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Scarface (1983 film)

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Scarface
Directed byBrian de Palma
Written byOliver Stone
Produced byMartin Bregman
StarringAl Pacino
Michelle Pfeiffer
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Music byGiorgio Moroder
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Running time
170 min.
Budget$25,000,000 (estimate)

Scarface is a 1983 motion picture about Tony Montana, a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift. Kicked out of Cuba for being an assassin, Tony becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980s cocaine boom; the movie chronicles his meteoric rise to the top of Miami's criminal underworld and subsequent downfall. The film is loosely based on the 1932 pseudo-Al Capone biopic, Scarface.

Plot

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In 1980, young Cuban hitman Tony Montana, the son of a Cuban woman and an American man, is kicked out of his country during the infamous Mariel Boatlift, in which Cuban dictator Fidel Castro exiled thousands of his deadliest prisoners to Florida, USA. There, Tony and several of his old prison friends find themselves being held in a detention camp beneath a highway while the United States Government attempts to figure out what to do with the fugitives. Luck comes for them when they are hired by a Miami drug dealer to murder another one of the men in the detention center, a notorious torturer who performed a series of executions for Castro. In exchange for doing the job, the drug dealer obtains US Citizenship for Manny and Tony.

They go to work at a Cuban food stand in Miami, but soon find themselves being procured to broker a drug deal with a Colombian couple. The deal goes horrendously bad: Tony and another Cuban criminal named Angel are kidnapped and held hostage by the Colombians, who force Tony to watch while they hack Angel to death with a chainsaw. Manny bursts in just as Tony is about to be killed, and Tony ends up killing one of the Colombians in the middle of a crowded street while horrified restaurant patrons look on. Despite the bloody conclusion, Tony manages to get the cocaine and still keep the money he was supposed to buy it with; seeing that he has a knack for this line of work, Tony sets about climbing his way up through the ranks of the Miami underworld in bloody fashion. He quickly reaches the top, moving into an ostentatious mansion and marrying his former boss' wife; but his addiction to his own product, his destructive love for Gina, his little sister, and his ever-slipping grasp on reality ensure that Tony's stay at the top is short, which ends in a spectacularly bloody fashion.

Production and Controversy

Scarface was written by famed director Oliver Stone while he battled a cocaine addiction. He consulted the Miami police and the Drug Enforcement Agency while writing the film, incorporating many true crimes into the film (one set of crime scene photos Stone was shown depicted a man who had been dismembered with a chainsaw and stuffed into an aluminum trashcan).

When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it was rated X for the graphic language and violence. It is still in dispute what-- if anything-- was removed from the film in order to secure an R rating. The most widely held belief, one which director Brian DePalma has done nothing to dissuage, is that he simply told the MPAA that he had removed offending material and re-submitted the film to them uncut.

For the remainder of the 1980s, Scarface held the record for the movie containing the most uses of the word "fuck." It lost this title in 1990 to Goodfellas.

Scarface and pop culture

Scarface has had a prominent effect on pop culture. It is often called "one of the most quoted films of all time," a claim that would seem to be verifiable by numerous references to the film's more memorable lines in such other movies as Jane Austen's Mafia! and The Simpsons and South Park. Tony Montana's style of dress (along with that of Don Johnson's Sonny Crockett character on Miami Vice) became synonymous with the cool and sleazy aspects of 1980s pop culture.

Scarface is also notable for its extensive popularity with many hip-hop artists and fans, in particular those affiliated with gangsta rap. A number of rappers single out Tony Montana as a role model for his transition from poverty to wealth. Many Latino and Hispanic rappers dress like characters from the film, though they only opt to emulate the "street clothes" Tony's crew wears in the beginning of the movie, neglecting the flashy suits which Tony wears for the majority of the film. Lines from the film are also frequently sampled on hip-hop songs. One hip-hop artist has even gone so far as to name himself Scarface after the film.

A popular internet rumor states that the group Blink 182 got their name from a mis-count of how many times Tony says "fuck" in the film.

In 2003, in preparation for the release of Scarface on DVD, there were plans to have modern hip-hop artists record an entirely new musical score for the film, which would take the place of the original 1980s New Wave soundtrack. The move was supported by hip-hop fans and artists, but decried by purists and fans of the film's 80s nostalgic qualities. In the end, the latter group won out when director Brian DePalma, who had a contractual final cut on the film, refused to edit it.

The creators of the Grand Theft Auto video games are evidently quite fond of the film; Grand Theft Auto III features nearly the entire soundtrack as one of the ingame radio stations, and the sequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a reimagining of the film, even featuring a replica of Tony Montana's lavish mansion with such precise details as reproductions of the security cameras' views on a group of tiny screens.

Quotes

As stated above, the movie is often called one of the most quoted films. Lines most often cited (note: all below quoted lines are said by Tony in the film) :

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

(Preparing to launch a grenade into a crowd of Bolivian hitmen) Say hello to my little friend!

Say goodnight to the bad guy.

I always tell the truth, even when I lie.

Crew

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Scarface.
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