Review for Scarface
March 22nd 2010 10:00
This week I am reviewing movies with a "Bad Men with Good Morals" theme. Every character will be deemed by society to be a "bad man" but who possesses a heart of gold! Feel free to comment and to suggest movies with the same theme! Thanks!
I have watched "Scarface" too many times to count! I absolutely, positively, LOVE this movie! Being a woman, people always give me a weird look when I say that, then I have to explain why. There are soo many things you can LEARN from this movie (and no, how to be the king of a drug cartel is NOT one of them! Although...) You learn about loyalty, dreaming big (even when you are at the bottom!), friendship, taking risks, family, how to check out all the facts BEFORE seeking revenge, and how not to take any crap from anybody, just to name a few! As "old" as this movie is (1980!) It is still being used and is very popular (the "original" trailer is BLOCKED!) and has inspired songs (like the one in the trailer below), movies (It's what "Nino Brown" was watching in "New Jack City!") It is a true cult classic!
For the last two people on earth who haven't seen this movie, it begins with a Cuban man named Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who claims asylum, in Florida, USA, and is in search of the "American Dream" after departing Cuba in the Mariel boatlift of 1980. While in a holding camp waiting for their Green Cards, Montana, with the help of his best friend and former Cuban Army buddy Manny Ray (Steven Bauer), kill a former aide to Fidel Castro, Emilio Rebenga during a riot. The murder of Rebenga was requested by Frank Lopez, (Robert Loggia) a wealthy, politically astute man who deals cars and trades in cocaine. He had him killed because Rebenga had tortured Lopez's brother to death while still in Cuba.
After getting their Green Cards, Tony and Manny are working as dishwashers in a corner sandwich shop when a Lopez henchman, Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham), offers Tony and Manny a job unloading marijuana. But Tony wants something bigger, so Suarez sets him up to pick up two kilograms of cocaine from a Colombian dealer. Tony, Manny, and two others arrive at a hotel to make the transaction. The deal turns quickly into mayhem (with one gruesome chain-saw scene!) but after much gunfire and one of Tony's men dead, he completes the task. Tony asks to take the money himself to the "Big Boss" (Hell, he EARNED that right!) He manages to impress Lopez with not only the return of his cash but also the coke from the botched assignment. Frank immediately hires Tony's crew into his criminal family. During this initial get together, Tony meets Lopez's lady, the blond and beautiful Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), who will eventually become the source of tension between the two men. Soon after this meeting, Montana begins his rise through the ranks of the Miami cocaine underworld.
Now, Tony Montana is a drug dealer (bad man) and not a small time drug dealer, he is THE drug dealer! At the height of his dealing, he was making 50 million dollars a MONTH! When Tony was asked to assist in killing a man who was touring around the U.S. talking about making tougher laws against his "type," he could not bring himself to do it. Why? Because when it came time to set off the bomb attached to his car, the man had his wife and two young daughters in the car with him (heart of gold). How are you going to be the head of an international drug syndicate and not be able to have collateral damage? Now, if you are going to run with the big dogs, you got to know how to bite! I think it was touching how Tony didn't want to hurt this family (mainly because he so desperately wanted a family of his own!) It was amazing to see that he had morals in the midst of being a drug dealer. He held true to his statement of "I never hurt nobody that didn't have it coming to them," and since that wife and her children had done nothing to him, he couldn't do it. You don't hurt people for no reason! (Did you hear that "suicide bombers?") Amazingly, Tony had a lot at stake but he chose to hold on to his morals and what he believed in, no matter what the consequences or outcome! Below is a fan-made trailer that I think does the movie justice (The song for the trailer is o.k. but I love the original score!)
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