SCARFACE - From Flop to Pop

Hi, while I'm not a 'Scarface' fan and NEVER visit this forum, I saw something neat in the newspaper that I've been meaning to post for several days.

The article (in our local 'Bergen Record') outlines certain movies that were far from hits when first released but have now become iconic classics.

One of the films mentioned was Al Pacino's 'Scarface' (which earned 1 and a half stars from critic Leonard Maltin).

While I certainly won't re-type the whole thing here, below is what was written about your 1983 favorite:

PLEASE NOT THAT WHILE I'M TYPING HERE FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT/BENEFIT, I DON'T NECESSARILY AGREE WITH ALL THAT IS SAID...ESPECIALLY BY PARTICULAR JOURNALISTS WHO ARE QUOTED THROUGHOUT THE ARTICLE.

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'..Any critic in 1983 could've told you that 'Scarface' was a middling "Godfather " knockoff, a much-inferior remake of a classic 1931 gangster film, a three-hour showcase for Al Pacino at his sceneery-chewing worst.

How could they have knwn that the snarling Pacino, machine gun in hand ('Say hello to my little friend!') would be available at Spencer Gifts as a mounted poster, with real bullets embedded in the frame? Or that rappers ranging from Biggie Smalls to Ice Cube would reference the movie in their lyrics? Or that the drug lord (Wesley Snipes) in 1991's "New Jack City" would model himself on Pacino's Tony Montana and be shown in his penthouse apartment obsessively watching "Scarface"? Or that a prominent rapper would simply call himself 'Scarface'?

Or that the original Paul Muni version, once considered the greatest of all 1930s gangster films, has now become a footnote to the Pacino movie rather than the other way around?

There are 'hit' movies; there are cult movies. And there are cult movies that most people don't know are cult movies. "Scarface" is one of these. And it's not the only improbably example that has pop culture experts scratching their heads.

"It's a mystery why some things hit a nerve and take off," says Michael Stern, who wrote "The Encyclopedia of Pop Culture" with his wife, Jane. "I guess each of these movies resonates in its own particular way."....

....It was gangster rappers...that turned "Scarface" into a cultural phenomenon. The question remains, Why THIS gangster movie?

Why not "The Godfather", "Goodfellas", "Donnie Brasco"?

Chalk it up, says Vibe magazine's Serena Kim, to several things "Scarface" doesn't have in common with other mob movies. For one thing, it's really not a mob movie.

"The movie is about one ruthless individual," says Kim. "The Godfather" is more like a family epic, it has the subtext of [family] honor. With "Scarface" there's this individualism thing. It's about cold-blooded ambition. There's alot of connection between the values of the movie and the values of hip-hop."

For another thing, drug trafficking, a subtext in other gangster movies - is front and center in "Scarface", as it is in much of gangster rap. "There's a Biggie lyric, 'Never Get High on Your Own Supply' (from 'Ten Crack Commandments) that comes right from the movie!", Kim says.

Finally, director Brian DePalma and screenwriter Oliver Stone made a fateful decision when they transformed the Tony Camonte character of 1931's "Scarface" - based on Al Capone - to Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who climbs to the top of the 1970s Miami drug rackett.

To many black viewers, Kim says, there's all the difference in the world between an Italian and a Cuban. Even if he is played by Al Pacino. "Italian's at the end of the day are Europeans", Kim says. "This Cuban guy is a person of color and a political refugee."

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For the record, other movies outlined in this article are:

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
The Night Before Christmas (1993)
The Warriors (1979)
A Christmas Story (1983)

Apple

Personally I can't stand rap, and to think that it became popular because of rap seems a little ignorant to me. It has been a popular movie for a long time. I know I've been watching it for about 15 or 20 years. Before gangster rap started referencing it.

ignorant but true rapper made the movie more popular today
than it was back in the 80's

I enjoyed that article. Thank you for bringing the subject up. In my opinion, I agree with what the writer said about how the "black guy" relates the Cuban more than the Italian because they are of color and a political refugee. I have that special anniversary 2-disc set of Scarface and on the second disc it has a "special" on how the rappers and hip-hoppers relate to the infamous Tony Montana and how the film influenced them. Well, I can understand that, but these "artists" are calling themselves "Corleone" and "The Godfather" and "Bugsy" and many many more...Well, It's kind of bull. But that's my opinion. I don't like the fact that these people that smoke their weed and sniff their coke and act like idiots compare themselves or are trying to be these characters. I have so much to say on the matter, but I don't want to offend anyone or cause a fight or debate... So on this note, I am done.

Sorry, but the movie is popular today because it is a good movie. Not because rappers started basing their lives around it. For whatever reason, critics and the public didn't embrace this film back in 1983. Maybe because it was too violent with too much language. Well, society has loosened since then and the violence in this film is actually pretty tame by today's standards.

But to say that rappers "discovered" this film and made it popular is a stretch. They played a hand in it's resurgence -- sure -- but the movie was always good enough on its own. It's not like Battlefield Earth is going to be a popular movie if 50 Cent starts rapping about it tomorrow. The films mentioned in rap songs or any other form of art need to be good on their own to become popular.

it has gained much of its popularity from hiphop. if it werent for the referencing of scarface in songs, videos, clothes, and even their homes scarface would not have the young fan base it has gained in the past 5 years
nevertheless it is still a great movie not to be slept on

If the movie was bad,rappers would not talk about it.Pacino deserves his props, because he did excellent.
WHO CARES why it is popular or how,Scarface is a damn good film, end of story.{{END}}

Rappers and the hip-hop culture worship to SCARFACE is a major factor. However, to say its simply the rappers is pretty...well, fucking simplistic.

Even before Hip-Hop became mainstream, and thus before they could supposedly "spread" the movie, SCARFACE started a cult following in the last days of its 1983/84 theatrical engagements. Midnight screenings, many within inner-cities of America, help SCARFACE make a tiny profit.

Then it became one of the top-selling catalogue titles within Universal's library on VHS, and later on DVD. Yet on VHS, it snorted coke way before the Rap Revolution could even be factored into the equation.

The originator of this topic was just trying to share an article with us that talked about something which she thought would be interesting to those here who post in this Scarface thread. That's what these forums are here for. To Discuss and exchange ideas about the movies and the issues that we are interested in.


Don Cardi