Scarface (1983)

This movie came out five years before I was born and I would never hear about it till I was fifteen years old while attending my sophomore year in High School. It was when Universal released a twenty year anniversary DVD of the film, and when I first heard and saw bits and pieces of it, I didn’t want to see it at all. But one day, I was watching TV, flipping through channels, and I came across it on a movie channel. So for the hell of it, I watched it and I really enjoyed it. The movie I’m talking about is Director Brian De Palma’s 1983 epic crime drama SCARFACE. Written by acclaimed filmmaker Oliver Stone and based on Director Howard Hawks’ 1932 film of the same name, the film tells the story of Tony Montana (Al Pacino), a Young, ambitious, and aggressive Cuban refugee who, along with his best friend Manolo ‘Manny’ Ribera (Steven Bauer), come to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift, and, intent on running Miami’s Drug world. The duo begins to climb the ladder of the cocaine empire and after their successful journey to the top; the two learn that nothing can last forever. The film features a cast of familiar faces: Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns) as Tony’s wife Elvira, Mary Elizabeth Mastantonio (The Abyss) as Tony’s beloved kid sister Gina, Robert Loggia (Independence Day) as aging drug lord Frank Lopez, Harris Yulin (Rush Hour 2) as the corrupt Miami cop Mel Bernstein, F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) as Frank’s underboss Oscar Suarez, the late Paul Shenar (The Secret Life of NIMH) as the murderous Bolivian drug lord Alejandro Sosa, Mark Margolis (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) and Geno Silva (1941) as Sosa’s henchmen Alberto the Shadow and The Skull. The film also features a brief uncredited appearance by a young Brett Ratner, the director of RUSH HOUR, as The Boy Lying on Raft in Pool. Although it’s Rated R, The movie was almost Rated X for its extreme violence, excessive strong language, and hard drug usage. Luckily, De Palma pulled in a panel of experts, including real narcotics officers, to convince twenty members of the Motion Picture Association of America that the film was an accurate portrayal of the real life drug underworld and should be widely seen. SCARFACE held its premiere in New York City on December 1st, 1983 where Pacino and Bauer, along with Martin Scorsese, Cher, Raquel Welch, Lucille Ball, Joan Collins, and a young Eddie Murphy and Diane Lane attended. The film was dedicated to Hawks and Ben Hecht, who were the writers of the original film. The best scene for me would have to be when Tony, in a cocaine-fueled rage, takes on Sosa’s hit men with a M16A1 assault rifle at his mansion, where it starts with Tony saying “Say Hello to My Little Friend!” and it ends fantastically. Despite the fact of the film’s critical response to its violence and graphic language of that time, SCARFACE is a cult classic and to me, one of the greatest movies of all time.