The World Is in Your Hands

Scarface has the most colourful cast of sleazy characters since the spaghetti westerns. They are irresistible caricatures who wave their oversized hands around. A lot.

In the powerful opening interrogation scene, Tony has the assassin mark on him, which is certain trouble, but the authorities are powerless to stop him for political reasons.

Omar, just like Frank, has big hands with the inevitable jewellery on them. They immediately show high gangster status with something funny and larger-than-life about them.

In the luxury bathtub Tony is immobile except for his hands and everyone around him slips out of reach. The beginning of the inevitable downfall.

The “Say goodnight to the bad guy” scene, with the circling camera that encompasses everything, is the turning point of the film into another dimension. FIrstly, it shows the existentialist void of modern society and secondly, when Tony points his finger to the bourgeois, the director shows us who this film is really about. The grotesque gangsters are an ugly reflection of the current state of Capitalist society, seemingly driven by corruption with dirty cash changing hands all the time. It’s a horrific warning about the down-spiralling values of greed.

This entry was posted in 1980s, Corruptor, Scarface. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *