Dally NebrasRan
Thursday, December 15, 1983
Pacino excellent as tragic hero in Scarface
Page 18
Review by Steve Abrictes
A better director than Brian DePalma couldn't
have been chosen to direct "Scarface" an effort by
the "master of the Macabre" starring Al Pacino.
DePalma's films have always maintained a high level
of glitter and gore together with a swift and fanciful
film technique that always seems to exceed a less
creative storyline. I though "Dressed to Kill" was all
right. "Blow Out" was a superb film. At any rate,
Film
Review
DePalma's glittery and slightly unreal style has often
times in the past accompanied rather empty stories.
"Scarface" is the story of one man's savage journey
to the heart of the American dream. Al Pacino stars
at Tony Montana, the ruthless and empty anti-hero,
a Cuban with a dubious past who immigrates to
Miami, along with thousands of other boat people
exiled by Castro in 1982. He quickly stumbles onto
some connections in the drug business, and works
his way up the ladder with his savage pride and his
fierce loyalty. Upon reaching the top notch in the
drug smuggling ring, he breaks two rules he was told
always to abide by: Don't get greedy and don't get
high on your own supply. Unfortunately, he didn't
hear these canons because he was too busy trying to
act tough.
Montana is a tragic hero blazing a path along a
tragic arc, violently bursting his way to an upper
class status, experiencing everything big, beautiful
and expensive America has to offer. He then turns
desperate and paranoid with his newly but illegally
accumulated wealth and is thus sent spiraling to
inevitable demise in a wave of shootouts and
explosions.
Montana is really the great Gatsby of the '80s. Like
Gatsby, he has illegally gained his fortune. He also
forcefully and awkwardly gets the only girl that
could ever accompany him in his magic kingdom.
Elvira (Mary Fiefier) is so physically perfect that she
may come off as uninteresting and shallow, but she's
smart and she knows where she fits in. She melts
right into tropical background, another empty
symbol of a false paradise right along the tacky
paintings of ocean sunsets framed with the
silhouettes of palm trees. Montana does not have as
much style as Gatsby, but what he lacks in style, he
more than makes up for with violence.
"Scarface" contains a graphically violent scene
that takes place around 35 minutes into the film.
The scene revolves around a botched drug deal
involving cocaine and a running chain saw. Most of
the violence is implied, but we still see the blood and
it flies everywhere. I glanced at my watch because I
was wondering how much longer I was going to have
to sit through all the carnage. But as it turned out,
this is the most gruesome moment of the film.
"Scarface" is an intense, edge-of-the-seat, thriller
that really bangs away at you and might very well
leave you pretty beat up. In it you will find, homages
to "The Godfather." The film also is a tribute to the
shoot-em-up gangster films of the 1930s.
As Montana, Pacino offers a solid performance.
His accent is believable and his character is
honorable and traditional. You can see the
momentary reluctance in his face as he tries to
blend the old with the new. And with a little of the
DePalma magic, Pacino presents an authentic
portrayal of a reaction steeped in livid hatred when
he discovers that his best friend has been sleeping
with his kid sister. This is the best work Pacino has
done in a while. His character is strong and confi
fident, but it is hard to sympathize with him, which I
think is one of the weaknesses of the film.
The film attacks many of the premises that this
country was founded on. Montana, like the people
who settled this country, is an immigrant who has
arrived to escape persecution. He becomes the self
made businessman, an individualist who settles
disputes with a gun (or in some instances, a grenade
launcher), and in some ways this is more unsettling
than much of the swiftly and gracefully choreo
graphed violence. He has attained more wealth than
he could ever use, but this leaves him lonely and full
of despair. Gatsby ended up face down in his own
pool and the same thing might happen to Tony
Montana if he is not careful.
The photography gives off a detached and distant
feeling. The editing is crisp and relentless. The film
seems to have been cut to the tune of a meat slicer.
For the first time, DePalma has found something
that he can get his cinematic teeth into. "Scarface,"
as a film is not only well put together, but it manages
to make a point amid the killing and corruption
about false and empty American ideals. This film
forces one at point blank range to come to odds with
the American system and the corruption within.
This film will stick with you for awhile, and for good
reason.
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