Movie Mondays: Scarface

You know, remakes have a bad reputation amongst movie fans. Not for entirely undeserved reasons mind you. Many remakes aren’t that good, little more than shallow re-treads of the original that lack any of the original charm. Remakes nowadays are seen as nothing but lazy, unnecessary cash grabs designed to milk people's nostalgia.

The thing is though, the idea of a remake isn’t a bad one. There's nothing wrong with telling a story again if you can add something new to it or tell it from a different perspective. Films, even some of the all-time greats, are products of their time. So remaking them with more modern sensibilities can lead to interesting results. Even if it doesn’t always work.

And not all remakes are necessarily bad. Some remakes are quite good, some remakes are so good they supplant the original in the popular consciousness. Such as today's film, Scarface. Be honest, you didn’t know this was a remake, did you? I think most audiences don’t know it’s a remake. I didn’t even know it was one until just a few years ago, it’s become so iconic it completely overshadowed the original film in everyone’s minds.

But yes, Scarface is indeed a remake. The original Scarface was released in 1932 and was a film noir inspired by the life of infamous gangster Al Capone. I have not seen the original, though for its time it was a decent success and got good reviews from critics and audiences. Al Pacino apparently liked it, after viewing the film at a Tiffany Theater screening he thought it would make for a good film to remake.

Scarface was directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone. Initially Oliver Stone didn’t want to do it because he did not like the original and was tired of movies about the mafia, but when he found out the plan was to focus the film on Cuban immigrants from the original director, Sidney Lumet, he agreed to do it.

One of the reasons Stone wanted to do it was it played into the drug problem that was plaguing southern Florida at the time. Something Oliver Stone was well aware of given he was struggling with a cocaine addiction at the time. Hey, it’s always best to write what you know. This was a fitting change given that the original was inspired heavily by the prohibition era antics of the mafia.

Scarface was released in 1983 to mixed reviews. Most of which stemmed from the excessive violence, swearing and drug use. Something I find laughable, but we’ll get to that later. It wasn’t a major box office success, but it did respectable numbers and would go on to be a cult film. The film in modern times has since been reappraised as a classic. Even Martin Scorsese has called it one of the greatest gangster movies ever made, and I think Scorsese would know a thing or two about those. Is it worthy of such high praise? Let's find out.

Scarface is the story of the rise and fall story of Antonio “Tony” Montana. A Cuban immigrant sent to America during the Mariel boatlift; the film follows Tony’s rise to become a powerful drug lord before falling victim to his own hubris. A film like this is entirely dependent on its main protagonist, if they aren’t interesting or likable enough then the film falls apart. Fortunately, Tony Montana is one the best movie characters of all time.

A former prison assassin, Tony becomes involved in a drug cartel after performing an assassination in a refugee camp. Tony wants the world and everything in it and will do whatever it takes to get it. Characters like this are usually the bad guys in movies and that’s exactly what Tony is. Tony is not a good person, he’s angry, violent, rude and a general asshole. How do you make a character like this likable?

Well first off, the movie gives Tony a relatable motivation. The movie starts out in the refugee camp Tony is stuck in and we see the horrible conditions he lives in. Right out of the gate knows why Tony does what he does. One of the main themes of Scarface is the dark side of the “American dream”. How the American ideals of hard work and opportunity have degraded and given way to crime, greed and corruption.

Tony has just escaped from Communist Cuba and is not shy of saying how horrible it was. After getting out of the refugee camp he soon finds himself living in what could best be described as an elevated form of poverty. His life is only slightly better than it was before, he’s still a nobody that gets pushed around and he’s tired of it. He wants a better life for himself, even if his methods of achieving this are abhorrent that’s a motivation most people can relate too.

But no matter what he accomplishes, it’s never enough. Tony works hard to get the wealth and power he feels he deserves and yet it never satisfies him. His drive for a better life becomes a drive for more opulence, his greed slowly taking over and consuming him. The film uses Tony’s relationship with his wife Elvira to show this.

Elvira starts as the wife of Tony’s boss and Tony wants her the minute he lays eyes on her. When Tony kills his boss for betraying and marries Elvira himself, he doesn’t know what to do with her. He didn’t love her, he just wanted her because she was something he didn’t have. He even grows to hate her when he finds out she can’t have kids, she can’t give him anymore and thus is worthless to him.

