Scarface (1983)

After having watched the original twice and being occasionally reminded of the existence of this version by a poster in a local restaurant here in Seremban 2, I thought it was high time that I got around to watching this. A major impediment to this endeavor is that its running time is nearly three hours, requiring some scheduling to achieve.

This time around the mobster boss is Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who arrives in Miami. He gets his start by assassinating a former Cuban government official and begins working for drug dealer Frank Lopez. With him is his best friend Manny Ribera and a couple of other associates. He also visits his mother and his sister Gina who have both been living in the US for some years before his arrival. After dealing with some Colombian dealers, Tony rises up in the ranks quickly and falls in love with Frank’s mistress Elvira Hancock. He further threatens Frank’s position by building an excellent working relationship with Frank’s source in Bolivia. As their group gets richer and more powerful, Manny gets closer to Gina despite Tony’s warning, setting the stage for a Shakespearean tragedy.

As usual with these things, watching a remake after enjoying the original is always a diminished experience since you already know what to expect. This version retains pretty much all of the story beats of the original and it is readily apparent which characters are analogues of the ones in the first film, so there are no surprises. I did find it brilliant that it was updated to be about the Cuban refugee crisis and drug dealers, which makes it feel very 1980s. Naturally, it comes with all of the associated stereotypes: shirts opened to bare hairy chests, mansions with tons of bling, gorgeous women in either bikinis or slinky dresses, gigantic assault rifles. All this felt right at home with me since it directly inspired Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, still my favorite of the GTA games. I also got a real thrill out of finally realizing that the casting choices in the Breaking Bad series must have been referring to this show, especially the role of Mark Margolis.

On the down side, I found it to be too long for what it needed to do. As my wife noted, the repeated shots of the hitmen filing into Tony’s mansion went on for so long that it’s almost comical. I also found myself disliking what felt to me like overacting on the part of Al Pacino. He’s a scary character but mainly because he seem prone to erratic bursts of violence than because he has any real depth. Michelle Pfeiffler as Elvira is gorgeous if shockingly thin here but doesn’t have much to do. It’s Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio who has the much more interesting role as Gina and rightly so. I didn’t much for the gunfight scenes and indeed felt that the final battle looked utterly ridiculous.

Watching this, I realize that I generally don’t much like mobster films. Indeed I found The Godfather to be an impressive piece of work but I’d never call it one of my favorites. That’s probably why while I found this version of Scarface to be a decent film in its own right, I didn’t find it worthy of being the classic that it’s supposed to be. Indeed I think I prefer the original partly because it tells the same basic story arc in a shorter time and because of the innovations that it brought to cinema during its time. Generally speaking I think Brian De Palma is too inconsistent a director to be considered one of the greats.

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