Censors believed Scarface glorified violence and gangster life, so the film had to go through a couple of changes so it could be released, such as the inclusion of a prologue condemning gangsters, an alternate ending to clearly reprehend Camonte, and the addition of the alternative title The Shame of a Nation.
However, the Hays Code, a more lenient precursor, called for major alterations, including a prologue condemning gangsters, an alternate ending to more clearly reprehend Camonte, and the alternative title The Shame of a Nation. The censors believed the film glorified violence and crime.
Scarface faced objections and controversy due to its portrayal of the Cuban community, but ultimately won the support of the governor and continued filming in Miami.
Initial critical reception was negative due to its excessive violence, profanity, and graphic drug usage. Some Cuban expatriates in Miami objected to the film's portrayal of Cubans as criminals and drug traffickers.
What is the difference between Scarface 1932 and 1983?
Simply put, Scarface '32 takes place in 1920s Chicago gangland, whereas Scarface '83 starts in 1980 Miami during the real-life Mariel boatlift (éxodo del Mariel), a mutually agreed-upon mass migration of Cubans from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States.
Scarface (1983) Full Movie Review | Al Pacino, Steven Bauer & Michelle Pfeiffer | Review & Facts
Why was Scarface 2 cancelled?
The game was shaping up to be pretty cool actually. It was culled when we were taken over by Activision. From my understanding, they had too many other open world games in development, and were not interested in making a Scarface game. I stuck around for another year and helped with the development of Prototype.
Guadagnino was first attached to “Scarface” in 2020, with Ethan and Joel Coen writing the script. “I'm not working on 'Scarface' anymore,” Guadagnino told the outlet in November 2023.
But Silva truly made his film mark as the silent assassin known as "The Skull" in 1983's "Scarface." As Pacino's cocaine-filled drug lord Tony Montana rages at an army of would-be killers filling his body with bullets, "The Skull" wordlessly walks behind Montana and shoots him in the back with a shotgun.
At first Elvira wants nothing to do with Tony, seeing him as a nuisance. After Tony begins to amass more power within the drug world he promises her that he will treat her better than Lopez. Realizing that she has developed feelings for him, Tony asks Elvira to marry him.
Is Tony attracted to his sister Gina? This film never goes into detail about this theme. Some people lean towards a yes, since the 1932 film portrays Tony as having feelings of incest for his sister.
Because of these changes, Scarface was delayed a year, though some screenings kept the original ending. Although the audience's reaction to Scarface was positive, censors banned the film in various cities across the United States, leading producer Howard Hughes to remove it from circulation and keep it in his vault.
Arguably the most infamous scene from Scarface comes early when Tony and his friend Angel attempt to buy drugs from some Colombian dealers in a hotel room. The deal goes wrong, and Tony has to watch as Angel is dismembered in a bathtub with a chainsaw, though Tony himself is eventually saved from a similiar fate.
While Scarface is not a true story, Al Capone remains the inspiration behind the real Scarface, and he's inspired plenty of other movie gangsters as well. The first Al Capone movie came out in 1959 and bore his name, starring Rod Seiger as the titular character.
“Scarface,” which opened Dec. 9, 1983, made money at the box office but wasn't immediately profitable. However, in the 36 years since, the film has been embraced as a classic.
Al Capone (born January 17, 1899, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died January 25, 1947, Palm Island, Miami Beach, Florida) American Prohibition-era gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931 and became perhaps the most famous gangster in the United States.
Alejandro "Alex" Sosa is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1983 American crime film Scarface and the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. He is an international Bolivian drug lord and the chief supplier of cocaine for his business partner Tony Montana.
The character is partly based on Tony Camonte, the protagonist of the 1932 film; Camonte was, in turn, an adaptation of Tony Guarino from the 1929 novel, which in turn was a loose fictionalization of real-life Italian-American gangster Al Capone, who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899.
"The Skull" is one of Sosa's professional henchman and chief assassin. The Skull murders Tony by shooting him in the spine with a single shot from his 12-gauge Zabala shotgun. He was portrayed by Mexican-American actor Geno Silva.
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.
The role of Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas was reportedly offered to Al Pacino first, and while he would have surely been outstanding in it, he turned it down. Al Pacino reportedly turned down playing Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas in order to avoid being typecast in the gangster role.
As per a Goodfellas deep-dive by ShortList, Pacino was offered the role but turned it down for fear of typecasting. It's ironic that he went on to play gangsters in Dick Tracy and Donnie Brasco. Pacino would go on to collaborate with Scorsese in 2019 with The Irishman, which also paired him alongside De Niro.
Both films each have a spot in my heart's favorite movies, but when I'm forced to pick one, I'd definitely go with the 1983 remake. In it's very obviously over-the-top form, the movie also was able to capture the zeitgeist of the 1980s Miami culture...
The sequel to 2006's Scarface: The World is Yours was cancelled by Activision shortly after the publisher acquired the studio, following the idea to focus on the Prototype series. Scarface 2 events would have been set in Las Vegas, with Al Pacino's Tony Montana returning as a protagonist.