But it’s that very same greed that makes him human, and it’s his human side that makes him a compelling character. In the beginning he does show that he cares for those closest to him, he meets his mother after 5 years apart and sees his little sister Gina all grown up and tries to help them financially. His mother refuses his offer, disgusted by what her son has become, but his sister wants her brother in her life, so she takes the money he offers.

Later on in the movie Tony sees Gina going into the men’s bathroom of a nightclub he frequents to make-out with a guy she’s hooked up with. Tony goes in and breaks it up despite his sisters objections. Tony is simply looking out for his sister as any good brother would, she’s the only good thing left in his life at that point.

But by the end of the movie this has devolved into a need to keep Gina for himself, when he finds out his friend Manny has had sex with her, he guns him down in cold blood, only to discover he had married his sister the day previous day. He doesn’t do this to protect her anymore, he does it because she’s another thing for him to own. The movie uses Gina to show how Tony’s moral compass degrades as he becomes embedded within the drug trade.

By the end of the movie, Tony has little of the humanity he initially had. And yet ironically, it’s the last bastions of his humanity that are ultimately his undoing. When he’s asked to assassinate an activist that plans on outing his business partners, but he drops out at the last minute because it would involve killing a wife and her two children. This isn’t a complete nonsense turn either, the movie builds up Tony’s fondness for children throughout the film, so it makes perfect sense when he doesn’t go through with the assassination.

But that one lone act of mercy is also what causes his downfall. His closest business associate becomes so pissed at this failure he sends his goons out to kill Tony, ultimately ending in the famous last stand at the movies climax. The message is clear, there is no room for compassion in organized crime. You do what needs to be done or end up in a body bag.

That’s what I like about Scarface, it holds nothing back when showing the brutality of organized crime. This is why the criticisms of the movies excessive violence and swearing are laughable to me, that’s the point you wimps. It's a cruel and violent world and the movie isn’t afraid to showcase this in all its gritty detail. The gun fights are not shown to be cool or flashy, it’s barbarous. That's not to say the action isn’t fun to watch, it can and the final showdown in particular is glorious to behold. But more often than not the violence is shown to be little more than a remorseless act of senseless cruelty.

Normally I would agree the swearing being excessive part because I find it base and childish, and this is coming from someone with a mouth that would make a sailor blush. But here’s the thing, it works in Scarface’s favour. Tony Montana is meant to be a very raw and primal character, he’s a ball of rage who doesn’t hold anything back, it makes sense for his character to swear like he does.

Another critique that makes me scratch my head is those that say the film looks tacky and unrefined. Again though, that’s kind of the point. The film is steeped in that early eighties Miami aesthetic, bright neon colours, girls walking around in bikinis all that good stuff. I agree that a lot of it looks tacky, buts it’s by design. The film uses the veneer of eighties excess to show just how empty it all is. Organized crime tries to look flash but it’s all hollow and meaningless.

Scarface doesn’t try to glamorize or romanticize gangsters like other movies do, it shows the organized crime world for what it truly is. Now I am not saying that Scarface is a better movie than, say, The Godfather, that is still the gold standard when it comes to these kinds of movies. What I am saying is that it is better in certain aspects. The Godfather is certainly better from a filmmaking perspective. It's a lot more refined and intricate whereas Scarface is crude and over the top. But it works for the kind of film Scarface is, and the over-the-top nature is also where the film gets most of its entertainment value.

I have heard people critique the film for its portrayal of Cuban immigrants. Some have said the film furthers the stereotype that most of the Cuban immigrants sent over by Castro were criminals, or at the very least had a criminal record. While I don’t know enough about the Mariel boatlift and the resultant consequences to know how accurate the film is, I will say that the film doesn’t portray all Cubans as criminals. Tony’s mother is as strait laced as they come and even chews Tony out for his actions saying they give other Cubans a bad name. There's even a Cuban police officer who echoes a similar sentiment.

So no, the movie doesn’t portray all Cubans in a negative light. Plus, I mean, it is a movie about gangsters. Complaining there’s too many Cuban gangsters in a movie about Cuban gangsters is like complaining about The Sound of Music having too many songs. What did you expect going into this?

Mind you if the film were made nowadays the biggest complaint people would have, assuming you call the collective of toxic idiocy that is Twitter people, is that the main character isn’t played by an actual Cuban, or at the very least a South American. Then they would see the movie and shut the hell up because Al Pacino is absolutely incredible in this movie. Even people who dislike the movie have admitted his performance is stellar which goes to show how good it is.

