Scarface

Directed by	Brian de Palma
Written by	Oliver Stone
Starring	Al Pacino Michelle Pfeiffer Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Produced by	Martin Bregman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 9, 1983
Runtime	170 min.
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000 (estimate)
IMDb page

Scarface is a 1983 motion picture about Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who has come to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift and entered into a life of organized crime and cocaine dealing. It is loosely based on a 1932 movie of the same name, (see Scarface (1932)). An upcoming video game which takes place in a 'what if' timeline that happens after the events of the movie will be released shortly on variuos formats This work is copyrighted. ... Photo of director Brian De Palma (born September 11, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American film director. ... Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946 in New York City) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... Al Pacino, pictured at the age of 21. ... Michelle Pfeiffer on the cover of Newsweek Michelle Pfeiffer (born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and singer. ... Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (b. ... Universal Studios logo Universal Studios is a famous Hollywood movie studio located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, which is in the San Fernando Valley. ... December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Tony Montana is the main character in Brian DePalmas 1983 remake of the movie Scarface, played by Al Pacino in an Academy Award-nominated performance. ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The Mariel Boatlift was a mass exodus of mentally ill, imprisoned and freedom seeking refugees from Cubas Mariel Harbour, between April 15 until October 31, 1980, when Fidel Castro eventually closed the harbour to all refugee seeking Cubans. ... Organized crime is crime carried out systematically by formal criminal organizations. ... Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Scarface (also known as Scarface, the Shame of the Nation and The Shame of a Nation) is a 1932 gangster film which tells the story of gang warfare and police intervention when rival gangs fight over control of a city. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...

Plot & Analysis

Tony Montana is one of "Los Bandidos" who in 1980 were sent from Cuba's prisons to Miami. Tony arrives in Miami with, amongst others, his trusted sidekick, Manny. They are sprung from a detention camp for Cuban refugees 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ...

Tony arrives in Miami with nothing but the clothes on his back but he says he knows what he wants... "what's coming to me". Tony has no problem killing and in fact he regards it as fun. At the start of the movie, Tony is questioned by the US authorities and we see that he has a tattoo on his hand with the word 'Madre' (mother) inside a heart; this is a Cuban prison tattoo signifying the rank of executioner. He also shows no fear and enjoys confrontations of all kinds, always ready to take any situation to the next level. He refuses to bow to men who think themselves better than him and knows enough of the rules to know that there are no rules when it comes to reaching the top in the Miami underworld. As the movie carries on with the story of Tony's apparent success, Tony's humanity begins to emerge along with his loss of interest in the superficial trappings of that success. We find Tony is by the time of the restuarant scene a man lost. With his relationship with Elvira all but over, he looks round at the other diners in their own tuxedos and realises that acceptance is as far from him as it has always been. He will always be the bad man. Tigers playing in the water Girl playing on tyre swing Recreation is the employment of time in a non-profitable way, in many ways also a therapeutic refreshment of ones body or mind. ... This article is about the tattoo, a design in ink or some other pigment, usually decorative or symbolic, placed permanently under the skin. ... The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The heart (Latin cor) is a hollow, muscular organ that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. ... For other meanings of the term, see executioner (disambiguation). ...

Although an adept operator in a treacherous world, Tony remains a truthful man. "I always tell the truth, even when I lie," he says at one point. And although a violent man, Tony believes his violence can always be justified. "I never fucked anybody over in my life, who didn't have it comin' to him."

Tony is also a man who commands love of the few people close to him. For Manny and Gina, Tony is a father figure and although the union seems political rather than romantic, Elvira does have some feeling for Tony, though this must be questioned given her vulnerability. However, Tony's greed makes him squander this love. He is denied and brutally mocked by the two women he cares about. First Elvira, who Tony has won from his one time boss Frank, denies him both the love and the son he craves and then, after Tony's slaying of Manny, Gina taunts Tony with her body. This last twisted act by Gina is, in a way, symbolic of Tony's futile quest for a son.

