Scarface is an unashamed 170-minute commercial for over-indulgence. Audiences, particularly in communities of color, are attracted to it because of Tony's excess and the unfiltered joy he takes in getting even with his enemies.
His nearly three-hour biography qualifies as tragedy, the story of a rage-choked cocaine addict with minimal self-control and a possible incest kink who methodically alienates everyone he's ever held dear until he is gruesomely murdered for his impulsivity and hubris.
Despite Being filled with misogyny and stereotypes, Scarface still captivates those fascinated by outlaws and the American Dream. Tony Montana, or Scarface, was one of the first major Latino film characters that people respected and feared.
It is a drug-fuelled frenzy and somehow, Tony Montana manages to emerge as every man's hero to this day: he is like a gangster Superman. The point of the story, I guess, is his motivation. He has no limits, he always wants more and he wants it immediately. So, men.
The fact so many people like "Scarface" is testament to the intensity of Pacino's performance more than the intelligence behind it. In the DVD documentary, Pacino readily admits to the character being two-dimensional. For some, that's great.
Summary. Gangster movies, like the original Scarface from 1932, often faced censorship and bans due to their violent content and portrayal of mafia life. Censors believed that Scarface glorified violence, leading to changes in the film's ending and the addition of a prologue condemning gangsters.
Scarface is an unashamed 170-minute commercial for over-indulgence. Audiences, particularly in communities of color, are attracted to it because of Tony's excess and the unfiltered joy he takes in getting even with his enemies.
Critics were generally negative about Scarface when it was originally released; the film was noted for its violence and profanity. The New York Magazine called it an empty, bullying, overblown B-movie. Writers Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving both stated they walked out after the chainsaw scene.
The movie explores the American dream and the consequences of pursuing wealth and power at all costs. Scarface has left a significant legacy, influencing various forms of media, from music and video games to comic books, and continues to be referenced and admired by filmmakers and artists.
Prospect Magazine critic Rhik Samadder has a theory: that those who gave Scarface a hard time in 1983 were right. In his opinion, it is a mediocre film, in addition to being narratively incoherent and gruesome, misogynistic, racist and nihilistic from a political and philosophical point of view.
9. Incest: Tony has serious incestuous feelings for his sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) in this version, a plot element you might assume to be the creation of De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone.
There's too much expertise, too much sheer love of movie-making up there on the screen for Scarface to be deemed a failure. But the director's failure to follow through makes this a too-long movie that comes up short.
At the end of the film Gina herself suggests Tony must indeed want her because he can't stand for another man to be with her. Tony has a genuine look of confusion on his face and even asks what she's talking about. Therefore he likely did not have sexual feelings towards her.
According to the source, the primary reason for Scarface: Empire getting axed in 2008 was too many other open-world games in development at Activision at that time. "It was pretty devastating to lose over two years of effort on what would have been a pretty cool game," a former Radical developer said.
We do know that co-star Keanu Reeves famously took a pay cut of a few million in order to allow for the production to afford to bring Pacino on board. As a result, we imagine Pacino was most likely paid around $10 million for his role.
Scarface, starring Al Pacino, is a remake of a 1932 movie based on the 1929 novel by Armitage Trail, but the true story behind Tony Montana is still uncertain. Al Capone, the American gangster and boss of the Chicago Outfit, served as the real Scarface and inspired various books, movies, and TV shows.
Final Stand. Undoubtedly, the most iconic scene in the entire movie is Tony's final stand. After failing to carry out the assassination for Sosa, Tony's mansion is attacked by a hit squad. After his sister is killed, a cocaine-fuelled Tony becomes a one-man army against his attackers.
Tony's incestuous protectiveness speeds his downfall. He murders Manny as a punishment. Gina is shot by Sosa's men. Montana loses the two most important people in his life, and his inability to control his lusts destroy them all.
March 31, 1932 became the official release date of the film despite it not reaching all theaters nationwide for another few years. The SRC and the censor boards were concerned about Scarface because they thought it was romanticizing the gangster lifestyle.
At the time of its premiere, some believed it portrayed Cubans, particularly those who fled during the Mariel boatlift to the United States in 1980, in a harsh light. That view persists today, decades later. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is of Cuban heritage, said Scarface misrepresented the Cuban community.
Scarface is about ambition in the wrong hands. It is the story of Tony Montana, a self-proclaimed political refugee who claws his way from the gutters of Castro's Cuba to conquer the American dream, but dreams can become nightmares, and men like Montana will always want more.
“The picture had a fire to it,” the actor said in Al Pacino: The Authorized Biography, by Lawrence Grobel. “It was probably the most popular picture I ever made, but the reaction to it was stranger than any of my other films. That picture did something to me. It was a lot of movie.
Played by Al Pacino, Tony Montana's rise to success through the Cuban-American drug trade and the mob grabbed public attention and made the character a symbol of crime and corruption, as well as the struggle for success.
As Nas describes in a bonus featurette on the film's 20th anniversary DVD, "We all are savages in pursuit of the American Dream. Rappers relate to that 'cause that's how we come up." Scarface, in a brutal fashion, clearly expresses this arc. The story of the most iconic rappers in history is not much different.
