SCARFACE (1983 FILM)

'''Scarface''' is a 1983 film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino as Antonio "Tony" Montana. A loose remake of the 1932 Howard Hawks gangster film of the same title, it tells the story of a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift.
Tony becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980s cocaine boom. The film chronicles his rise to the top of Miami's criminal underworld and subsequent downfall.
Although initially released to little fanfare, and the target of harsh reviews, ''Scarface'' gradually developed a significant cult following, especially within the world of hip-hop, and retroactive critical acclaim.
The film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, who were the writers of the original ''Scarface''. This movie is loosely based on the Mariel Boatlift where thousands of Cuban refugees entered the United States after years of communist persecution.

Contents

Cast

Plot

Production and controversy

Critical reception

Releases

VHS

DVD

Spin-offs and tie-ins

Music

Video games

Books and comics

Television and film

In pop culture

References

External links

Cast

★ Al Pacino - Antonio "Tony" Montana

★ Steven Bauer - Manny Ribera

★ Robert Loggia - Frank Lopez

★ Michelle Pfeiffer - Elvira Hancock

★ Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - Gina Montana

★ Miriam Colon - Georgina "Mama" Montana

★ F. Murray Abraham - Omar Suárez

★ Paul Shenar - Alejandro Sosa

★ Harris Yulin - Mel Bernstein, Chief Detective Narcotics- Miami Division

★ Ángel Salazar - Chi Chi

★ Arnaldo Santana - Ernie

★ Pepe Serna - Angel Fernández

★ Michael P. Moran - Nick the Pig

★ Al Israel - Hector The Toad

★ Mark Margolis - Alberto

★ Joe Marmo- Nacho Contreras

★ George Bennett- Jorge Montana

Plot

In July 1980, Cuban hitman Antonio "Tony" Montana claims political asylum in Florida in the United States after departing Cuba by the Mariel boatlift. Tony goes through a detention camp called 'Freedomtown' with other Cubans. On August 11, 1980, Tony and his friend Manny Ray kill a former aide to Fidel Castro for a green card during a riot at 'Freedomtown'. Montana and his friend Manny are working in a small food stand before Omar offers Tony and Manny their first coke job. Tony takes Manny, and two of his other best friends, Angel Fernanadez, and Chi Chi with him to the Sun-Ray Hotel, where Tony and Angel confront Colombian drug dealer "Hector the Toad", along with many other dealers. Tony grows irritated with Hector , who refuses to give him the cocaine in exchange for money. Montana and Angel Fernandez are double-crossed by the Colombians and Angel is hung on the shower curtains and is dismembered with a chainsaw by Hector. After Angel is dismembered, Montana is about to suffer the same fate, but Chi Chi and Manny come in and gun down the henchmen around the hotel's room. After Tony vengefully confronts Hector in the street, he shoots him dead in the middle of Ocean Drive, the famous Miami Beach street, then drives away with Manny and Chi Chi with the coke and the money before the police come. Montana finds work with local crime boss Frank López, who hires him as an enforcer in his criminal hierarchy. Over the next few months, Montana begins his rise through the ranks of the Miami cocaine underworld.
While on business in Bolivia, Montana begins to show his defiance to López's authority when he negotiates a deal with Alejandro Sosa, the ruthless and powerful Bolivian drug lord. Following an argument with López over the deal, Montana leaves López's service and strikes out on his own, while making consistent approaches to López's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock.
Following a failed assassination attempt by the Diaz brothers , Montana and his men kill López and Montana takes over the drug business. He starts dealing with Sosa one on one while making a huge profit. He marries Elvira and buys a new mansion as well as many gifts for his sister, Gina.
As Montana's money grows, so does his cocaine addiction and greed. His depression starts to kick in, his wife becomes distant and his banker wants to charge higher fees for washing the increasing flow of drug money. Montana is arrested in a sting operation and charged with tax evasion.
A group of Bolivian drug dealers, Sosa, and a CIA officer offer to help Montana out of his legal troubles. In exchange, Montana must assist in the assassination of a journalist attempting to expose corruption in the Bolivian government. Montana backs out when the journalist picks up his wife and children, saying that the team was going to do the job with only the journalist, no wife and no kids, and shoots the assassin to prevent the journalist's family from being killed.
Returning to Miami, Tony discovers that his sister, Gina, and his best friend and right-hand man, Manny, have become lovers. Tony has long harbored an obsession with his sister and is overly protective of her. Arriving at Manny's house, Tony kills Manny the instant he sees Gina in a nightgown, causing Gina to become hysterical. She reveals that they had just been married.
Sosa sends an assassination team to Montana's mansion, taking out his guards before they can raise an alarm. Sitting at his desk snorting from an enormous pile of cocaine, Tony realizes and regrets what he has done to his best friend. Gina confronts him, heartbroken at the loss of her new husband, and shoots a pistol wildly at Tony. As Tony tries to escape his sister's attack, one of Sosa's men kills her. Many of Tony's henchmen are killed. Tony's other close friend alongside Manny, Chi-Chi, bangs frantically on the office door, but is killed with an automatic by a soldier from behind.
After kneeling over Gina's dead body and begging forgiveness, Tony arms himself with an M16 assault rifle and M203 grenade launcher and single-handedly takes on Sosa's men. Though extremely high on cocaine and seemingly able to take dozens of bullets, he is eventually killed from behind when Sosa's assasin "The Skull" hits him with a shotgun blast. Tony falls from the balcony into the fountain in his vestibule, under the sculpture that proclaims, "THE WORLD IS YOURS."

