Scarface (1983)

Directed by: Brian De Palma | 170 minutes | drama, crime | Actors: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia, Miriam Colon, F. Murray Abraham, Paul Shenar, Harris Yuin, Ángel Salazar, Arnaldo Santana, Pepe Serna, Michael P. Moran, Al Israel, Dennis holahan

Anyone who has ever wanted to study the Oedipus complex will have fun with Tony Montana, the touchy Pacino creation that keeps us busy for almost three hours in ‘Scarface’. Of course we like him, because he’s naive and rough shell, white pit and all that, but screenwriter Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma go very far to make the hardness of the Cuban immigrant life plausible. Stone is of course not known as an emotional person, but the drug scene of Miami is not yet Vietnam and to unpack with rocket launchers right now?

Tony Montana grew up in poverty with his single mother, fathering his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The son has clearly fighting spiritlust for power, and above all a good number of complexes, because everything that smacks of authority he gets rid of in an almost animalistic way, in fact: he tries to become authority and then destroy it. Tony can’t live, just fight and it breaks him.

It’s not his own fault, no, his mother did it. A nice fact, but no matter how hard Pacino tries, it won’t break your heart. Rather the fate of the dog-faithful Manny, Tony’s executioner and conscience who tries to make the best of it when his master goes down. The other characters aren’t to like either; cleavage-fetishist Elvira least of all: no story, just a faded face. The sparks don’t fly between Pfeiffer and Pacino either. The real click is there between him and Mastrantonio and that also fits within the semi-incestuous nature of their relationship. But the depth in the relationships is unfortunately withheld from us.

‘Scarface’ is an entertaining film, but it is a pity that it is all chewed up, you can see any complications from afar; take Pacino away and you’re left with a violent episode of Magnum. The final denouement is shocking, but the bond with the protagonists has not gone deep enough to make it a richer person – looking in the classical Greek way through the outstretched eyes of the tragic hero.