Scarface (1983)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Scarface |
| Original title | Scarface |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1983 |
| length | 170 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Brian De Palma |
| script | Oliver Stone |
| production |
Martin Bregman , Louis A. Stroller |
| music | Giorgio Moroder |
| camera | John A. Alonzo |
| cut |
Gerald B. Greenberg , David Ray |
| occupation | |
| |
Scarface (alternative title: Scarface - Toni, das Scarface ) is a feature film by Brian De Palma in which Al Pacino plays the leading role. The film is a remake of the original by Howard Hawks from 1932, interpreted very freely by De Palma. The story, originally based on Al Capone's rise to crime boss, was moved to Miami in the 1980s and shows the rise and fall of the Cuban immigrant Tony Montana in the world of gangsters and the cocaine trade. The personalities of the historical Al Capone and the fictional Tony Montana, however, have little in common. While the socially incompatible Tony owes his rise almost exclusively to his brutality and cold-bloodedness in the film, Al Capone increased his power not least through his negotiating skills, with which he was able to bring former rivals to his side by making concessions.
The film was initially controversial because of its scenes of violence, but in the following years it developed into part of popular culture . Its original version was indexed in Germany until 2011 , after which it was re-examined by the FSK on May 25, 2011 with the result “no youth approval”.
action
In May 1980, Fidel Castro opened the port of Mariel in Cuba to reunite Cuban and American family members. In doing so, he forces the boat owners who go to the United States to take opponents, criminals and the mentally ill with them. According to estimates at the time, 25,000 of the 125,000 immigrants who came to Florida had a criminal record ( Mariel boat crisis ).
Among them is the impoverished ex- convict Antonio "Tony" Montana, who ends up in Miami and wants to try his luck in the USA. After a heated conversation with the border officials, which was marked by an outburst of anger, he was brought to a kind of assembly camp, the so-called "Freedom Town". After he killed Rebenga, a former high-ranking communist , during an uprising there, the clients ensure that he and some of his friends are released from the camp with a green card .
At first he worked as a dishwasher with his friend Manny Ray , but eventually got the opportunity to get involved in the drug scene with Omar Suárez, who arranged the murder assignment for him. Tony and Manny are said to be buying cocaine from Colombian drug dealer Hector at the Sun Ray Hotel . In addition to Tony and Manny, Chi Chi and Angel Fernandez also join the deal. Tony and Angel go into the apartment to get the business done while Manny and Chi Chi wait outside. Angel stands by the open door so he can see if everything is okay. Manny flirts intensely with a young American woman, so that he does not notice that Angel and Tony are ambushed and are now threatened with death by Hector if Tony does not give him the money they should pay for the drugs. Tony is not intimidated by Hector's threats about what his friend Angel has to pay with his life: He is brutally murdered with a chainsaw in Hector's apartment . Manny and Chi Chi notice something is wrong and get to the apartment just in time to save Tony and shoot Hector's accomplices. Armed with a chainsaw, he escapes, but is pursued by Tony, arrested and shot in the street. The three survivors then flee from the scene with the cocaine.
Tony and Manny then meet Frank Lopez, for whom Tony had killed Rebenga in Freedom Town; Lopez did this as revenge for his brother, who was killed by Rebenga. Lopez introduces Tony to the business and Tony quickly makes a name for himself on the street, which Lopez dislikes.
The next stop is Cochabamba in Bolivia , where Tony concludes a multi-million dollar deal with the drug lord Alejandro Sosa, in the course of which Lopez's henchman Omar is exposed and murdered as an alleged informant for the drug authorities. However, Tony closed the deal without his boss's approval, which is why the break with Lopez occurs. He sets Tony, who also has an eye on Lopez's wife Elvira, two killers on the neck. Tony shoots the two of them, seriously injuring them. He then confronts Frank Lopez, and Manny shoots him. The corrupt police officer Mel Bernstein, who worked on Lopez, shoots Tony himself. This makes him the gangster king of Miami. He builds an empire, marries Elvira, and continues business with Sosa.
