Flashback: Scarface – Al Pacino’s violent gangster epic
The extreme action of the Pacino-driven gangster film may have offended Hollywood in 1983 but, for Hong Kong crowds, it was cinema as usual
Denigrated by audiences and critics for its ultra-violent scenes when it was released, in 1983, Scarface has matured into a fully-fledged gangster classic. That’s as it should be, as the film features four movie legends – Al Pacino, director Brian De Palma, then-screenwriter Oliver Stone and producer Martin Bregman – working at the height of their powers.
The remake of a 1932 movie of the same name, itself based on a book about the life of notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone, Scarface is a scathing critique of greed, avarice and the American dream. Shifting the original’s Chicago setting to 1980s Florida, the story focuses on Tony Montana (Pacino), an ambitious Cuban immigrant intent on becoming a drugs baron in the United States.