Production and controversy

''Scarface'' was directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Martin Bregman, and written by now famed director Oliver Stone while he battled a cocaine addiction. Stone consulted the Miami police and the Drug Enforcement Agency while writing the film, incorporating many true crimes into the film.
There is some controversy regarding the origin of the character Tony Montana. Writer Oliver Stone claims in an interview first featured on the Collector's Edition DVD release, that he took the character's last name from his favorite football player at the time - Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers.
The film was originally to be filmed in Florida but it received criticism from the Cuban community, which objected to the film's representation of Cubans as drug dealers. Also, leaders in the Cuban community wanted Stone and the movie's producers to include scenes which would show Anti-Castro activity in Miami as part of the movie's plot. After protracted negotiations over the script, the producers ultimately refused to give in to their demands, saying that the film was about cocaine and not the politics of Castro's Cuba. In order to ensure the safety of the crew and to avoid confrontations, with the exception being obvious exterior shots, the movie was filmed in and around Los Angeles.
When the film was submitted to the MPAA, it was rated X for its extreme violence and graphic language. DePalma toned down the film twice, but it still received an X-rating. After the film was rejected for the third time, DePalma, with the help from a panel of experts including real narcotics officers, told the MPAA that the violence in DePalma's film was an accurate portrayal of real-life drug dealers and that the film should be released with its violence intact to show viewers how violent the drug trade was. After a vote of 18 to 2, the MPAA agreed to give the third cut of the film an R-rating. But DePalma, who felt that the differences between the two "clean" cuts he put together were insignificant, arranged to have the uncut version released to theatres with an R-rating.
The word "fuck" was used 207 times in the film.^[1]

Critical reception

''Scarface'' held its premiere on December 1st, 1983 in New York City where it was initially greeted with mixed reaction. Among those in attendance were the film's two stars; Al Pacino and Steven Bauer as well as Burt and Diane Lane, Melanie Griffith, Raquel Welch, Joan Collins, her then-boyfriend Peter Holm and Eddie Murphy among others ^[2]. According to AMC's "DVD TV: Much More Movie" airing: Cher loved it, Lucille Ball; who came with her family, hated it because of the graphic violence and language, Dustin Hoffman was said to have fallen asleep and writers Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving were among those who were said to have walked out in disgust after the notorious "chainsaw" scene. At the middle of the film, Martin Scorsese turned behind to Steven Bauer and told him "You guys are great - but be prepared, because they're going to hate it in Hollywood. . . because it's about them" ^[3]. ''Scarface'', upon its first release, drew controversy regarding the violence and graphic language in the film, and received many negative reviews from movie critics. Despite this, the film grossed $65 million worldwide^[4] and has since gathered a large cult following. On the 2 Disc Special Edition, director Brian De Palma said that the film was well received by only one notable critic, Vincent Canby of ''The New York Times''. However, Roger Ebert rated it four stars out of four in his 1983 review and he later added it to his "great movies" list.^[5].

Releases

VHS

Scarface was initially released by MCA Home Video on VHS and Beta in the summer of 1984; a two-tape set in 1.33:1 Pan and scan ratio and quickly became a bestseller, preluding its cult status ^[6]. A 2.35:1 Widescreen VHS would follow years later in 1998 to coincide with the special edition DVD release. The last and most recent VHS release was in 2003 to counterpart the 20th anniversary edition DVD.