But money, power and drug consumption soon go to his head and Elvira criticizes him more and more often. When counting and handing over a large amount of money to the alleged money launderer Seidelbaum, it turns out that he is an undercover investigator and the incident is being filmed by the police. Manny had arranged the contact with Seidelbaum, but was not present at the time of the access. Ultimately, it remains unclear whether Manny knowingly betrayed Tony. Tony suspects him, but ultimately believes in his innocence. Tony now faces charges and jail, including money laundering . His lawyer makes it clear that Tony should at least be convicted of tax evasion - a clear reference to Al Capone. So Sosa offers to buy him out if he helps him in New York to carry out an assassination attempt by Sosa's assistant Alberto, which Tony accepts. Back home, an argument with Elvira escalates in a restaurant, who then leaves him. Tony prepares the planned assassination with Alberto. When he tries to blow up the target's car with a remote-controlled bomb, although the target's wife and children are also in it, Tony thwarts the attack and shoots Alberto. That is why Sosa breaks with him too.
Back in Miami, Tony can't find his interim salesman Manny anywhere. In addition, his mother tells him about the disappearance of his sister Gina, whereupon he looks for her. When a trail leads him to a house in which Manny opens and he sees Gina in the background, he realizes that the two are having a relationship and spontaneously shoots Manny in an affect. The realization that his actions were wrong comes too late. He returns to his villa with his sister , while Sosa's mercenaries also invade the house. They kill his bodyguards and eventually Gina who tried to shoot Tony. Devastated, he takes a M16 - assault rifle with M203 grenade launcher and has as Sosa War Party. He can kill many of the attackers, but is shot several times. Tony provokes the attackers when a killer Sosas, "The Skull", appears behind him and shoots him in the back with a shotgun. Tony fell fatally into a pool of water.
synchronization
The German dubbing was commissioned by Berliner Synchron ; Jürgen Neu was responsible for the dialogue direction and the German dialogue book. In the original English version, Tony and others speak with a noticeable Spanish accent, which was not adopted in the German version. Individual terms (mostly swear words, e.g. "Chivato" for traitor) or short sentences are Spanish in both versions.
| role | actor | speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Antonio "Tony" Montana | Al Pacino | Frank Glaubrecht |
| Manolo "Manny Ray" Ribera | Steven Bauer | Ulrich Gressieker |
| Elvira Hancock | Michelle Pfeiffer | Susanna Bonaséwicz |
| Gina Montana | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio | Cornelia Meinhardt |
| Frank Lopez | Robert Loggia | Horst Schön |
| Omar Suarez | F. Murray Abraham | Rolf Schult |
| Mel Bernstein | Harris Yulin | Christian Rode |
| Alejandro Sosa | Paul Shenar | Hans Peter Hallwachs |
| Chi Chi | Ángel Salazar | Joachim Tennstedt |
| Nick "The Pig" | Michael P. Moran | Helmut Krauss |
| Hector "The Toad" | Al Israel | Andreas Mannkopff |
meaning
The film is considered a co-founder of the modern gangster film. While gangster films previously had a more classic staging, Scarface consists of colorful, loud images with pop music. The location Miami plays a special role , which is shown here as a colorful, dazzling beach metropolis even before Miami Vice . Likewise typical for the modern gangster film are sudden, harsh scenes of violence as well as a very rough, but also realistic language that stands out strongly from the elevated language of film noir . The aforementioned staging takes further distance from the film noir genre, even if elements from it still found their way into the film, such as the clear criticism of the American dream . Other classic elements have been heavily modified, for example the femme fatale : At first glance, Tony's wife Elvira seems to take on this role, but in the end she doesn't lead Tony to ruin, but tries to stop him with criticism of his lifestyle. The image of the antihero , embodied by Tony Montana, has also been modified to match the staging . Unlike before, this one in Scarface does not shy away from extreme acts of violence. This as well as Tony's arrogant, cynical manner, which is expressed in his swear word-flooded language, were formative for the character image of the following gangster films.
history
Originally, the original version in Germany was on the index of media harmful to minors. This was controversial as, especially from today's perspective, the film is nowhere near as brutal as its reputation. Even the infamous chainsaw scene, for example, doesn't show any details, as is the case in many horror films today. Most of the time, all you can see is Tony blood splattering on his face. The actual murder is not shown.
