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Scarface (1983)

Scarface Movie Poster
A

l Pacino owned the 70s, diversified in the 80s and continues to be one of the most versatile character actors in movies today.

After being denied an Oscar for his outstanding performance in "The Godfather Part II", the man decided against sending a horses head to members of the academy, and instead found himself collaborating with Brian De Palma ("The Untouchables") and an embittered young screenwriter by the name of Oliver Stone ("Platoon").

Pacino had already established himself as a great young actor willing to take risks with films "Dog Day Afternoon", "Serpico" and "Cruising".

Scarface, by comparison, was a low key reworking of the 1932 Howard Hawke's classic, an atypical gangster movie in terms of it's political statements about Castro's Cuba and the futility / hypocrisy of the drugs war (also explored in "Traffic").

Scarface is about a Cuban refugee who builds a powerful cocaine empire through a ruthless reign of ultra violence and business savvy. Tony Montana believes that "…first you get the money, then you get the power and then you get the woman…"

Pacino's partner in crime is an old friend from Havana called Manny Ray (the excellent Steven Bauer) together they fight their way out of a refugee camp, take out rival dealers and eventually whack the bosses to become the main men in downtown Miami... But hedonism and the pursuit of absolute power leads to paranoia and psychosis.

In the end, it all goes up in a hail of bullets and hellfire: Tony 'Scarface' Montana was a man so obsessed with the American dream, that he didn't realise it had consumed him in every way possible.

Don't forget that Scarface is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...

Written By: Kashif Ahmed [Contact]
 

A modern gangster classic if ever there was one, up there with "Goodfellas", "The Godfather" Trilogy, "Casino", "Mean Streets" and the underrated "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead".

Pacino's manic performance as the coke fuelled killer rates as one of the finest in cinema, whilst Michelle Pfeiffer does some excellent acting as his hopelessly addicted wife Elvira; Her laconic style and the way in which she conveys the soulless nature of their marriage shows how good an actress Pfeiffer can be.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is also frighteningly realistic as Tony's sister Gina; empathic characterisation makes this a complex study about corruption and greed, an operatic melodrama about the rise and fall of a real "bad guy" who, in contradiction to other frauds, was an "honest" criminal…

And for anyone who thinks the action is a little sporadic, just wait until you "…say hello to my lill' friend" in one of, if not the best, shootouts of all time.

Cinematic excellence, with a classic 80s musical montage during "Push It To The Limit". A must see for everyone.


Rewind Factor: 9.5
  
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In the video game GTA Vice City go to your mansion / Vercetti Estate. In the office, when you get closer to the surveillance screens, you can see a real photos of Tony Montana's house from movie. There are two different photos of his mansion. In the first picture you can see a main hall with famous "The world is yours" statue and a little pool. At the second one there's a view at house from outside's camera. It's not a good quality, but it's real. -Thanks to KrisMontana

The neo-punk band Blink-182 based their name on the number of times Pacino said the "f-word" ... 182. -Thanks to Dan, Patricia And Joe Flores

A lot of current RNB and hip hop artists copy the theme of this film. For example Busta Rhymes and Mariah Carey's music video "I know what u want". -Thanks to Nat

Director Brian De Palma collaborated again with Pacino and Stone on the equally excellent "Carlito's Way".

Brian DePalma had to make several cuts in order to receive an R rating. Afterwards, the man went ahead and released the original uncut version in cinemas without telling anyone.

In the Video game 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City', you can aquire a mansion. There is an office in the mansion that is almost an exact replica of Tony Montana's office in his mansion in the movie. -Thanks to Lance Mudd, And Many Others.

In the video game "Grand Theft Auto 3", there is a radio station called Flashback. And every single song featured on the fictional radio station is from Scarface. The songs included are "Scarface (Push It To The Limit)", "Shake It Up", "Rush Rush", "I'm Hot Tonight", and "She's On Fire". -Thanks to Many Of You Who Spotted This

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a Scarface easter egg can be found. Head South from the Pay n' Spray in Ocean Beach and take the first left. In the 2 story apartments, Go upstairs and into apartment 3c (the door is open you can walk right in) check in the bathroom and compare it to the chainsaw scene in the movie! You can also find some yeyo in the case nearby the frontdoor. -Thanks to Zach Collins

Also in GTA: Vice City, the whole beach coast on the far right side of the map is a near-perfect replica of the beach-side scene used in Scarface during the infamous chainsaw scene. You can tell when the camera pans out before and in the middle of the scene. -Thanks to Jeremy Lane

When Tony Montana is in the bathtub talking to Manny while Elvira is powdering her nose, he is watching a TV show featuring animals and birds. He talks to the TV screen and says, "C'mon pelican, flyyyy pelican." While in reality it is a flamingo trying to get off the ground to fly. -Thanks to Marco Gonzales

In the game Hitman codename 47, there is a stage called - "Say hello to my little friend", it's a stage where you go head on with a columbian drug lord. The guy looks like a more gruesome version of Tony Montana and spews words like "jou maricon". -Thanks to Jay

In the extremely popular Blizzard video game saga Warcraft, one of the characters uses the famous saying from the shootout. "Say hello my little friend" in the second of the Warcraft games. -Thanks to Mitch Plamondon

The movie on the tv during the chainsaw scene is a 70's film called "Earthquake."

