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‘SCARFACE IS THE UXB OF AMERICAN GANGSTER FILMS’ Hitlist THE BEST FILM & DVD RELEASES*
The world is yours
Scarface, the greatest of all modern gangster films is re-released this week. But why now? Ace conspiracy theorist Paul Dale thinks he knows
It’s been twenty six long years since Tony Montana (Al Pacino) invited us to ‘say hello to my little friend’ in director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone’s Reagan era update of Howard Hawks’ gangster polemic of the same name. Scarface is the most recent of a series of films from Universal Pictures’ back catalogue to be given an extended life in digital form (following Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus and the original cut of The Blues Brothers). On the face of it, this re-release seems little more than an act of shrewd business acumen in these troubling times.
The thing is, Scarface is different. Long cherished by fans in whatever format it emerges (which to date includes Beta, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and in various computer game formats) it is the UXB – the unexploded bomb – of those modern American gangster movies whose bloody, foul-mouthed, cocaine-snorting recklessness in addressing America’s immigration issues is something that still has the potential of influence. To understand this assertion we need to go back to the scene of the crime. Though both later known for their curmudgeonly diatribes against Republican Party values, the genesis of De Palma and Stone’s film came from a remarkably reactionary place. Formulated in response to the Mariel Boatlift, a mass exodus of Cubans to America between 15 April and 31 October 1980, it’s not hard to see why Scarface was beloved by burgeoning neo-cons and gangster rappers alike. Having had his hand forced by a downturn in the Cuban economy and a bid by 10,000 disgruntled Cubans to gain asylum in the Peruvian
embassy, Fidel Castro came to an agreement with incumbent US President Carter to allow anyone who wanted to leave Cuba to do so. 125,000 Cubans took the trip. Among them were exiles from Cuba’s jails. It was in this group that troubled Vietnam vet Stone located an amalgam of his ‘shame of a nation’: the petty hoodlum who made good (and bad) in the free market economy of America. Many of those former cons who got through the immigration checks and internment camps (legally or illegally) went on to change the Florida and Miami crimescape for good and depending on which statistics you chose to believe, they arguably helped make cocaine the epidemic it is today.
All of which makes this brilliant, cold-blooded masterpiece rather a strange proposition at a time when President Obama is opening up relations with seemingly progressive sibling Raúl Castro. Myth has it that during his time as 46th Vice President, Dick Cheney liked to spend his downtime staring at a corporately revised map of Cuba which showed which US conglomerate would go where come the day of renewed imperialism. Could it be that Universal has been promised a spec there? A little place in the sun to wait out another Depression? Where multimillion-dollar mergers can be brokered by Skype and movies can be made for a tenth of the price? Could the re-release of Scarface be the beginning of their chainsaw-wielding march on Cuba? Either way, it’s great to see you again Tony.
Scarface is on selected release from Sun 23 Aug. See Also Released, page 25.
✽✽ Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino’s WWII Jewish revenge fantasy finally invades cinemas and takes no prisoners. See feature, page 8 and review, page 24. General release, Fri 21 Aug. ✽✽ Scarface New digital print of Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone’s 1983 Cuban gangster opus. See preview, left and Also Released, page 25. Selected release, Fri 21 Aug. ✽✽ The Yes Men Fix The World Anti corporate pranksters The Yes Men are at it again with admirable and thought-provoking results. See Also Released, page 25. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 21–Sun 23 Aug. ✽✽ Sin Nombre Epic and powerful Central American migrant story. Out now, Cameo, Edinburgh and selected release. ✽✽ Mesrine: Killer Instinct French bank robber Jacques Mesrine has his moment in the sun in this first of a two part epic biopic. Part two out next week. Out now, selected release. ✽✽ Herostratus Unseen since its limited release in 1967 experimental filmmaker Don Levy’s bizarre, audacious and prescient tale of mass suicide and celebrity culture finally gets a decent release on both Blu- ray and DVD with a ton of extras. See review, page 33. Out Mon 24 Aug (BFI) ✽✽ The Sorrow and the Pity Lest we forget, Marcel Orphuls epic 1969 documentary about the Nazi occupation of France from 1940–1944 (focusing particularly on the industrial town of Clermont-Ferrand) is now available to own it on a low-priced two disc set. See review, page 33. Out Mon 24 Aug (Arrow) 20–27 Aug 2009 THE LIST 23