Scarface: Review By Querido

Both Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone are brilliant filmmakers, but with Scarface their collaboration resulted in a masterpiece.

You won't find subtlety. People who do not enjoy romanticizing in the crime genre or dialog and acting in opera style are better off not watching this movie. I personally think, however, that the melodramatic and passionate aspect are one of the better points of the film. Al Pacino is really made for this role. Some people call it overacting, I think that his portrayal of Tony Montana is beautifully done. The way he speaks, his lightly mad facial expressions, all of this is just amazing. His character is often criticized for being very one-dimensional, but I do not agree with that argument. Tony looks really "cool", but he leads a very empty and superficial life. His exaggerated obsession with luxury and power is the only thing that keeps him going, but at the end that is also the thing that kills him together with his cocaine addiction. But it is really sad that Tony Montana is idolized by rappers and 14-year-old "gangsta's". I assume they just respect his greedy and materialistic lifestyle. A very sad case, because that is not the purpose of the movie by any means. Or I just hope though.

From the audiovisual point of view, Scarface is a really powerful movie. The clothing gestation, the locations and the score of Morodor (a combination of pop melodies and instrumental music) result in a really 80s character. The filming style is really good and the bright color palette really suits it, obviously it depends on your taste. But I can really understand people who expect a more darker background in a crime-film. Of course there is humor present (naturally because of Tony's amazing monologues) and the romance is, this time, a little bit different then usual: the film accentuates really well how women are seen as objects in the criminal circuit.

During the one-hundred re-watch I did uncover one little flaw. Although most of the dialog in Scarface is really strong, some of it is also quite faint and simple. But there are only a few movies that really have perfection.