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Scarface Movie Review

Scarface is a 1983 crime film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino. It is a surprisingly good crime flick and rather engaging to watch.

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“You wanna fuck with me? Okay.

You wanna play rough? Okay.

Say hello to my little friend!“

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Tony Montana and his close friend Manny, build a strong drug empire in Miami. However as his power begins to grow, so does his ego and his enemies, and his own paranoia begins to plague his empire. This is a typical gangster story about a rise and fall of one, but it is distinguished from many others by genuinely terrific technical aspects, acting and strong characterization as well as dialogue. It offers a necessary look into the Cuban crime scene in Miami of the time while being particularly efficient at depicting how organized crime works in the context of 1980 America, the role of drugs and even the involvement of the corrupt police.

For an almost three-hour long movie, I have to say that I was genuinely engaged almost throughout its runtime. Strong praise, thus, must be directed toward excellent pacing and editing, a strong script and memorable characterizations, in particular that of the protagonist himself.

Yes, Tony Montana is an iconic gangster movie protagonist that is actually very well developed and even unexpectedly relatable in some of his personality traits. Following his rise and then his fall was very interesting and this is basically entirely his movie and Pacino’s. What Al Pacino did here was incredible and that is coming from a guy who has never been a fan of his. The fact that he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar is ludicrous as his performance here just might be his career-best work. Perfectly cast and delivering in both the accent and line delivery, he is magnetic through and through and the highlight of the whole picture.

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Michelle Pfeiffer is also quite memorable as his love interest. I found the relationship between the two very well realized and believable. The most tragic characters in the movie are Tony’s friend and sister. What happened to them was truly horrible and by far the most emotional scenes in the movie are their deaths.

Scarface does have a tonal problem as it tries way too heavily in certain areas to be a pure comedy, but then in others it attempts to be serious drama. I liked the humorous lines of dialogue here, but still the tonal issues remain. The same goes for its over-the-top violence and action scenes. For a movie that is otherwise exceedingly realistic and down to earth, those moments of bloodshed felt a bit too much, especially the ending.

Yes, that ending is the most important, most iconic part of the movie, but to me it felt overly ridiculous and difficult to buy. It was wildly entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but it was simply too much for me. Still, the film portrayed the excess of the gangsters’ lifestyle so effortlessly and I loved that we got to see the side of the sister, the friend, the mother and the wife.

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Scarface is very well directed by Brian De Palma and the fact that he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry back in 1984 is ridiculous. The movie is also very well scored and shot, featuring many instantly memorable locations and sets. Overall, it’s much better than I’d expected it would be.