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Rating: 5 out of 5
As a little kid, I used to play with my friends the game, “cops and robbers.” We would run around and try to catch each other. I really didn’t like being the robber, so I decided to change it up. While watching Looney Toons one day on the weekend, I saw Bugs Bunny go against two villains. The gangsters were Rocky and Mugsy. My eyes lit up at seeing them, especially Rocky. The way he talked and had the cigar in his mouth was cool to me. I remember going to school the next day and while playing, trying to speak like Rocky while having my pencil in my mouth as my cigar. I would use a stick I found as my machine gun while making the gun sound. Being a gangster was more fun than being a robber.
In 1932, “Scarface” descended upon the United States as one of the best, boldest, violently-brutal gangster films ever made for its time and standard for all gangster films after that. Before there was The Godfather, Goodfellas, and others, “Scarface” was one of the films for all gangster films. Fast times, expensive suits with fedora hats, beautiful women, machine guns, and a gang that has a person’s back.
Scarface tells the story of Tony Camonte. An ambitious mobster with a crossed shaped scar on his left cheek and is loosely based on the life of Al Capone. The tale of a person with the drive and ambition to go from nothing to being the boss of all organized crime in Chicago. After the hail of machine-gun bullets and bombs are distributed with the deaths of all rivals, one man stood above all the rest. His name is Tony “Scarface” Camonte.
The film starts off with Louis Costillo, the leading crime boss of the city’s South Side, hosting a party for his organization. After the party, Louis makes a phone call when a mysterious figure from the shadows walks up while whistling and kills Louis at point-blank range. With the death of Louis, a war is about to erupt for the leadership of the South Side.
Police come and pick up Tony for being responsible for a St. Valentine’s Day massacre and many other killings. Without any evidence and quick work from Tony’s boss’s lawyer, Tony is freed from the police with a habeas corpus writ. New crime boss John “Johnny” Lovo takes control of the South Side and names Tony as his second in command. As he puts it, “I’m the boss.” Lovo warns Tony to keep away from the North Side and to focus only on the South Side. Lovo inserts his dominance over the South-Side with the other crews. He tells everyone that there is plenty of beer racket on the South Side for all to get rich and no need to interfere in the North Side.
With his new role, Tony quickly gains an eye for becoming the overall crime boss of all of Chicago. Tony becomes enamored with fast cars, beautiful clothes, and Lovo’s girl, Poppy. Tony becomes inspired by an advertising sign that overlooks his place, saying, “The World is Yours.” Tony takes this as his mantra and calling. He begins his rise to the top while leaving bodies in his path.
Paul Muni is captivating as Scarface Tony Camonte. Muni shows Camonte as an ambition but crazy murderous who lives a charmed life. He shows his love of machine guns and thinks they are the only thing that gives orders to anyone. As he stated while pointing at a machine gun, “There’s only one thing that gets orders and gives orders! And it’s this!” Muni adds more appeal to Camonte as when he is about to kill his prey, he always whistles. One of the downsides to Camonte is his controlling and jealous nature towards his sister. Any man that touches her sees the wrath of Camonte. His sister is sometimes on the other end of his anger.
“Scarface” is one of the greatest gangster films ever made. A pioneer in the film genre that is quite violent for its time. Going off the wave of legend, Al Capone, Paul Muni, puts a captivating performance as a gangster who rises to the top only to fall hard at the end. With only the mantra to live by, Tony tried to make the world his, if only for a short time.
