Universal Studios
Is Scarface still a film, or have the rap samples, video game sequels, merchandise, parodies and references reduced it to a mere cultural touchstone? A time capsule? Do we still watch it and feel what was immediate in the minds of those who made it, or do we simply allow Giorgio Moroder’s moody synths to mingle with all the pastels and think “Ah yes, this was 1983”?
It was darkly ironic to pick up Scarface in 2026 with an eye to how the film still spoke to an audience. I am not normally politically motivated in these reviews but it seemed to me the fundamental structure of the story would no longer be possible in today’s culture war obsessed media landscape. As we debate the mechanics of immigration in this country the basic theme of Scarface’s plot: a Cuban immigrant gangster who sees the relentless violence he’s engaged in as precisely the most authentic form of American assimilation is an idea that would stand as equally provocative to left and right.
Scarface was very much of a film of its moment: it began with Al Pacino pushing to remake the 1932 Howard Hawks film after a chance screening. Serpico director Sideny Lumet was originally attached but dropped out when the project he was truly interested in, Prince in the City became available. Ironically, it became available because director Brian De Palma couldn’t make the script work and ended up working on…Scarface.
The heart of Scarface is in the marriage of De Palma’s beautiful camerawork with Moroder’s pounding synths that transport the viewer so strongly to Miami in the early 80’s that you can smell the ocean salt in the air. De Palma was in the midst of his strongest creative period coming off of Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, and while I think those films are superior to those there’s no denying that he seems energized by the move away from formal Hitchcock pastiche and instead by applying the techniques of suspense that he’d developed to this epic gangster tragedy with a Latin flair.
That leads us very naturally into the script by Oliver Stone (also in the middle of a legendary run as a screenwriter) which takes the simple rise-and-fall structure of the 1930’s gangster film and expands it into surreal and grotesque territory. If you’re familiar with Stone’s work at all you’ll see the hallmarks of his writing style: ambition, energy, attention to detail culled from the headlines, and a big picture lens to connect the story to pressing social issues. Stone added both the film’s legendary “chainsaw” hotel room sequence and the tragic “The World is Yours” motif that runs through the film. If De Palma is Scarface’s heart, then surely Stone is its head.
And the soul is Al Pacino.
Tony Montana is, along with Michael Corleone, the most famous character Pacino will ever play. He is tattooed across the cultural memory of men all around the world. His affected Cuban accent is both ridiculous and inspired (it is so easily imitated and well remembered that the WWF made a ton of money having a wrestler copy it for the character of Razor Ramon), but what sells the film is the mixture of his audacity and internal intensity.
Soon after the completion of Scarface, Pacino shot Revolution, a film that was so fraught with problems that he took a five year hiatus from filmmaking. When he returned with Sea of Love his voice and presence were very different from his pre-hiatus work. As a result of this quirk of fate Scarface stands on its own in his filmography as an almost perfect balance between his earlier, more internal style and the more bombastic style he settled into over the 90’s.
He is the anchor around which a brilliant cast orbits: Michelle Pfeiffer strikes just the right tone as Elvira, a kept woman who Tony symbolically inherits after dispatching Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) , his first boss. Steven Bauer is so good as Manny, Tony’s closest friend that you wonder how he didn’t become a huge leading man in his own right after this film. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio rounds out the principal cast as Gina, Tony’s younger sister who in a powerful bit of dramatic irony, is debauched and corrupted, precisely because Tony believes he can keep her away from his world.
Artful suspense, the tragic structure, and powerful performances are what keep Scarface a film worth watching and not just an engine to sell T-Shirts and Posters.
This Amazon Exclusive IconArt Giftset includes an exclusive Scarface licensed metal poster, Numbered Certificate of Authenticity, and an Exclusive Steelbook that houses the 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and Digital copies of Scarface. Extras include featurettes, deleted scenes, tv version, and the making of the video game.
Recommended.
