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Scarface (1983)

Director: Brian De Palma

Time Out rating

Average user rating

3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The recent, unironic adoption of Brian De Palma’s furious, ludicrous crime epic by gangstas, playas and hippety-hoppety bling merchants of all stripes is perhaps testament to the film’s outrageous cojones, rather than any piercing insight into the criminal psyche.

But there’s no denying that ‘Scarface’ is also a lot of fun, tracking homicidal Cuban homunculus Tony Montana (Al Pacino) from his first footsteps on US soil to his operatic demise in a cloud of AK-47 bullets and coke. In fact, cocaine-fuelled excess seems to power the whole movie, from Oliver Stone’s overloaded, trashily self-aware script to Al Pacino’s wildly unpredictable consonant-mangling mumble (‘Manolo, choot dis piece a chit’), from De Palma’s magnificently indulgent Wellesian long shots to the retina-scorching, high-kitsch set and costume design.

What’s most impressive is Stone and De Palma’s unwillingness to cloak Tony’s grotesque, voracious machine-gun capitalism with any sort of ‘Godfather’-style guff about honour and family: ‘Scarface’ is an unashamed study of selfish, sadistic criminality, and all the better for it.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London issue 2035, 20-26 August 2009

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User reviews of this film

Des said...

Posted on Jan 09 2010 20:46 This film is laughably bad. I can't see why anybody would think it a classic...compared with the original "godfather" or even goodfellas, its simply awful, about on a par with "casino"

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Randall Flagg said...

Posted on Aug 14 2009 12:41 Forget the original version or that ridiculously pompous Time Out review;this is great film making; visually stunning and undoubtedly Pacino's greatest performance. It's a long film but it' provides the necessary time and space to flesh out the characters. The script is simply fantastic with numerous memorable one liners. The shoot out at the end has to be seen to be believed. If you have never seen this film before, it really is a rare opportunity to see one of 'the greats' on the big screen- with an actor at the peak of his powers.

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Kushal Patel said...

Posted on Aug 29 2007 11:22 Another Al Pacino classic, along with 'The Godfather Trilogy' this is his greatest work. it tells the story of a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift. Tony becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980s cocaine boom. The film chronicles his rise to the top of Miami's criminal underworld and subsequent downfall. Like 'The Godfather Trilogy' it is extraordinarily popular and is markeed as one of the great crime movies of all time

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