However, it was not just violence that gave rise to indexing, but above all the glorification of gangsterism. Even if De Palma tries to prevent exactly this with the ultimate failure of Tony, it cannot be denied that the film shows tendencies in this direction. Tony first achieved status and his dream of money, power and women through cold bloodedness and illegal acts. However, he cannot maintain a positive relationship with any other film character in the long term. First his mother casts him out, then trust in his bosses is broken. He even shoots his only friend Manny, which also turns his sister Gina against him.
For this reason, two more versions were published for the German market, both of which were shortened and each received an age rating from the FSK:
- an FSK-18 version that was shortened by around 25 seconds.
- an FSK-16 version that was shortened by around 15 minutes.
criticism
The lexicon of international films judges the film to be a "dark, crude, violence-obsessed remake of the Hawks classic of the same name (1932), which neither adds a new dimension to the genre nor to the myth of the gangster as a tragic hero."
Christoph Huber from Filmzentrale is of the opinion that “Brian De Palma's remake of the gangster classic by Howard Hawks” is “a terrific baroque excess”.
René Malgo von Filmstarts sums up: “Scarface benefits from excellent photography, the skillfully assembled cast, led by an Al Pacino in top form, and Giorgio Moroder's very appropriate musical framework. This, together with an authentic screenplay by Oliver Stone, which is characterized by its astute dialogues and distinctive character drawing, results in an almost perfect film. [...] However, the plot is a little lacking in the masterpiece, so that with all the violence, which is actually only sparse, but then extremely powerful, the impression of lengthy breathing cannot be denied. "
The editorial team of Cinema says: “De Palma (director) and Oliver Stone (book) pepped up Howard Hawks' classic from 1932 in a stylish manner. Conclusion: bitter, brutal, bloody: a terrific drama ”.
Awards
Scarface received three Golden Globe nominations in 1984 :
- Al Pacino for Best Leading Role in a Drama.
- Steven Bauer for Best Supporting Role in a Drama.
- Giorgio Moroder for the best film music.
Maurice Schell was nominated in 1984 for the Golden Reel Award in the category Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects . In the same year Brian De Palma received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry in the category of Worst Director .
Scarface was nominated for the 2004 Golden Satellite Award in the Best Classic DVD Release category.
Popular culture reception
The name Scarface is common in the hip-hop scene: In addition to the rapper Scarface , Tony Yayo from the G Unit also took his pseudonym from the film. In the track My Buddy of this music group the quote “Say Hello To My Little Friend” from the film is included. The texts of various rappers make reference to the film, such as The World Is Yours by Nas or Say Hello by Jay-Z . Miami-born rapper Rick Ross used music samples from the film for his songs Street Life and Push It (To The Limit) . The video for the latter tells, with Rick Ross as the leading actor, the story of Scarface in the modern day. The duo Mobb Deep also used music samples for their songs GOD Part III and It's Mine . The German hip-hop formation Äi-Tiem used samples from the breakup scene in the restaurant in the intro for their album Wenn hier ein Shoots Then I'm That . Also Fler used samples from the separation scene for his intro to the album trendsetter. Kollegah refers to Scarface in some rhymes and names (TONI).
