I agree, I believe Scarface is superior to Carlito's Way. First of all, Scarface is easily the most notably and quotable film between the two. Also, Scarface has more action and I just always felt Carlito's Way was overrated.
Well, I don't know about the quotable argument. I mean, what if rappers had masturbated over CARLITO'S WAY as much as they have for SCARFACE?
Seriously, "Here Comes the Pain!" could easily have become as well known as "Say Hello to my Little Friend!"
Also, why is CARLITO'S WAY overrated?
I love SCARFACE and CARLITO'S WAY, both really well-made, if not great, crime dramas from Brian DePalma.
Both stories take the traditional ganster crime story formula, but with different approaches. SCARFACE was produced with the intention of being the ultimate incarnation of the "American Gangster Myth" with inspiration from Shakespeare's epics: Small-time street nobody that societ doesn't give a shit about rising through the ranks, becomes a king by his own hand, but inevitably falls from his throne.
Of course people enjoy as Montana enjoys his perks of women, money, and drugs.
Like Shakespeare's tragedies, people over succeeding generations keep coming back to SCARFACE, but why? Maybe its the Oliver Stone-penned, Al Pacino-personified protagonist in Tony Montana. He's a scumbag, but a charming guy that you WANT to like. You shouldn't feel sorry for his death, because its his own damn fault, but you do anyways.
Meanwhile, CARLITO'S WAY is the melancholic, reflective approach taken to the same material of SCARFACE. Carlito Brigante has had the women and money as the heroin drug kingpin of Spanish Harlem. But after 5 long years in jail, and getting out of the joint out of sheer luck of a wreckless city District Attorney's office, Brigante now wants to take this rare "2nd chance" in life, and guess what?
He doesn't want to get back into crime. He certainly doesn't want to return to jail.
Yet in the circumstances that transpire, as occurs to Robert DeNiro in the finale of HEAT, Carlito is trapped. Yet the downer ending of SCARFACE, you don't feel any serious emotions when Montana gets a shotgun blast to the spine.
But Brigante's finale? Heartbreaking.
I love both movies, but as I mature and age grows on me, CARLITO'S WAY seems to work more wonders to me. However, what movie would I rather watch over and over? SCARFACE.
SCARFACE (1983) - ****
CARLITO'S WAY (1992) - ****