DVD

''Scarface'' has been released on DVD three times in the United States as of 2007. The first was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on the film's 15th anniversary in 1998 under the studio's "Collector's Edition" line. The DVD featured a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, a "Making of" documentary, outtakes, production notes and cast & crew bios. This release was not successful, many fans and reviewers complained about its unwatchable video transfer and muddled sound, describing it as "one of the worst big studio releases out there" ^[7]. The DVD was quickly drawn out of print until 2003 when Universal released a remastered two disc "Anniversary Edition" to coincide with the film's 20th anniversary re-release, featuring two documentaries; one re-edited from the last release to include new interviews with Steven Bauer (Manny Ray) and another produced by Def Jam Recordings featuring interviews with various rappers on the film's cult success in the hip-hop world and other extras ported over from the previous DVD. New to this edition was a 2.35:1 Anamorphic widescreen transfer and 5.1 surround sound in both Dolby Digital and DTS. Curiously, the limited theatrical re-release also boasted a remastered soundtrack with enhanced sound effects and music, but the DVD's 5.1 tracks were mixed from the film's original audio; resulting in noticeably limited frequency and surround effects. A limited-edition box set was also produced featuring a gold money clip, production stills, lobby cards and a DVD of the original ''Scarface''. In 2005, Universal released single disc movie-only version of the Anniversary Edition, with deleted scenes as the sole bonus feature.
In the fall of 2006, Universal released ''Scarface'' in a two disc "Platinum Edition", featuring the remastered audio from the theatrical re-release in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround. Most of the extras (with the exception of the Def Jam documentary, production notes and cast & crew bios) from the Anniversary Edition were also included along with two new featurettes regarding the new and the criminal and cultural world of Miami in the 1980s. Also new to this edition was a "scoreboard", which counted number of bullets fired and uses of the word "fuck" throughout the film.

Spin-offs and tie-ins

There have been a number of spin-offs and tie-ins in a range of media.

Music

The music in ''Scarface'' was produced by Academy Award winning Italian record producer, Giorgio Moroder. Like Moroder's style, the soundtrack consists mostly of synthesized new wave, electronic music.

Video games

Main articles: Scarface: The World Is Yours

'', a video game based on the movie ''Scarface'' was released on different platforms in 2006 and 2007.]]
A licensed video game, ''Scarface: The World Is Yours'' has been released in September and October 2006 as well as June 2007, developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games. The game is a pseudo-sequel, and goes on the premise that Tony actually survived the raid on his mansion from the end of the film. Nintendo Wii, PS2, Xbox, and PC versions have been released.
Main articles: Scarface: Money. Power. Respect.

A licensed video game, ''Scarface: Money. Power. Respect.'' has been released in October 2006, developed Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games. The game is alike and different in some ways to ''Scarface: The World is Yours'', but one main difference is that this game deals more with the controlling of drugs and managing of your empire and turf where as ''The World is Yours'' is mostly about focused on getting rid of gangs, gaining respect, and overall reconstruction of your cocaine empire. To date, only a PSP version has been released.

Books and comics

Dark Horse Comics' imprint, DH Press, released a novel called ''Scarface: The Beginning'' by L. A. Banks. ^{[8] [9]}
Also, IDW Publishing are releasing a new series called ''Scarface: Scarred for Life'', which picks up where the film ends. This series is written by John Layman, with art of Dave Crosland. ^[10] July will see the release of a prequel comic mini-series called ''Devil in Disguise'', by Joshua Jabcuga and Alberto Dose. ^[11]

Television and film

In the year 2001, plans were set into motion for hip hop artist Cuban Link to write and star in a sequel to ''Scarface'' entitled '''Son of Tony'''.^[12] The plans for a prospective sequel drew both praise as well as criticism, and after several years Cuban Link had expressed that he may no longer be involved with the project as the result of movie rights issues and creative control.^[13]
USA Network announced in 2003 they would be producing a mini-series based on the movie; however, the series' current status is unknown.

In pop culture

''Scarface'' has been frequently referenced to in other popular works. In particular, the "Say hello to my little friend" line is repeated in various movies, television shows and video games. The line took 61st place as the most famous quote on the list AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.

References

1. http://www.familymediaguide.com/media/onDVD/media-443060.html
2. Wireimage Listings: Scarface Premiere: Dec 1, 1983
3. Scarred for Life
4. Scarface
5. Review of ''Scarface'' Roger Ebert
6. Fonda Still Working Out (best-selling VHS and Beta tapes of the week)
7. DVD Review - Scarface: Collector's Edition Todd Doogan
8. http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-738
9. http://www.dhpressbooks.com/profile.php?prodid=10-738
10. http://www.idwpublishing.com/titles/scarface.shtml
11. http://www.idwpublishing.com/titles/scarface-devil.shtml
12. Son of Tony
13. Cuban Link Starts His Chain Reaction

External links

★

★ The official site