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OK, so take it from a Coppola fan, I am so ****ing happy that so many Italians made their way into Hollywood during the 60's and 70's. Italian cinema and Italian-American cinema are two of my all-time favorite things. Coppola gets my highest respect, and I've seen more Scorsese movies than I can count. The "New Hollywood" scene was a time of innovation that these two were a large part of. Strangely enough, there's a third member of this party that gets ass-tons of respect, but I never had the hard-on for this guy like most film buffs did: Brian de Palma.
See, believe it or not, Scarface was criticized when it came out for Montana's negative personality and lack of real growth. I'm inclined to agree. While I think it's a great movie, I turned it to live up to the mass amounts of drool that the open jaws in the movie theaters have been secreting since its critical re-evaluation. If you're gonna talk about it that way, then I'm giving it high expectations. As for yet another crime drama by de Palma, Carlito's way, I expected something a little worse but still good. So I had less strict expectations going into this. Already familiar with Scarface, Carrie, Mission Impossible and Black Dahlia, I already had an easy time comparing this movie to the other de Palma works. Basically, call this movie the flip-coin toss of whether or not I'd agree with the rest of the world on de Palma's raw quality as a director, despite ordering his movies from best-to-worst significantly differently than most people.
Bombastic ex-gangster Carlito just got out of a lengthy prison sentence with the help of his lawyer and friend Dave Kleinfeld. And now that he's out, Carlito wants to get out of the life for good. He works around his old life, contacting old friends to help him get the money for a new club, but fully within the law. The people on the streets can hardly believe it, but he'll do anything to stay out of prison, as well as rekindling to relationship with dancer Gail, the girl he dropped so as not to drive himself crazy while in prison. Unfortunately, his friends have a tendency to get involved in crime, and that includes Dave, who asks Carlito to help him with ONE LAST crime, one that changes all of Carlito's plans for the worst.
The first thing that came to my mind was the lack of character development for any "villains" in the story. For a movie with quite a few characters over a 2 1/2-hour runtime, you would think that the villains would have more screentime. For a gangster movie, this is quite abnormal. Except... it's not a flaw. This is actually perfectly appropriat efor Carlito's Way, and why? Because this is a movie about his relationships with his FRIENDS. This is about how his FRIENDS are constantly tempting him to go back to the life.
So with that negligence in character fully justified, let's take a lot at everything else...
This... is... ART. This is Brian de Palma utilizing every skill he has to deliver what could be his best ever, assuming I don't give a higher rating to any other de Palma film after this. First, let it be said that the cast of this movie just oozes the word "dynamic." Pacino as Carlito gives us a totally different side of his acting, one that boasts the obnoxiousness of his villain in Dick Tracy but with less sadism and more spunk and humanity, one that you kinda want to sit next to in the movie theater. He's old and wisened, but full of youth and hope. And OH MY GOD Sean Penn. Now I'm mostly familiar with Penn's work in The Game and Mystic River, both movies where he did perfect jobs. But Penn ruled the sleazy lawyer stereotype, but with added nervous breakdowns, by going fully into the character's skin and delivering it so naturally that you'd think Penn has done everything Dave did in the movie but in real life. MULTIPLE TIMES.
Judging by the poster, I was expecting another dark and gritty piece. But no. We get colorful sets that reflect Carlito's youthful but aged persona, and the camera follows him and the other characters in some truly brilliant methods, capturing the scenery and the personalities of the characters without botching the job once. This is some of the most careful visualizing I have ever seen in a movie, and I would recommend this for a film class in that type of lesson almost as quickly as I would recommend Cuaron's Gravity. And with the story going into a lot of thrilling areas, the camera reflects that perfectly as well.
Carlito's Way is like The Godfather in the sense that it's about a guy trying to leave the life and being tempted back in. Only this time, he gets closer and closer and things keep turning for the wost, and the end leaves the best kind of bittersweet taste in your mouth, like an expensive chocolate that earned its expensive cost. THIS is the Scarface I was looking for, and it's seriously tempting me to watch other de Palma movies and put off the war movie ballot for a little while. So I gotta fight that. However, de Palma DID direct Casualties of War, so I'm goin for that next. But as for this movie, Carlito's Way proves that de Palma matured a lot in his time as a director, and even after making the almost brilliant Carrie. Easily my favorite de Palma so far.
= 100/100
Brian de Palma's Average Score (5 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Carlito's Way: 100
Carrie: 98
Scarface: 92
Mission Impossible: 81
The Black Dahlia: 63
Score: 86.8 / 5
Brian de Palma moves up from #108 on my best directors list with an 85.5 / 4 score to #81 between Emeric Pressburger and Adrian Lyne.
Carlito's Way
(1993) - Directed by Brian de Palma
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Gangster / Drama
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"The dream don't come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now."
