Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: Oliver Stone
Director of Photography: John A. Alonzo
Editors: Jerry Greenberg & David Ray
Music: Giorgio Moroder
Notable Cast: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Loggia, Harris Yulin, F. Murray Abraham, Mark Margolis, Richard Belzer
Odd that this should be the first “normal” post on this Substack. While I admire Scarface and think it is very good, it’s not even in my top 100 of all time list. I’ve never made a top 100 list of all time, so this is all mere conjecture, but I’m pretty sure Scarface would not land on it. Having said that, I positively loved this movie when I was younger, but even then, I realized that once Tony Montana makes it to the top, the film becomes much less interesting, until that boffo end shootout.
Before this current viewing, I had not seen the film in ages. Yes, I bought it on Blu-ray, but I’m not sure I ever popped it in. I have hundreds of Blu-rays and DVDs, and there’s a significant handful I’ve never once opened the case to put the disc in and watch. My film collection is like some people’s wine collection, or a great books collection, it is on display as a testament to what I love and to my taste in general. One of my favorite pastimes is when someone comes over my house and peruses my collection, and either has a positive or negative reaction. One of my favorite reactions was no reaction at all. At my son’s birthday party, I noticed one of the fathers really checking out the titles on the shelf. He neither smiled nor frowned, and when he was done, he simply turned around with a blank face and joined the others. I’ll always remember that.
My wife and I were watching some video on YouTube and it discussed the Mariel Boat Lift. She had never heard of it, so I figured what better way to show her than the opening of Scarface (as Steve Martin says in Larry Kasdan’s amazing L.A. epic, Grand Canyon, all of life’s riddles are answered in the movies).
My wife had never seen Scarface. I know, I know, how is that possible? Well, fellow film freak, there’s a large percentage of the population that don’t really care about movies or keeping up with the latest releases or spending their time on a couch or in a theater watching a movie. One of the things I truly loved about her when we met was her complete lack of knowledge or pretension when it came to film. It’s impossible for me to be friends with or date someone who has shitty taste in film and TV. Here I had a complete blank slate, who’d never seen a David Lynch film, or a Cronenberg flick, or really anything. The perfect mate, in other words. I could show her what’s what and I wouldn’t get any pedantic arguments about how Spielberg is a great director, for example. A buddy of mine broke up with a chick for the exact opposite reason. While they got along great, she was like my wife in that she held no strong opinions on film or TV, and would be down to watch whatever he wanted. He couldn’t stand it! He NEEDED someone who was well versed and would challenge him and show him new shit. Absolute madness.
1ST 5 MINUTES
I press play and immediately hear those dark, powerful Giorgio Moroder notes as the dope, old, grainy Universal logo plays. I already know the movie is going to be great and I haven’t even seen one image yet. That’s what a great score can do. It sucks you in from the first frame and doesn’t let go. Even now, 40 years later, the music is indelible. But in 1983? Had to be mindblowing. Yes, Moroder had already scored some films, and Tangerine Dream was doing their thing, but electronic scores were still new, and it was a bold choice to pick Moroder for what is basically a standard crime drama.
And then we get what might be the most efficient, compact set up for a film that I have ever seen. Intercut with the main titles is stock footage of the Cuban migrants arriving in Miami along with a few brief subtitles explaining why they came in such great numbers. The editing between the titles and the footage is exemplary, and within less than a few minutes you know EXACTLY what’s happening, why, and what the stakes are.
At this point, I must mention Oliver Stone, the young Oscar winning screenwriter of Scarface. A lot of people’s mileage with Stone varies, but I happen to think he is one of the greatest auteurs in the history of film. Yes, he fell off after his prodigious output in the 80’s and 90’s, but reinvented himself as possibly one of our greatest documentarians with The Untold History of the United States, a fascinating, and thoroughly depressing, look at the history of 20th century America, and JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass/JFK: Destiny Betrayed, his definitive statement on the JFK assassination. But in 1983, he was still mainly a screenwriter. Yes, he had directed The Hand, starring Michael Caine (a nifty little horror thriller), but Salvador and Platoon were still a few years away. Now known mainly as a director, Stone’s writing ability is usually given short shrift, despite his scripts for Midnight Express, Scarface, Conan The Barbarian, and then the films he wrote and directed. A mad genius.
