the film .
as sure as night follows day , the emperor of miami eventually falls .
writer oliver stone and director brian de palma make an explosive combination here .
stone’s script offers solid storytelling and some fine character development .
montana is fascinating ; uneducated but calculating , a straight shooter who speaks from the heart ; an ambitious , violent man yet one with a conscience .
a man fiercely protective of his beautiful 20 year old sister , not wanting her to be sucked into the glitzy , dangerous world which he inhabits .
pacino is dynamite , taking to the role with a brooding , bristling energy which in his more recent films has often degenerated into just simple overracting .
pfeiffer also registers strongly as the gangstar mole with no inner life .
only once does tony express real affection for her and his desire to have children , and even then you sense all he really wants is a regular screw and a beautiful object to show off to his friends , and she’s happy to oblige .
this isn’t as meaty a role for pfieffer as sharon stone’s was in casino , but its an effective one nonetheless and she aquits herself well .
as director , de palma sets up a number of dramatic scenes with his typical stylistic brauva .
the escalating tension he creates in various mob situations – a drug deal gone wrong , an assination attempt – is often thrilling , and in this respect he is every bit the equal of scorese and coppola .
where he differs from , say , coppola’s godfather trilogy is in his overall treatment .
coppola gives his crime sagas an operatic sweep , whereas in scarface de palma opts for a grittier feel .
and it perfectly suits the material .
the only major botch is giorgio moroder’s mostly crap synthesier score .
it’s just not right , and unfortunately compromises the impact of some otherwise good scenes .
as expected , scarface is very violent at times , but you shouldn’t be watching gangster movies if that upsets you .
at over two and a half hours in length it’s a true epic , and if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll love f * * k-filled minute of it .