"The World is Yours" - 35th Anniversary of SCARFACE

It's a bad movie that I like.

 

Another great acting performance in 'Scarface' is Robert Loggia as Frank Lopez.

 

Fush yu mang

 

And of course the fantastic Michelle Pfeiffer...

 

I sure wish they would release the complete soundtrack.

 

And soon-to-be Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham as Omar Suarez. Pray you don't meet the same fate as Omar...

 

I don't understand the love for this movie and never have. Is it entertaining? Sure in a grandiose, absurd level. I'm surprised there's any more scenery in the film as Pacino chews it pretty thoroughly.

It's definitely one of DePalma's lesser films. I was surprised that Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars and yet....he couldn't appreciate an oddball film like "Blue Velvet".

It is certainly entertaining but it's like having a great disc cooked using an overpowering series of spices that just overwhelms the flavor of the disc itself.

"Carlito's Way" is a much better film with a strong performance from Pacino that doesn't eat away most of the scenery.

 

Same here. I just love the music.

I love this film. It's so entertaining. Great cast. Some actors on the verge of stardom (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michelle Pfeiffer). Steven Bauer was so handsome and charismatic in this film.

 

Entertaining but a hard movie to take seriously. Pacino's portrayal of a Cuban had always been hard to watch. He was as convincing as Andy Garcia playing a Corleone!

 

I think Roger downgraded because of what looked like suffering on the part of the actress. His concern was the "method" of the actress. A legit concern if you ask me.

As for Roger on Scarface he knows what's up. You can not like a film and yet appreciate its impact.

I have argued with some on the criticism on the contradiction on the fighting to stay alive vs the cashing it in point of view a mere few seconds later.

My point is that a flash of your life passing before your eyes can do that.

I think both are great films in their own way, but stand for different things.

For me, Scarface means more because it is about a victim of his environment yet standing on his values to the bitter end vs the system failing a person after in some eyes as selling out.

Both have merit to be sure, but the first has so much flavor in these times that a ton of people obviously still identify with.

Grandoise to the absurd.. that is the point. It is the imagination of the unobtainable (to some) American Dream to the highest level.

P.S. like others have echoed...there isn't a and actor in this movie...but the cut scenes...like the Angel dude...shows that a weak link could have changed everything.

 

Pfeiffer wanted the part so badly she paid her own travel expenses to travel for repeated auditions. DePalma didn't want to cast her because she was in Grease 2.

 

Yeah I kinda sneered at that one. I felt it was kinda crappy move..but hey, that is what it takes to fight for what you believe in.

 

It has its moments but I wouldn't consider myself a fan and I don't rate it as highly as many do. I am going to join the consensus that Carlito's Way is better.

 

Is it me or is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio the least-convincing Latino in movie history... if she was any whiter in that movie, she's be Scandinavian!!!

I love me some Scarface... so very OTT, so very operatic, so very, very 1980's... but dang it, it's a riot from start to finish, probably the beginning of Pacino's 'shouty Al' onscreen style of acting, and a film every time you see it on telly, you just have to sit and watch the rest of it. It's a bonkers film but a genuinely compelling one at that.

I agree with @wayneklein though; Carlito's Way is still a much better film...

 

I like to watch Carlito’s Way a day or so after Scarface and imagine an alternate timeline / universe where Tony Monta survives and tries to go straight.

 

This scene alone makes it a worthy film.

 

Ugh, for a time in the 2000's every wannabe gangsta was obsessed with this stupid movie.

 

Watched it for the first time about 18 years ago. Never bothered to watch it since. I do remember laughing out loud at the disco dancing scene.

 

"Manolo, choot dat pizza chit!"

 

It's you. And it would be Latina, not Latino.

Cuba, like pretty much every other Hispanic country, has a fair share of "white" people running around. Firstly, they were colonized by Spain, a European country. Secondly, all have had waves of immigration from Europe as well as the Middle East and Asia (to this day Havana has a Chinatown- "Barrio Chino."

So Mastrantonio as well as Pacino could easily pass for Cubans. Indeed just about anybody could as Cuba is a melting pot much like America, Canada, etc.

 

Last time I checked blonde-haired, blue-eyed Cameron Diaz is Cuban.

 

Tony's mother saw right through his BULL-loney. When she told him off was one of the best scenes in the movie.

 

There it is.

 

This was like Michael in Italy. Just can't decide who was more smitten...though arguably just like with his power, Tony got bored and paranoid quick.

Dear lord her pantyhose legs!

 

I was more partial Manny's taste in women. Except for Tony's sister of course.