I believe Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City's SAMANTHA) was sitting in the audience when Al Pacino was shot the first time. -Thanks to KMG

The scar on Tony's (Al Pacino) face was made when he was in a knife fight. -Thanks to Matthew

There is a faint echo of a gunshot when Alejandro Sosa slams his phone down.

« Click here to add some Scarface trivia

Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the Scarface DVD.


Rediscover your favorites! If you like Scarface or 80's Drama / Historic classics, then be sure to check out this list: ..... Outsiders ..... Elephant Man ..... Rain Man ..... Drugstore Cowboy ..... Stand By Me ..... Wall Street ..... Mask ..... Amadeus ..... Full Metal Jacket ..... Witness ..... Breakfast Club ..... Glory ..... Platoon ..... Six Weeks ..... Urban Cowboy .....[More]




 


Oliver Stone researched the subject for two dangerous months in which time he interviewed federal agents, investigators and detectives with the Miami PD. Stone also met up with some of the young "bandidos" hired to unload contraband from freighters, dealers who cut and peddled the goods and even got close to some of the big suppliers: "I felt my life was on the line. Most of my work, for obvious reasons, was done between midnight and dawn. That's not the safest time to be out alone..." (Oliver Stone)

Powdered soya milk was used as a prop instead of real coke (in most scenes!).

Al Pacino adopted the Cuban accent six months before shooting began.

In the final shootout sequence, Al grabs the gun by the barrel and even though they were only using blanks, Pacino's hand was quite badly burnt, thus production had to be put on hold for a few weeks.

In the special edition DVD Brain De Palma doesn't deny that they used cocaine for some of the scenes. -Thanks to Charlie Falagan

"On the radio, they were talking about the threat to the orange crop, meanwhile, we were shooting at night dressed for the tropics!" (Steven Bauer on the surprisingly cold evenings in L.A.)

Tony and Manny worked at El Paraiso Cuban sandwich shop, El Paraiso later became the nightclub in 'Carlito's Way'.

In creating the Freedom Town sequence, director Brian De Palma and visual consultant Ferdinando Scarfiotti researched actual events and found that in 1980, newly arrived Marielitos were housed in a hastily constructed camp beneath a Miami freeway. For the movie, the camp was erected in Los Angeles, beneath the intersection of the Santa Monica and Harbour freeways. The final riot in Freedom town called for some linguistic agility, as many of the six hundred extras spoke Spanish; thus safety required careful translation prior to each set-up.

In the opening sequence with Tony Montana (Pacino) and the immigration officers, Charles Durning's voice has clearly been used to overdub an actor playing one of the officers. Another of the officers is dubbed by De Palma regular Dennis Franz. -Thanks to Justin McGill

The car that Tony bought and drove in the movie was a 1983 Porsche 928. It was the last year that this car was available in it's original form as shown in the movie with the totally clean body styling and the "telephone dial" alloy rims. -Thanks to King P

In the motel scene where some coke buyers are being tortured with a chainsaw, some girzzly shots of dismembered hands dangling from handcuffs had to be cut from the film to help obtain an R rating.. -Thanks to David Dreyfuss

Everyone seems to think that the rifle he uses at the end of the film (the shoot out where he says "Say hello to my little friend") is an M4 with an M203 grenade launcher but in actual fact it's an M16. -Thanks to Chris Smith

Michelle Pfeiffer accidently cut Al Pacino's face during production. -Thanks to Q-Man

There's one shot near the end of the movie of a henchman tossing one of those spikes for scaling buildings onto the top of Tony's mansion. That shot wasn't directed by Brian DePalma. Believe it or not, that one shot was actually directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG, who was visiting the set at the time. -Thanks to John Edward Kilduff

Apparently (I read this in a magizine article about this person) in the scene right after Manny gets slapped by the woman and Tony gives his 'First you need the money' speech, you can see a young 9 year old boy playing in the pool. That little kid is Brett Ratner, the Director of the Rush Hour movies. -Thanks to Christopher

The engine sound of the Porsche 928S that Tony drives away in after being shot at the Babylon club has a sound effect from an entirely different type of car.

At the end of the film after the sunglasses-wearing hit man shoots Tony with the shotgun and he falls into the pool, the hitman is facing one way as Tony is falling but when they pan back up to the hitman he is facing another way.

When Hector cuts his way through a window with the chainsaw and falls onto the stairwell outside the building you can see the mat placed on the ground to break the stuntman's fall.

