A lone man trying to make it out of an illegal cartel, alive and victorious. A love story with woman as fiery as she is mesmerizing. An ultimate showdown that ends in a hailstorm of bullets. 1983’s Scarface was the crowning jewel in a decade full of excellent gangster movies, such as The Untouchables, Once Upon A Time in America, and Harlem Nights, to name just a few. Much like its scrappy anti-hero Tony Montana, it fights its way to stand head and shoulders above the rest, with its honest portrayal of a Cuban immigrant turned underworld kingpin, thus driving fear, respect and even compassion into the viewers’ hearts. Today we know the film as the quintessential gangster movie, and one that has inspired countless copycats – and rappers – but as it turns out, this debauchery-soaked crime thriller came from humble beginnings. So humble, in fact, it was absolutely roasted by film critics, who saw it as way too over-the-top.
Slowly but surely, the film gained a cult following and is today considered not only one of the greatest gangster movies of all time, but also as a sort of time capsule that perfectly captures the look and feel of the 1980s, with its heightened visuals, music and indulgences. The movie is filled to the brim with interesting facts and bits of trivia, not least of which the fact that it was a remake, and that the original was itself an adaptation of a book whose author died prematurely. In the end, and even though it certainly didn’t seem that way at first, Tony Montana really could be said to have gotten what he was looking for: the American Dream, or in his own words, “The world, chico, and everything in it.” Read on to see exactly how he did it.
[post_page_title]From Scarface, to Scarface to Scarface[/post_page_title]
While the Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer-starring film is the quintessential 1980s gangster blockbuster, did you know it was a remake? And that the original movie was a book adaptation? Scarface, about the struggles, triumphs and eventual downfall of Cuban immigrant gangster Tony Montana came out in 1983, just a little more than half a century after the 1932 film Scarface, which charted the rise and fall of Italian immigrant gangster Antonio “Tony” Camonte. Still with us? Good. Now, that movie was an adaptation of a book, also called Scarface, written in 1929 and loosely based on the exploits of real-life Chicago mob boss Al Capone, whose nickname was… you guessed it, Scarface!