In the computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City , the protagonist is a gangster in a fictional American city in the 1980s that is very similar to Miami . In addition to quotes from series such as Miami Vice , the game makes extensive use of scenes and equipment from Scarface . For example, the interior of the protagonist's villa is very much based on that of Tony Montana. There is also an apartment in the game, the bathroom of which has traces of blood and a chainsaw. The developers of the game, Rockstar North , had already used many pieces of music from Scarface in the predecessor GTA III . In fact, the entire repertoire of songs from Flashback FM , a radio station in Liberty City, consists of the Scarface soundtrack.
The publisher Vivendi Universal released the action game Scarface: The World Is Yours for PC, PSP , PlayStation 2 , Xbox and Wii . The player steers the gangster Tony Montana through the computer modeled Miami and fulfills some orders. The end of the film was changed for this: Tony does not die, but has to completely rebuild his drug empire. The gameplay is based on video games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or The Godfather .
The computer game PAYDAY 2 recently got a Scarface DLC in which you can play Tony yourself.
In the television series South Park , Eric Cartman reads selected texts from the film Scarface at a talent competition . This is Tony Montana's angry exclamation in the restaurant. Also in the episode Medicinal Fried Chicken of the 14th season there are some clear references to the film. Another mention can be found in the final episode of the TV series Standoff , when a hostage-taker proudly shows his friend that he has bought the M16 with grenade launcher from Scarface. In the gangster film New Jack City and the television series The Sopranos , reference is made to the final scene of Scarface . Another reference can be found in an episode of the series Breaking Bad , when the main character Walter White watches the film with his son in one scene. The series creator Vince Gilligan described the character development of his protagonist with the comparison that he had turned Mr. Chips into Tony Montana.
useful information
Scarface was filmed in Florida , California and New York . Filming began on November 29, 1982 and ended on July 15, 1983. The film had a budget of around $ 25 million and grossed about $ 65 million worldwide. The film celebrated its world premiere on December 1, 1983 in New York . From December 9, 1983, he was seen in US cinemas. It was released in German cinemas on March 9, 1984. On September 19, 2003 there was a re-performance in the USA. The film was shown at the Rome Independent Film Festival on October 25, 2008.
In Tony's Theme Giorgio Moroder quotes the aria Cold Genius from the baroque opera King Arthur by Henry Purcell . The subtitle of the DVD for the film tells you at the end of the film that it is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht , the screenwriter of the original 1932 film.
Frank Glaubrecht was the voice actor for Al Pacino and continues to be his standard voice .
Míriam Colón plays Tony's mother when in fact she is only four years older than Al Pacino .
Even Steven Spielberg filmed a few scenes together with and for his pal Brian De Palma .
Soundtrack
- Various artists: Scarface . 1998, Label Mca (reissued by the Universal Music Group label in 2003)
- Various Artists: Music Inspired By Scarface . 2003, Def Jam Recordings label
literature
- Armitage Trail : Scarface (OT: Scarface ). DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-5016-3
Web links
- Scarface in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Scarface atrotten tomatoes(English)
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Approval certificate for Scarface . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, May 2011 (PDF; test number: 54 379 V).
- ↑ Scarface does not get youth approval after re-examination - Federal inspection agency lets film classics off the index , schnittberichte.com, May 27, 2011
- ↑ Comparison of the cut versions FSK18-SPIO / JK by Scarface at Schnittberichte.com
- ↑ Comparison of the cut versions FSK16-SPIO / JK by Scarface at Schnittberichte.com
- ↑ Scarface. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Film review , Filmzentrale, Christoph Huber
- ↑ Film review , film releases , René Malgo
- ^ Film review , Cinema
- ↑ a b c d nominations and awards according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ PAYDAY 2: Scarface Heist on Steam. In: store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ PAYDAY 2: Scarface Character Pack on Steam. In: store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Maureen Ryan: 'Breaking Bad' Does 'Scarface': Is Al Pacino A Fan Of Walter White? In: Huffington Post . July 30, 2012 ( huffingtonpost.com [accessed June 30, 2017]).
- ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ a b budget and box office earnings according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ a b c d e Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Background information according to the Internet Movie Database