It is Tony's misplaced loyalty and greed (and a considerable cocaine habit) that proves to be his downfall. Early on, Tony allows his lieutenant Angel to be hacked to pieces in the infamous chainsaw-in-the-shower sequence-- Tony would rather let his friend die than screw up the drug deal for Lopez. Later on, Tony turns on Lopez himself when he begins brokering deals with Sosa. Then, he incurs Sosa's wrath when he refuses to do the hit on a Bolivian activist. Constantly, Tony demonstrates that he has the guts and the smarts for his demanding line of work, but his wish to rise higher and higher in the ranks overshadows his ties with his peers.

Misplaced loyalty is also at the heart of Tony's relationship to Manolo, who is there with Tony almost every step of the way. During the chainsaw scene, Manny is too busy talking to beautiful blondes in bikinis outside to realize that Tony and Angel have been gone way too long. Eventually, he comes to their rescue, but it is far too late for Angel. This foreshadows the scene where Tony blows Manny away-- as loyal as Manny was to Tony, he always had one eye on the ladies. Manny's fatal flaw is that he is more of a lover than a fighter, and it proves to be his undoing when he crosses the line by marrying Tony's sister without Tony's blessing.

Tony's obsession with Gina, his sister, borders on incestuous. She is the only pure thing left in his life, and he manages to screw it up by giving her money to party. By the end of the movie, she comes to resent the hold he has over her.

We also see that Tony is ultimately a pawn chosen for his unique qualities but unaware that the empire that he has seemingly created from nothing was there before he arrived from Cuba and will be there after he has gone. Alejandro Sosa and his cabal of South American and Washington goverment figures are the real power brokers, although men like Tony prove useful to conceal their own hands. However, we see that Tony may have uwittingly won his fight with authority during the call to Sosa after New York, when we see Sosa's empire crumbling thanks to Tony's inability to carry out a hit against the Bolivian activist. At this point, though, this possible victory for Tony is meaningless to him. Salvation for Tony comes near the end when he realises that he has lost Manny and is at last released from the hate that has consumed him all his life. The grief that Tony feels while waiting to die is the most poignant emotion that Tony experiences during the movie. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki (R) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ...

Scarface and hip-hop

Scarface is also notable for its extensive popularity by many hip-hop artists and fans, in particular those affiliated with gangsta rap. A number of rappers single out Tony Montana as a role model for his transition from poverty to wealth and outsider status. Mafioso fashion became a prominent part of hip hop fashion, quotes from the film (often sampled lines of dialogue) are prominent in many hip-hop songs, and rapper Scarface named himself after the film and its protagonist. "Tony Montana is an ultimate gangsta", says Latino hip-hop musician Fat Joe. "It's like the code of the streets, man; everybody who thinks they gangsta or are gangsta live by that movie." See also: this interview. Hip hop is a cultural movement that began among urban African Americans, and Hispanics in New York City in the early 1970s, and has since spread around the world. ... Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop music which involves a which involves a lyrical focus on the lifestyles of inner-city , ususally with an African American ghetto life focus. ... This article is about the organized crime groups. ... Hip hop fashion is, according to KRS One, one of the nine extended elements of hip-hop culture. ... In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. ... Hip hop music is a style of popular music. ... Scarface (born Brad Jordan, November 1970) is a rapper from the South Acres neighborhood in Houston, Texas, originally known for his work as a member of the Geto Boys. ... In the United States, Latino refers to non-Anglo-Americans who are living in the United States of America and are of Hispanic background, typically Spanish speaking people. ... Hip hop music is a style of popular music. ... Fat Joe. ...

