Scarface Blu Ray Review


Title: Scarface
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Loggia,
Certificate: 18
Runtime: 170 mins

Director Brian DePalma, writer Oliver Stone and actor Al Pacino at their peak. Each of them producing their finest work. Never bettered. Scarface is a masterpiece of modern cinema and it’s taken me until 2011 to see it.

As the film is now released on Blu-ray I took the opportunity to watch it. I was seriously perturbed by the 2 hours and 50 minute running time, but as I sat down to watch it the time flew by. This is one of the most compelling films I’ve ever seen. Excellent acting, brilliant direction, wonderful scripting, this film has everything.

Scarface Blu rayPacino’s performance is incredibly intensely, while the 80s synth score takes you back to a different time. Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, an exiled Cuban criminal who is shipped to America and finds work in a café. But he’s not cut out for making sandwiches and soon goes to work for a Miami drug lord played by Robert Loggia.

Never once referred to in the film as Scarface, Mr Tony Montana, quickly rises to the top of the Florida crime chain selling and snorting coke like it was candy. He kills his boss and steals his woman (the stunning Michelle Pfeiffer). He becomes the king of cocaine and has everything of the best that the world has to offer. But he breaks the one golden rule… never get high on your own supply… as and the drugs take their grip on him, Montana looses his grip on his life.

There is violence, swearing and lots of drugs. In 1983 this was seriously R rated stuff (not that it actually was R rated everywhere) but it was pretty gruesome for the time. Now even the chainsaw scene looks tame.

Scarface is a film that went on to influence actors, directors, writers and people across all walks of life. It’s influence lives on today, lines are quoted in films and people still quote Tony Montana lines. It’s not until now that I’ve begun to realise the significance of this film, but for me, it’s one of the finest gangster movies ever made. More intelligent and subtle that other films such as Goodfellas or Casino, Scarface is a classic for me and now it looks amazing on Blu-ray.

Go out and buy a copy now or else Tony Montana will no doubt be round to see you with his little friend!

Author : Kevin Stanley