Reducing a film to its absolute basic message (Crime doesn't pay), has a tendency to simplify what a film is saying, and erase what it is actually doing as a film.
Citizen Kane - Can we ever really know someone
Solaris - Don't live in the past
Christmas Story - You'll shoot your eye out
I guess we could call Scarface a warning about crime and the consequences of living a life of it. But it's also a criticism of capitalism. A very early condemnation of an entire decades absurdly decadent Zeitgeis before it had even begun. A discussion of the hollowness of the American Dream as seen through the immigrant experience. A homage to classic gangster films. A family tragedy. And all other sorts of reductions that also don't quite touch the cocaine freeze of its heart.
And of course, we aren't even getting to the style, which with DePalma, is always at least a large part of the point. Does the film glamourize or castigate Tony's lifestyle by how DePalma employs it? Are we meant to simply enjoy it's ugly thrills vicariously, or is more going on here.
I don't think it's his best. But it is a film brimming with interesting contradictions, and a controversially unhinged performance (maybe the beginning of the end of top shelf Pacino), and an incredible cinematic sense bolstered by an equally incredible score.
But, yes, it indeed also shows us that crime doesnt pay. But why stop there?
Citizen Kane - Can we ever really know someone
Solaris - Don't live in the past
Christmas Story - You'll shoot your eye out
I guess we could call Scarface a warning about crime and the consequences of living a life of it. But it's also a criticism of capitalism. A very early condemnation of an entire decades absurdly decadent Zeitgeis before it had even begun. A discussion of the hollowness of the American Dream as seen through the immigrant experience. A homage to classic gangster films. A family tragedy. And all other sorts of reductions that also don't quite touch the cocaine freeze of its heart.
And of course, we aren't even getting to the style, which with DePalma, is always at least a large part of the point. Does the film glamourize or castigate Tony's lifestyle by how DePalma employs it? Are we meant to simply enjoy it's ugly thrills vicariously, or is more going on here.
I don't think it's his best. But it is a film brimming with interesting contradictions, and a controversially unhinged performance (maybe the beginning of the end of top shelf Pacino), and an incredible cinematic sense bolstered by an equally incredible score.
But, yes, it indeed also shows us that crime doesnt pay. But why stop there?