Now, it’s hard to really know who is responsible for what on a film, but I like to give the screenwriter credit, and the way he sets up the story is nothing short of magical. As a writer myself, I always marvel when a writer blows me away with structure, and the way Stone structured this film, at least the first 2/3, is masterful, really shows someone in command of his craft.
Not to ignore Brian De Palma, whose direction can be intricate, without being showy. The long crane shot from outside the 2nd floor of the chainsaw motel down to the convertible with Steven Bauer on the street and back up to the 2nd floor is a masterclass in direction, cinematography, and dramatic tension, made all the more impressive by the time period it was done in and the equipment available back then (i.e. no drones). I’m not a film historian and don’t usually watch behind the scenes type stuff as it kind of takes away the magic, but I have to think this shot took several takes based on the movement and timing. It’s amazing, and I marvel at it each time I watch the film.
Having said that, Brian De Palma will never be confused for someone whose films I love. I can guarantee there will be no more De Palma films written about on this Substack. I enjoyed Mission: Impossible (the first one is the only one to give a shit in that series, don’t embarrass yourself and argue, it’s the only one that was a film. The rest are amusement park rides, like superhero cape shit, and none of the other flicks in the series have that supremely tasty canned ham known as Jon motherfuckin’ Voight) and The Bonfire of the Vanities, but no one would mistake them for great films (Carrie? Eh. Dressed To Kill? Terrible. Raising Cain? Casualties of War? Please…). Scarface is his magnum opus, and that won’t change.
Scarface - Interrogation Scene
After the credits roll and the entire story is set up, we still have 90 seconds and change left in the 1ST 5 Minutes. Here, we see Al Pacino for the first time as Tony Montana, and he’s being interrogated by some sort of law or border enforcement (oddly, the character actor cops are dubbed over by none other than character actors Charles Durning and Dennis Franz, uncredited, of course). Immediately, you know Pacino is giving one of his best performances. The accent, the way he positions his lower jaw, the somewhat blank eyes of a stone cold killer, his quick mind, the easy deceit, the fury, passion and striving in his voice, it’s all there in that first scene. And it just gets better from there.
The 1ST 5 Minutes of Scarface let you know, in no uncertain terms, that you’re about to watch a great movie. Moroder. Stone. Pacino. Doesn’t get better than that (Stone would later go on to direct Pacino in Any Given Sunday, which was, unfortunately, a pretty terrible movie, especially if you know anything about the NFL).
The rest of the flick
Favorite Line: There’s quite a few great, quotable lines from this flick. No, dear reader, I am not referring to Montana’s “little friend.” One of my absolute favorites is when Montana tells Sosa, “All I have in this world is my balls, and my word, and I don’t break ‘em for no one.” Classic shit. But I’m going to cheat a bit here, as it’s not one line but the mini-monologue Montana screams at the cops about the horrors of Communism in Cuba and his feelings of desperation living under that authoritarian regime, which ends with a banger, “I am Tony Montana, a political prisoner from Cuba, and I want my fuckin’ human rights, now!”
Favorite Scene: It’s really hard to top the entire sequence at the motel with the Colombians and the chainsaw, but it seems so cliché and easy to name that as one’s favorite scene, even though it is arguably the best scene in the movie. So, for the sake of being a contrarian, we’ll go a bit dark horse here and say the scene where, right after Montana has vanquished Robert Loggia’s Frank Lopez (by the way, how great is Loggia here? The suit, the giant gold Chai around his neck, peppering Yiddish into his dialogue – how utterly unexpected and fantastic), and he goes outside, that indelible Moroder theme kicks in, and he sees the blimp telling him, “The world is yours.” What an iconic cinematic moment.
Unfortunately, the movie keeps going after that and sags a bit until that wild ending.
Favorite Shot: Has to be that beautiful crane shot outside the chainsaw motel scene. I could watch it 50 times in a row it’s so good.
The One Sheet
Scarface has a pretty classic poster. Hard to analyze it from 2023 as it is so iconic and sold all over in various sizes and reproductions, been parodied and given tribute to. I think it’s a pretty solid poster. Quite a bit of copy, but fairly good at summing the film up, except for one glaring thing… at no point is Tony Montana known or referred to as Scarface! Otherwise, it’s a good poster, I think.
This alternate art one is interesting, and while I am a sucker for art posters, the illustrations here aren’t that great. Can’t really see any reason to hang this on one’s wall. Sorry.
And that’s a wrap for Scarface. Thanks for reading.
See you in 2 weeks…