Pacino is Tony Montana. Nobody swears like he does and he has the charisma to pull a character like this off. Is it over the top? Absolutely, and that’s what makes it so good. Tony Montana is a character with no chill and Pacino goes all in but adds just enough subtle nuance to his performance to avoid becoming a full-on cartoon character. It's widely considered one of his best performances and I don’t think I could argue otherwise.

Mind you the supporting cast is superb as well. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Tony’s wife Elvira. Elvira is supposed to be a worn-down shell of a person and Pfeiffer absolutely nails that. She looks so dead inside throughout the film which makes the emotional outburst in her final scene hit all the harder. Apparently, De Palma and Pacino were against casting her since she was an unknown actress at the time, also she was in Grease 2 which didn’t help matters. Luckily Martin Bergman, the film's producer, insisted she be allowed to audition. Since she ended up getting the role, I guess De Palma ended up liking her.

As for the rest of the cast. You have Robert Loggia as Tony’s boss Frank Lopez who really sells the sleaze and underhanded cowardice of the character. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio adds naivety to her performance as Tony’s sister Gina, her final is great too where she goes off the rails. It's sad, but it’s also kind of funny. Steve Bauer plays Manny Ribera, Tony’s best friend and right-hand man. Bauer is likable as Manny and he gets bonus points also the only Cuban American in the cast.

Then there's Paul Shenar as Alejandro Sosa. Sosa is a Columbian drug lord and on of Tony's closest partners. He's everything Tony wants to be, rich, powerful, respected, a well made man. But deep down Sosa is a ruthless individual who will off anyone who dares cross him, he's everything Tony wants to be and everything he could have been had he fully given up his humanity. Shenar is excellent in the role, adding a likable charm to the character while also displaying the cold menace that his affable façade conceals.

The entire cast is great and none of them do a bad job. It helps that the script gives them a lot to work with. The writing in this movie is excellent and filled with a lot of quotable lines. Remember when films were quotable, and I mean legitimately without having to rely on internet memes. I mean people still quote this movie even today. “Say hello to my little friend” is one of the most memorable movie lines of all time, everyone has heard that line even if they haven’t seen the movie.

If I had to critique Scarface for anything it would be for pacing issues. The first 30 minutes of the movie are admittedly a bit of a slog to get through. It takes a little while for the movie to hit its stride, but once it does it hits the ground running and doesn’t stop. And it’s not like those first 30 minutes don’t have memorable moments in them, remember the chainsaw scene. And I guess I could argue that the film is a little dated given how eighties it is, but that’s a flaw that’s entirely dependent on how much you like the eighties.

At least being an eighties movie means we at least get a killer soundtrack. The score was composed Giorgio Moroder and it’s filled with a lot of the synth wave that would go on to define a lot of eighties music, albeit with a darker undercurrent to match the tone of the film. And being an eighties movie soundtrack means there are going to be songs, the standout being “Push It To The Limit” possibly the all-time greatest montage songs of the 1980’s and I say that with every awareness. Stellar soundtrack all around.

Scarface is a classic. It’s a raw and primal movie but it manages to touch on poignant themes like the dark side of the “American dream”, of the corrupting influence of greed and power and how the pursuit of wealth and opulence can cost you everything. It is a long movie, but aside from an initially slow beginning it uses it’s time effectively, so you’re never bored throughout. Add in some fun action sequences and excellent writing and Scarface is one of the greatest crime movies of all time.

It certainly had a larger effect on pop-culture. Not only in film and television with its various call-backs and parodies, but also in the world of music, given that it helped shape the image of the then burgeoning Hip-Hop scene, and gaming. Scarface being one of the main inspirations for a little game called Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. And later one, developer Vivendi games would release a GTA inspired spin-off of the movie itself. The game itself is a what if story that follows an alternate set of events where Tony Montana survived the climax of the film. It got pretty good reviews when it came out, so if you like the film, you might want to check it out.

I think it’s safe to say that the 1983 Scarface has left a large impact on pop-culture than the original 1932 version ever did. Which is probably why it’s more well remembered, that and the fact that it is a phenomenal film. It goes to show you that even remakes can stand on their own outside the shadow of their originator, even overshadow it. And it might happen again as they’re doing another remake by director Luca Guadagnino and written by the Coen Brothers. Will it be as well revered as this film? I suppose only time will tell.