I often wonder how much of this film was saved in editing.
You got three major elements that make this film truly work.
One is Al Pacino's performance, which is just wonderfully done. The second is the musical score, which adds a lot of weight and brevity to an otherwise less intense scene.
And finally there's costume design.
Somebody was having a field day with this one. All the bright Hawaiian themed shirts and ridiculously will made Miami style suits.
pretty decent set design too.
Though it takes a back seat to the costumes.
If you take out Al Pacino's performance you'll find that the rest of the movie is just fairly well done. It's not brilliant or exciting. It doesn't really leave a lasting impact on you.
But put all these people around the ridiculously talented Pacino and all of a sudden you've got a movie that's going to be remembered for 50 60, possibly a hundred years.
One of the things I find so fascinating is how influential this film is with criminal culture or perhaps fake criminal culture.
All your dude-bro College age kids want to emulate everything they see. (And a lot of other young kids to, but you know college demographic is fairly large and they're the ones with the income. So that's what you pay attention to. And they're very loud.)
They think it's the coolest most badass thing. Completely ignoring that our main character is an amoral monster of a man, who's completely self-centered, and indifferent to the world around him.
Maybe that says something about the people that want to emulate him so badly.
I don't, I just think it's a bunch of simpletons watching a film and going oh that's cool.
Which makes me sound like a self-righteous jackass.
I mean, I don't begrudge anybody for thinking this.
Most people just watch a film to see something entertaining.
They don't want to dig into it.
They don't want to look at the politics around the movie. Like say the Cuban migration into Florida, the bad living conditions a lot of these people are introduced to. Or the inherent issues of a very corrupt American government that creates the perfect breeding ground for this kind of criminal activity.
They just want to see a cool zany film with lots of explosions and action.
Even though when you watch the film you'll find most of it's just a bunch of weirdos talking with one another and constantly getting involved in drama.
The actual action might take up 10% of the movie all together.
Most people only remember the last five minutes. Which aren't as action-packed as they think they are.
Tony Montana spends most of that cowering on the floor next to his dead sister. While coked-out of he's mind.
He can barely keep himself together and he gets shot up to hell.
You didn't even need the guy at the end with a shotgun to kill him. He would have just fallen down and died eventually.
I guess that's the advantage of stuffing your body with a bunch of uppers. You can take a hell of a lot of bullets before you fall down.
Anyways it's Scarface. I don't have to say it's good most people already know that. People who don't even like the movie can probably appreciate it for something. I'd say listen to the soundtrack of nothing else it's truly unique amongst films of its time.
One thing that did pop into my head while watching this was: ''Did Godfather 3 have a weird incest plot because of Tony's odd relationship with his sister?''
There's not even any technical incest, they're just a really close family and Tony gets really upset at any man who dares to look at his sister.
It's kind of implied that he might have something for her but they never push it. Well except for that one part at the end. But I think that's more of a mental breakdown connected in with a bunch of drugs.
Unlike in that disturbing scene in The Godfather 3.
Let us never speak of Godfather 3 again.
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