Over the course of a week, Marcia and I watched “Scarface” starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Steven Bauer, and F. Murray Abraham. Yes, this is the first time I watched. And yes (again), I realize how lame I am for taking so long to finally see this.
For those that don’t know, “Scarface” is an update (of sorts) of a movie by the same name from 1932. However, Oliver Stone (who wrote the screenplay) changed a few things. Pacino plays Tony Montana, who leaves Cuba along with his friend Manny Ribera (Bauer) after Castro opened the harbor at Mariel. To secure a green card, Manny sets up a “hit” for them while holed up at a makeshift detainment center under I-95 in Miami. Soon Tony and Manny get hooked up with Omar (Abraham), walk away from a deal-gone-bad with both the money and the cocaine impressing the boss. Eventually Tony works his way up the food chain and learns first hand what it takes to get all you want.
Obviously, like a lot of Pacino films, things are over-the-top. Though as Robin Williams pointed out in his ROAST at Pacino’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony, most of what happened in “Scarface” could probably be called a documentary given the nature of cocaine.
Something that struck Marcia and I as rather funny was the soundtrack. Here is a classic movie, one to be forever remembered. Yet the music sounded terrible! It was typical early 80’s garbage. Now, you really can’t fault Brian DePalma (the director), because the movie was done in 1983. But unfortunately the music has not held up well at all.
There were other bits of humor in the movie, or least things that Marcia and I found funny. We weren’t sure if they were purposely there, or were supposed to be taken seriously. One that really stands out was very late in the movie when Tony is awaiting someone (won’t give any spoilers), and he has a enormous pile of cocaine on his desk in front of him. He leans forward and takes a snort directly from the pile which leaves powder on his face. Couldn’t help but laugh then.
Marcia and I also found out that the “F-word” (or variants of) is used 223 times in the movie. And even at one point Pfeiffer’s asks Tony, “Do you have to say f*** all the time?”
Despite anything I have said against it, it was quite a good movie. It is nearly three hours long and never drags. The inner workings and politics are understood very well. And though Pacino is over-the-top, he does it in a controlled manner and keeps the character very interesting. The rest of the cast too is very good. Though it was strange seeing Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio so young. Sure “The Abyss” was done only six years later, but she seemed to have so much more confidence and experience that it made her seem older.
And just for the fun of it, since I posted it before, here’s the famous line:
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