(1993) - Directed by Brian de Palma
--------------------------------------------
Gangster / Drama
-------------------------------------------------
"The dream don't come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now."
OK, so take it from a Coppola fan, I am so ****ing happy that so many Italians made their way into Hollywood during the 60's and 70's. Italian cinema and Italian-American cinema are two of my all-time favorite things. Coppola gets my highest respect, and I've seen more Scorsese movies than I can count. The "New Hollywood" scene was a time of innovation that these two were a large part of. Strangely enough, there's a third member of this party that gets ass-tons of respect, but I never had the hard-on for this guy like most film buffs did: Brian de Palma.
See, believe it or not, Scarface was criticized when it came out for Montana's negative personality and lack of real growth. I'm inclined to agree. While I think it's a great movie, I turned it to live up to the mass amounts of drool that the open jaws in the movie theaters have been secreting since its critical re-evaluation. If you're gonna talk about it that way, then I'm giving it high expectations. As for yet another crime drama by de Palma, Carlito's way, I expected something a little worse but still good. So I had less strict expectations going into this. Already familiar with Scarface, Carrie, Mission Impossible and Black Dahlia, I already had an easy time comparing this movie to the other de Palma works. Basically, call this movie the flip-coin toss of whether or not I'd agree with the rest of the world on de Palma's raw quality as a director, despite ordering his movies from best-to-worst significantly differently than most people.
Bombastic ex-gangster Carlito just got out of a lengthy prison sentence with the help of his lawyer and friend Dave Kleinfeld. And now that he's out, Carlito wants to get out of the life for good. He works around his old life, contacting old friends to help him get the money for a new club, but fully within the law. The people on the streets can hardly believe it, but he'll do anything to stay out of prison, as well as rekindling to relationship with dancer Gail, the girl he dropped so as not to drive himself crazy while in prison. Unfortunately, his friends have a tendency to get involved in crime, and that includes Dave, who asks Carlito to help him with ONE LAST crime, one that changes all of Carlito's plans for the worst.
The first thing that came to my mind was the lack of character development for any "villains" in the story. For a movie with quite a few characters over a 2 1/2-hour runtime, you would think that the villains would have more screentime. For a gangster movie, this is quite abnormal. Except... it's not a flaw. This is actually perfectly appropriat efor Carlito's Way, and why? Because this is a movie about his relationships with his FRIENDS. This is about how his FRIENDS are constantly tempting him to go back to the life.
So with that negligence in character fully justified, let's take a lot at everything else...
This... is... ART. This is Brian de Palma utilizing every skill he has to deliver what could be his best ever, assuming I don't give a higher rating to any other de Palma film after this. First, let it be said that the cast of this movie just oozes the word "dynamic." Pacino as Carlito gives us a totally different side of his acting, one that boasts the obnoxiousness of his villain in Dick Tracy but with less sadism and more spunk and humanity, one that you kinda want to sit next to in the movie theater. He's old and wisened, but full of youth and hope. And OH MY GOD Sean Penn. Now I'm mostly familiar with Penn's work in The Game and Mystic River, both movies where he did perfect jobs. But Penn ruled the sleazy lawyer stereotype, but with added nervous breakdowns, by going fully into the character's skin and delivering it so naturally that you'd think Penn has done everything Dave did in the movie but in real life. MULTIPLE TIMES.
Judging by the poster, I was expecting another dark and gritty piece. But no. We get colorful sets that reflect Carlito's youthful but aged persona, and the camera follows him and the other characters in some truly brilliant methods, capturing the scenery and the personalities of the characters without botching the job once. This is some of the most careful visualizing I have ever seen in a movie, and I would recommend this for a film class in that type of lesson almost as quickly as I would recommend Cuaron's Gravity. And with the story going into a lot of thrilling areas, the camera reflects that perfectly as well.
Carlito's Way is like The Godfather in the sense that it's about a guy trying to leave the life and being tempted back in. Only this time, he gets closer and closer and things keep turning for the wost, and the end leaves the best kind of bittersweet taste in your mouth, like an expensive chocolate that earned its expensive cost. THIS is the Scarface I was looking for, and it's seriously tempting me to watch other de Palma movies and put off the war movie ballot for a little while. So I gotta fight that. However, de Palma DID direct Casualties of War, so I'm goin for that next. But as for this movie, Carlito's Way proves that de Palma matured a lot in his time as a director, and even after making the almost brilliant Carrie. Easily my favorite de Palma so far.
= 100/100
Brian de Palma's Average Score (5 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Carlito's Way: 100
Carrie: 98
Scarface: 92
Mission Impossible: 81
The Black Dahlia: 63
Score: 86.8 / 5
Brian de Palma moves up from #108 on my best directors list with an 85.5 / 4 score to #81 between Emeric Pressburger and Adrian Lyne.