Scarface

From Nothing to Something

Back in the early 80's (83 I think) this film had a lot of very violent, fairly gritty, and shocking scenes. Add to that the tons of swearing, and the cast all giving good performances and you have a hit movie. It did pave the way in some regard for countless other gangster films since then.



Here we have an ex-con Antonio "Tony" Montana coming to America from Cuba. This of course means that he has to land in Miami. Tony and his friends are sent to a refugee camp. Here they make a deal to assassinate a Cuban government official for their green cards. So much for leaving the criminal world behind.

Their next job, buying drugs from the Colombians doesn't go smoothly, so they insist on delivering the drugs and money from the deal to the boss, Frank. Here Tony meets Frank's wife, Elvira Hancock, and is also hired by Frank on an ongoing basis.

Tony and Omar are sent to meet with a drug lord in Bolivia, here Frank oversteps his mark and makes a deal with the drug lord Alejandro Sosa. Omar is accused of being an informant, and beaten, Tony has to vouch for Frank. The deal is honoured, but with a warning from Alejandro never to betray him.

Frank is not pleased that Omar has died and that Tony has made an unauthorised deal. Tony upsets Frank further by "chasing" his wife openly in public. For some reason hit men are sent after Tony. He manages to escape and goes after Frank, with Frank gone Tony takes control everything including the newly widowed Elvira.

Things are good for a while, but nothing lasts forever. More people want a higher cut, and a federal investigation has resulted in Tony being charged with tax evasion, not a new theme. In order to stay out of prison he agrees to do a job for Sosa which is the assassination of a journalist. This however, doesn't go according to plan, so now he has Sosa after him. Who can see more hit men coming real soon?

Sosa's men invade Tony's mansion and kill his men, a number of them are killed by Tony. Not all, so he resorts to a grenade launcher. However he is repeatedly shot and eventually killed.

I you like the dug lord, mob boss type of movie similar to "Goodfellas" then you should like this. It is sill worth seeing, even so many years on.