Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
Fast cars, cocaine, guns, and beautiful women Scarface is about as 80s as it gets. Scarface is the rise-to-the-top story of Tony Montana; director by Brian De Palma, screenplay written by Oliver Stone, and starring: Al Pacino as Tony Montana, Steven Bauer as Manny, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Gina. Scarface is a remake of the 1932 classic, which is an adaption of a 1929 novel of the same name. If you’ve never seen Scarface go take some time out of your day and watch it you wont be disappointed. If you have and need a recap here it is: Tony Montana and his friend Manny leave Cuba during the 1980 Mariel exodus. They find themselves in a Florida refugee camp looking for a way out. Manny manages to set up an arrangement to get a green card for Tony and him if they kill a former aide to Fidel Castro. After a deal with a Colombian name Hector goes very bad Tony finds himself working for a big time drug dealer name Frank Lopez, Robert Loggia. Tony begins to raise the ranks very quickly, getting involved in the police and soon looking to take over Franks position and his trophy-wife, Elvira. As Tony dominates the drug trade and brings a new level of violence to Miami he puts a very big target on is head. After failing to execute a hit for Bolivian drug-lord Alejandro Sosa that target gets even bigger. Eventually ending in a bloodbath in Tony’s mansion leaving all his men dead along with his sister, Gina.
Brian De Palma and cinematographer John A. Alonzo made Scarface a very beautifully and physically compelling film. The colors in this film are fantastic, from all the gold, black, and red in Tony’s mansion, too the amazing bright vista of Miami with all the colorful suits and Hawaiian shirts. The cinematography is very simple but effective. It reflects the serious and bold tone of the film. The stylized depiction of violence and terrific editing specifically the sound editing is what to me makes this movie so groundbreaking. The eerie sound that plays whenever Tony learns a piece of new information or something bad is going to happen adds so much to the movie and is a lot more common nowadays. Another great piece of editing is the classic 80s style montage in the middle of the film where Tony and his men continually bring bags of money into the bank while “Push It To the Limit” plays in the back.
This film had a lot of breakout roles for a good amount of actors including: Tony’s right-hand man Manny is played by Steven Bauer and this was his film debut. The Havana-born actor was the only actual Cuban in the principal cast. It was the also the first major screen role for Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, cast as Tony’s sister, Gina. (It wasn’t quite her film debut; she’d appeared earlier the same year as an extra in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy.) The role proved her big break, leading to her Oscar-nominated performance opposite Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in Scorsese’s The Color of Money. Another actress who caught a break from the movie is Michelle Pfeiffer De Palma and Pacino resisted auditioning Pfeiffer for Elvira, Tony’s bitter trophy wife, since she was best known at the time for having starred in the flop Grease 2. But producer Martin Bregman insisted she get a tryout. The role was her big breakthrough, later starring in Batman Returns and Into the Night.
It’s hard to know whether Al Pacino will be more remembered as Tony Montana of Scarface or as Michael Corleone of The Godfather trilogy. He is such a dominating role in Scarface it is hard to argue against it. From the very beginning Pacino has your attention, there is no denying his immanent success and rise to the top. As horrible of a person as Tony Montana is Pacino still makes him likable up until the very end. Amazing actors are what make amazing movies, when you put them together with an all-star director, and an unforgettable story the movie will go down in cinema history forever, just as Al Pacino will always be best as Tony Montana.
