Review of Scarface (1932) by Daniel P — 23 Sep 2012

Al Pacino's brilliant performance raises this film from DePalma's gratuitous and excessive melodramatic style into what has since become a cult classic. The accents are over the top and some of the performances are caricatures. It has been called 'epic' by some, but this is code for arduous and over-lengthy being assumed to be brilliant and 'epic' in scope. Full of gratuitous violence and explicit language this mix between a gangster film, and the cocaine boom of the 80s in America is really about the destructive ambition that permeates Tony, representing the drive for the 'American Dream'. The music is classic 80s and over-the-top that fits with DePalma's overt camera style with push in close ups and sweeping shots. The climactic scenes of violence and excess are a delight to watch. This over the top and at times hilarious 'gangster' flick scratches deeper than the average Hollywood film, skating a fine line between Hollywood over the top excess in style and performance while at the same time paying homage to classic Hollywood cinema, as it remakes the 1932 film Scarface. Ultimately it retains the elements of the classic gangster pick, where crime and excess don't pay, but the film does comment on modern cultures need for cinema and the 'bad guy'. As Tony says:

"You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." So... what that make you? Good? You're not good.".