Scarface (1983)

Directed by Brian De Palma

Released December 9, 1983

Written by Oliver Stone

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"In Miami in 1980, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed."

Okay, full disclosure, there is a lot of drugs, violence, and use of the F word in this film. So, sorry mom and dad.

One of the most prevalent film techniques that I noticed throughout this film is that the director chose to shoot this movie very wide. Not only that, but he used a number of tracking shots, pans, tilts, and zooms. This movie doesn't have a lot of cuts or angles in it, like many action movies do. Most action movies have a lot of quick cuts, close ups, and different angles to help show all the action happening and for you to feel like you are emerged in the action. But not Scarface. This movie has a lot slower of a pace with its angles and shots. If you go back and look at any of the scenes in this movie you will notice they use the same three or four angles for that scene, sometimes even less. The shots are held for long periods of time, either zooming/tracking or being stable. This is not normal, which made me start to think why the director made these choices. 

The one reason I came up with is I think he was making a point with the way he shot his film. While being a part of a mafia/gang/drug cartel/anything similar to that, you always need to watch your back. You can never trust anyone and you don't want to get super close to anyone. So, by having very loose shots, the director is showing the audience everything that is happening, just like how someone in that situation should be constantly aware of their surroundings. Then, you will notice, the few times that there is anything closer than a medium shot, it is when Tony is talking to/about Gina, his sister, or with his buddy Manny. Those are really the only two people he trusts. Sometimes we get a closer shot when he is talking with Elvira, but even those are still very wide illustrating the strain in their relationship from the start.

Another camera technique that I enjoyed happened right at the start of the film when Tony was being interrogated. 

I enjoyed this scene because the camera is again demonstrating a feeling in how it shot its subject. The camera is circling around Tony just like how he is being surrounded by cops and interrogated. He can't escape and we don't even see the faces of the cops asking him the questions. This is because it doesn't matter who these cops are, it is more about the feeling of being interrogated, surrounded, and not able to escape the endless questions. Just like how the viewer is unable to escape this circler, tracking, close-up of Tony. 

Okay, getting away from the technical aspect of the movie.

The other very noticeable part of this movie is the amount of F bombs that are dropped. While any good mobster/drug cartel movie normally has a large amount of swearing in it, it seems like this movie's swearing vocabulary is strictly using the F word. In fact, it made me wonder how many times the word was actually used. I know what you are thinking, yes someone actually had the job to count how many times the F word was used in this movie. That number was a whopping 207 times according to IMDB. Sounds like a lot right? While actually it only ranked as the 47th movie with the most F bombs on IMDB. You know what the winner was? Wolf of Wall Street with 569 F bombs (if you have scene the movie, makes you wonder if they picked that number on purpose...). 

One of my favorite scenes in this movie is when Tony and Manny are trying to pick up girls at the beach. 

Typical guys, trying to pick up girls, nothing wrong with that. But since they are new to America, they don't understand American women or how to ask a girl out. Which just makes for a hilarious scene of both of the men getting rejected...hard.

I want to take a moment and give major props to Al Pacino's role in this movie. Now he is no stranger to gangster/mobster films, starring in The Godfather movies as well. But it is his portrayal of Tony Montana that has made him a household name. Not only did he have to be a coldhearted, aggressive, money obsessed, drug addict, drug lord, but he had to do that with a Cuban accent. That is a lot of different personality traits to put into one character. But I think Al Pacino nailed this role and that the movie would not have been as popular without him.

I have to say, this movie has some very creative and violent ways to die. Within the first hour of the movie we see two very gruesome deaths. The first being Tony's friend getting chopped to pieces with a chainsaw. Then we find one of Tony's associates hung to death. But not a normal hanging, he is hung out of a jet. Most films of this nature just stick to shooting people to death, but these two deaths were showing that this movie stands above a lot of other movies in this category in terms of true gruesomeness. 

The last thing that I want to talk about is their wardrobe. Not the wardrobe that was chosen for the movie, though, but gangsters and mobsters in general. Why are they always in suits? They go around killing people and stealing drugs. If I were a man and was spending $800 or more on a suit, I wouldn't want to get it all dirty when I go to kill one of my enemies or frankly one of my associates. It just seems very weird. But that is how it has always been, even back during Al Capone's days they were wearing suits. I guess the only explanation I can give is that technically they are businessmen? Very aggressive and twisted businessmen... Anyways, if anyone has some insight into this, I would greatly appreciate it.

I guess there is no other way to end this week's blog then with Tony Montana going out strong. 

Tony Montana: "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."