Brian De Palma’s Scarface runs 170 minutes and ends the way it begins: with a man who wanted everything and could keep none of it. Al Pacino plays Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who lands in Miami during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and shoots his way to the top of the cocaine trade. The tagline sells the arc cleanly — “He loved the American Dream. With a vengeance.” The film delivers on that promise, and then keeps delivering, long after the point is made.
Trailer, via Universal Pictures At Home.
Tony Montana and the Mariel boatlift
The plot is a ladder. Frank Lopez, a Miami drug lord, arranges green cards for Tony and his companions in exchange for killing a former henchman of Fidel Castro. Tony and Manny Ray then meet Frank’s right-hand man, Omar Suarez, who sends them to buy cocaine from Colombian dealers. The deal goes wrong. Tony watches as Angel is killed with a chainsaw before Manny and Chi-Chi rescue him.
From there Tony works for Frank, covets Frank’s wife Elvira, and eventually meets the Bolivian kingpin Alejandro Sosa. Sosa hangs Omar from a helicopter and tells Tony the man was a police informant. Tony says he never trusted Omar. Sosa likes the answer.
What De Palma and Stone built
Oliver Stone wrote the script in Paris while struggling with his own cocaine addiction. Sidney Lumet was hired to direct first, then left, calling the film too violent and wanting something more political. De Palma took over. The Cuban community in Miami denied filming requests, feeling the script portrayed them badly, so production ran from November 1982 to May 1983 in Los Angeles, with two weeks in Miami. Giorgio Moroder composed the score.
The casting holds up:
- Al Pacino as Tony Montana
- Steven Bauer as Manny Ray
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira
- Robert Loggia as Frank Lopez
- F. Murray Abraham as Omar
Pfeiffer was nearly passed over. Pacino and De Palma argued against her; producer Martin Bregman fought for her. Glenn Close was the original choice. Bauer was the only actual Cuban in the principal cast, and he got the part without auditioning.
Where the 170 minutes go
Three things decide Scarface, in order of how much they matter:
- Pacino’s performance, which carries the film past its weakest stretches.
- Stone’s script, which understands that Tony’s paranoia is the real antagonist.
- De Palma’s direction, which is stylish but rarely subtle.
The middle act sags. Tony’s rise is more interesting than his reign, and the film keeps restating the same idea: money does not fix the man. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s Gina and Miriam Colon’s Mama Montana get too little room.
The verdict on Scarface
Scarface is a big, loud, occasionally great film that mistakes length for depth. The chainsaw scene and the Sosa meeting are the parts that last. The rest is Pacino shouting in a mansion.
This is a 6.5 of 10.
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