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S. California Locations
Scarface Movie Locations
 Scarface Locations
 
The club where tony first dances with Elvira was actually a soundstage at universal studios -I think soundstage 12. [Thanks to Mike Flores]

Alejandro Sosa's mansion in Bolivia was actually located at Montecito, CA. [Thanks to Esnad Eco]

The scene where tony visits his mom is not in miami it's in Torrance,CA. You can see the refinery behind him which also appears in "set it off", "blow" and "tequilla sunrise" [Thanks to Mike Flores]

The alley jada's character lives in is the same alley where tony's mom lived. It's much different now than in the movie. [Thanks to Mike Flores]

Tony's sister, Gina's Beauty Salon is located at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Sunset Plaza in Westwood, CA. It is across the street from the famous chinese restaurant "Chin Chin's". The exact white building is still there as it was in the movie. It is, of course, not really a Beauty Salon!

Tony's bank where his men pull up in the van and start unloading bags of money on their shoulders and walk them up to the bank. The banker in the movie is siiting in his office talking on the phone and can see the guys unloading the bags. The building is a huge glass building. If you look real close at the banker in the window, you can see the reflection of the white railings of the 2nd floor pation right above the entrance to the building. The bank is still there and still caters to some big time money deposits. The rest of the building are commercial offices and suites. The bank building is at 16000 Ventura Blvd. You can't miss it. It looks exactly the same as in the movie.

If you stand in front of the building on the sidewalk facing west, you will be at the exact angle that the scene was shot. [Thanks to John Agayan]

For the Montana Realty Company office, they used the NW corner of Sunset Bl. and Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood, CA. The neo-classical building is still there. [Thanks to Luc]

The scene in which Tony first meets Elvira (coming down the elevator) is located in Miami on Key Biscayne. The house looks exactly the same as it did in the movie and the entire back of the house overlooking the water really is comletely glass. [Thanks to Lauren Carnes]

728 Ocean Dr. Miami Beach FL. The building where Tony's brother gets chain-sawed to death, and Tony almost did too. Although it's now a Johnny Rockets Hamburger restaurant, the building looks exactly the same. The street in front is where Tony gets his revenge.

Fountainbleau Hilton, 4700 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL. The pool behind this resort was where Tony and Manny were talking about how to pick up women. Manny says he knows how, but gets slapped. It still looks the same as it did back then. [Thanks to John]

The Big White House used in the movie, (when he looks up at the good year blimp, and it states the world is yours) is located in Miami, Fl on Star Island and belongs now to Rosie O'Donald.

The shower scene happened on the famous Ocean Drive, Miami FL in apts, located now above Johnney Rockets Rest. [Thanks to Steve Richie]

The scenes where Tony and Manny were in the immigration camp under the intersection were actually filmed in L.A. [Thanks to Jeremy Lane]

Can you help? Do you know any of the S. California (or any other) filming locations used for Scarface? [Please send them in]

Scarface DVD
 
 Scarface on DVD?
Scarface DVD Extras
Scarface DVD help / More info
Scarface DVD -USA
[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced][STEREO or SURROUND]Trailer, Commentary, Featurette, OutTakes
Our Comments: Platinum Edition
Scarface UK / Europe or Region 2 DVD
[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]
[STEREO or SURROUND]
Trailer, Commentary, Featurette, OutTakes
Our Comments: 20th Anniversary Edition
 
 
Giorgio Moroder appears to be The Man here. A great album for swearing, acting tough and cruising around in a Cadillac!

1. "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" by Paul Engemann
2. "Rush Rush" by Debbie Harry (as Deborah Harry)
3. "Turn Out the Light" by Amy Holland
4. "Vamos a Bailar" by Maria Conchita
5. "Tony's Theme" by Giorgio Moroder
6. "She's on Fire" by Amy Holland
7. "Shake It Up" by Elizabeth Daily
8. "Dance Dance Dance" by Beth Andersen
9. "I'm Hot Tonight" by Elizabeth Daily
10. "Gina's and Elvira's Theme" by Helen St. John

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Scarface Picture
Grace under pressure...
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Crossed, Tony Montana wreaks revenge
Scarface Picture
Michelle Pfeiffer plays the female lead, Elvira.
Scarface Picture
"…Say hello to my lill' friend"

Scarface Movie Details
Year:
1983
Studio:
Universal Pictures
Director:
Brian De Palma
Starring:
Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Shenar, Ángel Salazar, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham
--
Genre:
Drama / Historic
  
+
Great performance by Al, flawless direction by DePalma and some endlessly quotable lines.
-
Some of the violence may be too graphic for those of a sensitive disposition.

Scarface Links
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IMDb page for ScarfaceThe IMDb page for Scarface
Trailer for ScarfaceTrailer for Scarface
Gold Rated Site for Scarface

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Scarface and all movie images are ©1983 Universal Pictures .
All original content is ©1999, 2008 Fast Rewind WebSites. Page Written By: Kashif Ahmed