A number of hip-hop stars have featured Scarface memorabilia as being among their prized possessions when filmed for MTV's television show Cribs, and Universal Pictures, whose parent company, Vivendi Universal, owns a number of prominent hip-hop records, supported the Scarface-hip hop connection with both a hip-hop soundtrack to Scarface and a documentary on Scarface's lavish boxed-set DVD re-release in 2003. Plans were made to re-score Scarface with a completely hip-hop based soundtrack, but Brian DePalma, who had contractual final cut, refused to approve such a version of the film (De Palma has never tampered with any of his work, believing each film is its own "director's cut") when it was reissued on DVD. MTV (abbreviation for Music Television) is a cable television network which was originally devoted to music videos, especially popular rock music. ... A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... MTV Cribs is a program on MTV that features the houses of celebrities, often young actors and musicians. ... Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French company active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Brian De Palma (born September 11, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American film director. ... A Directors cut is a specially edited version of a movie that is supposed to represent the directors own approved edit of the movie. ...

The Scarface influence on hip-hop has been decried by many critics, many of whom are part of alternative hip hop, who feel that the fixiation of these rappers on a character such as Montana are poor influences for young people. Looking up to Scarface and Montana, they argue, would cause children and teenagers to romanticize crime, violence, and the mafioso lifestyle. Alternative hip hop (also known as underground hip hop, Bohemian hip hop, or Backpacker rap) is a style of hip hop distinguished by socio-political lyrics, sparse beats that sample few and/or unusual sources (see jazz rap) and uniquely positive rhymes. ... Violence is a general term to describe actions, usually deliberate, that cause or intend to cause injury to people or animals. ...

Scarface is distributed by a subsiduary of the same parent corporation that ultimately controls most of the biggest names in hip-hop. So, many of today's hiphop artists' lives, real and imagined, can be seen to mirror Tony's. Not so much in the superficial trapping of success that their masters might allow them, but in how they too are pawns, just as Tony was in the plans of other men. This is Scarface and hip-hop's ultimate irony. Hip hop is a cultural movement that began among urban African Americans, and Hispanics in New York City in the early 1970s, and has since spread around the world. ...

Other references

The computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was modelled after this movie and has a very similar plot. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (released in October 2002) is the fourth video game in the hit Grand Theft Auto series. ...

Crew

• Brian De Palma - Director / Screenwriter
• Martin Bregman - Producer
• Peter Saphier - Producer / Co-producer
• Oliver Stone - Screenwriter
• John A. Alonzo - Cinematographer
• Giorgio Moroder - Composer (Music Score)
• Jerry Greenberg - Editor
• Jerry Greenberg - Editor
• David Ray - Editor
• Ferdinando Scarfiotti - Production Designer
• Ed Richardson - Art Director
• Steve Schwartz - Art Director / Set Designer
• Louis A. Stroller - Executive Producer
• Geoff Hubbard - Set Designer
• Blake Russell - Set Designer
• Bruce Weintraub - Set Designer
• Pat Norris - Costume Designer
• Charles D. Knight - Sound/Sound Designer
• Stan Parks - Special Effects
• Ken Pepiot - Special Effects
• Joe Napolitano - First Assistant Director
• Jerry Ziesmer - First Assistant Director
• James M. Halty - Stunts
• Chuck Picerni, Jr. - Stunts
• Mario Roberts - Stunts

Photo of director Brian De Palma (born September 11, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American film director. ... Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946 in New York City) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... Giorgio Moroder Giorgio Moroder (born April 26, 1940 in Ortisei, (Urtijëi in Ladin, St. ... Jerry A. Greenberg is the Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Sapient, a business consulting and technology services firm headquartered at Cambridge, MA. He, along with Stuart Moore, founded Sapient in 1991. ... Jerry A. Greenberg is the Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Sapient, a business consulting and technology services firm headquartered at Cambridge, MA. He, along with Stuart Moore, founded Sapient in 1991. ... Dr. Schwartz founded Unitrends in 1989 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. ...

References

• "Scarface Politics" in Vassilis K. Fouskas. 2003. Zones of Conflict. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0745320295. Pp. 34-62.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:

Scarface

• Scarface (1983) at the Internet Movie Database
• Scarface (1983)