THAT'S MY JOKE!

It's the movie that wrote the book on one liners, and made me a die hard AP fan! Though I still, for some reason, cannot understand why so many people love The Godfather movies. They're just too slow for my tastes.

Yeah well your mom is too slow for my tastes!!!!!!!!!!!!


Sorry about that. Too much internet, not enough sleep.

Least she wasn't a tranny like yours...*drum hit*

it's *Zing*.. unless you are like some drummer boy hitting one drum..

I'm a huge MACBETH fan and I've always viewed Scarface as a modern day (Modern meaning the 80's, of course) re-telling of the classic tale of a man driven by greed and temptation to create his own empire, but must always face the tragic consequences in the very end.

Granted, De Palma's film doesn't have witches or ghosts leading "Tony Montana" on, but Scarface ranks up there (In my book) as the concluding act of the MACBETH trilogy with Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Polanski's Macbeth.

Personally, its one of my favorite movies of all time. Some say its too violent, too over the top, but I think its just perfect. Everytime I watch it, I find something new, and/or look at it from a different angle. Only few other movies have that kind of effect on me (Fight Club, Usual Suspects etc.)

Obviously, Pacino's performance drew me in at first. He is amazing, to be blunt. The way that guy can hold a scene in this movie is second to none. From a cinematic point of view, the score and the camera angles and movements used to tell this story are perfect, IMO. De Palma does a magnificent job "painting a picture" of Tony Montana's story.

I'm just happy its finally on DVD (again). I can finally watch it whenever now, in decent resolution.

F. Murray Abraham. I said F. Murray Abraham!

i saw it for the first time last wednesday. And other than Tony's accent getting on my nerves(nothing agaisnt cuban accents ok, since none of my friends that came over to this country the same time from Cuba that Tony did in the movie sound like that), the movie was perfect. I loved it. I freely admit when i first saw the Godfather films, i was bored, once i got a little older and watched them the few times, i couldn't get enough of them. I figured this would be another film i'd have to watch a few times. But i loved it after the first viewing. I remember hearing a lot about this movie when it first came out. I was eight at the time, and the one thing that sticks in my mind is all the violence i heard about. So when it came on cable, i was always too scared to watch it(that and as a small kid it probably would have scared me and bored me). But now i think the violence that was in it actually added to the film.

When I was in grammer school in the 70's a tough kid who came from Purto Rico who couldn't speak no english learned to speak english, but said every sentince with the F word just like Tony Montana.
Now I grew up in a Puerto Rican area and never ever saw that hairstyle on any Rican or Cuban.
So Pacino's performance was good except for the hairstyle.

I tried watching it and was so bored I shut it off. I guess I don't get turned on by drugs and gang violence.

I got $5 that says you absolutely LOVE Barry Kyndon

Agreed.

SF is not even in the same class as the first two Godfathers. I thought it was good, that's all.

Please explain. I'm curious.

ever watch mtv cribs, all of the rappers have/had scarface in their collection, and many even have the poster with Pacino with a gun.

Most of those rappers grew with out daddy's who were around, so a boy has to look up to some male figure to know how a man should act.
And since he knows his mama isn't going to put him to collage, he has to look at what he can do.

Al Pacino's performance.

That's really the only selling point for me.

Tony Montana and Manny Ray, the dynamic duo!

For years, I wondered what made "Scarface" so great. Obviously the performances were sensational, the scenes were exciting, the script was edgy, and the story of "from rags-to-riches" with a corrupt angle was right on the money. But the part I didn't like so much was the lack of sympathy for the demise of Tony. After all, he was a very unlikable character throughout the entire film (with the exception of the very beginning, when he's in there with customs trying to gain entry into the United States), and did we really care that he was killed at the end? I didn't care then, and I still don't. He killed Manny Ray, my favorite guy from the film, and destroyed his sister's happiness. I was glad when Tony died.

I think the film endures for this very reason. Pacino's Tony Montana character is an unredeeming guy, unlikable, yet we still watch the film despite this.

The movie is so over the top which is why I like it. It is also very quoatable. Pacino is amazing in it although I agree that his accent is mostly annoying.

I just got around to watching my copy of Scarface, and I'm kind of on the fence about it. I do enjoy mob/crime films with Goodfellas probably being my favorite of all time.

This film, though, did have some pretty interesting camera shots and the music (although corny by today's standards) really seemed to add a lot to the film. I have a habit of watching a film with subtitles on (so I won't miss a line), and whenever there was a song on either in the background or as part of the soundtrack, I noticed that the lyrics really added ALOT to the scene itself. This is probably pretty common, but it's just the first time that I've noticed it.

One scene that I really liked was when Pacino was in the bathtub yelling and screaming to himself after his best friend/partner and his wife left him alone in there. THe way that the camera pulled out and showed this small, lonely man (in white bubbles possibly reflecting the fact that his fortunes were owed to his cocaine trafficking) in the middle of this extravagant lifestyle and he had driven off the only ones who could tolerate him.

Having not seen this movie until just today, I think the soundtrack kind of dates it (80's "technopop), but since Tony is supposed to be the result of an actual event (the landing of Cuban refugees) I think I can accept that.

So, final thoughts: upon first viewing I enjoyed it. Not the greatest film I've ever seen, but that may come with subsequent viewings. TO answer the question that the OP had, though, I think what makes it so good is De Palma's direction, the screenplay, and Pacino's tour-de-force performance as a Cuban refugee.

On a sidenote, is Tony Montana ever referred to as "Scarface" in the film? Just curious...