(1983) When Fidel Castro opened Mariel Harbor in the spring of 1980, allowing 125,000 Cubans to depart in 3,000 boats for the shores of Florida, he also permitted some 25,000 criminals from his jails to join the exodus. After archival footage of the arrival of the refugees, Tony "Scarface" Montana (Al Pacino) passes through immigration interrogation into the refugee camp at Freedomtown.

During a riot, he and his pal Manolo "Manny Ray" Ribera (Steven Bauer) perform a contract killing of Emilio Rebenga in exchange for green cards and employment in Miami. "I kill a communist for fun," says Tony. Washing dishes in the Little Havana Restaurante not being Tony's idea of getting ahead, he gets a chance to demonstrate what he's capable of in dealing with Colombians for cocaine.

Half a century after Howard Hawks's original classical crime drama, the graphic violence (beginning with the chain-saw attack in the motel bathroom with the Colombians to the massacre at the conclusion in Tony's mansion) and violent language permeate director Brian DePalma's remake, as a vicious cinematic indictment, from Oliver Stone's screenplay, of the drug-enforcement culture in which everyone from cops to bankers profit from the narcotics trade.

Recognizing that Tony has "steel in his balls," drug lord Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) tells his young warrior: "If you stay loyal in this business, you're gonna move up." In addition to loyalty, Frank has two rules: "Don't underestimate the other guy's greed" and "Don't get high on your own supply." Tony has a different set of rules: money leads to power leads to women, beginning with wanting boss's lady Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer).

"I want what's coming to me," he tells Manny: "The world and everything that's in it." Feeling successful enough to visit his mother and his 19-year-old sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), whom he hasn't seen for five years since they left Cuba, he's told to "Get out!" by his mother: bums like Tony give Cubans a bad name. Tony warns Manny not to get any ideas about his beautiful sister.

While Frank's on trial in Florida, Tony and Omar Suarez go to Cochabamba, Bolivia, to negotiate a deal for shipments of yeyo with Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar); Mr Sosa decides he can work with Tony (who says he won't break his word or balls for anyone), but demonstrates with Omar (a chirato) what happens to untrustworthy partners.

Back in Miami, following a disagreement with Frank over competing ideas of thinking big, Tony goes independent, telling Elvira: "with the right woman, there's no stopping me." Chief detective of narcotics Mel Bernstein explains how grease (snacks of information) must be applied for police protection of Tony's operation.

On his way to the top, chazzers (Yiddish for pigs) must be slaughtered, money laundered, and a Rico charge along with tax evasion dealt with. Mr Sosa, in need of eliminating someone about to speak at the UN and on 60 Minutes about Bolivia's government's involvement in the drug trade, offers Tony a way out of his legal tangles for this favor.

Concerned about the behavior of the women in his life, Tony tries to control Gina's choice of men (none of whom can meet Tony's expectations); and when he expresses disgust with Elvira's drug habit polluting her womb (denying him children), she retorts: "What kind of father do you think you'd make?"

With whom is there to sympathize in this brutal story of gangland gorification? There's no reasoning with a bad man like Scarface: "I always tell the truth, even when I lie."

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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