Scarface (1983 film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The World is His.

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

Scarface is a 1983 film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino. That combination alone is Crazy Awesome. It is a loose remake of the 1932 film of the same name directed by Howard Hawks and written by Ben Hecht (both of whom the film is dedicated to). That movie is itself loosely based on the life of Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone.

Scarface's graphic violence and language drew controversy and was panned by most critics, but has since developed a cult following and become an influential popular work. It was especially influential on Hip Hop culture.

In 2006, two spin-off video games were released, based on the premise that Tony managed to kill all of the attackers in the movie-ending shootout and escape with nothing left. The first, The World Is Yours, allows players to control Tony in sandbox-style gameplay as he seeks to rebuild his reputation and empire. It culminates in a visit to Bolivia where Sosa gets his comeuppance. The second, Money. Power. Respect., is a Turn-Based Strategy game where players make strategic decisions and command groups of minions. An unconnected comic series, Scarred for Life, follows the premise that Tony survived the supposedly-fatal shots.

Not to be confused with Howard Hawks's 1932 movie of the same name.

Scarface (1983 film) is the Trope Namer for:
Say Hello to my little list of tropes!
  • Adaptation Expansion: The '83 movie takes some basic plot elements and characters from the original and expands on them greatly.
  • Addiction-Powered: Tony's cocaine allowed him to take a lot of punishment before going down.
  • Anti-Hero: Or Anti-Villain? While Tony himself is a drug dealer, he also wishes to bring his family out of poverty. Not to mention unwilling to kill the journalist, along with his family.
  • Asshole Victim: In the first half of the movie, Emilio Rebenga, Hector the Toad and his wife Martha. Then Omar, Frank and Mel Bernstein.
    • And in the second half, Sosa's hitman, Alberto the Shadow when he plans to blow up the journalist's car, along with him and his family. Then afterwards, Manny Ribera. In the finale, Gina, all of Tony's men, including Ernie, Nick the Pig, Chi Chi and finally, Tony Montana himself. Man, it's hard to feel sympathy for any of these characters.
  • Badass: Tony. Hands down.
  • Berserk Button: Tony does not like it when guys put the moves on his little sister. Played in a tragic way after he finds out Manny with Gina.
  • BFG: Tony's "little friend."
  • Bowdlerise: The TV version, to wonderful extents.
    • How'd you get that scar, Tony? Eating Pineapple?
    • This town's like a great big chicken just waiting to get plucked.
    • The Latin American Spanish dub has a mild example: Sosa's nationality was changed from Colombian to Bolivian, possibly for avoid offending Colombian audiences. Other than that, the rest of the film was unchanged.
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Tony's violent protectiveness toward Gina has serious elements of this.
  • California Doubling: Although the film is set in Miami, the majority of it is shot in California.
  • The Cartel
  • Chainsaw Good: Tony's friend Angel is killed with a chainsaw during his first drug deal in the states.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: This video sums it all nicely.
    • Obviously, this could be the reason why all the characters were real jerks from start to finish.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: "Hector the Toad", as well as Thug army < Tony < Sosa's assassin.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Tony tries and fails to do this with Elvira.
  • Dirty Cop: Mel Bernstein, narcotics cop who's in league with Lopez.
  • Do Not Do This Cool Thing: One modern-day reviewer feels that this was the film's chief flaw -- the film tries to tell people that Tony's lifestyle only destroys him, but its glitzy, glamorous 1980s style is responsible for the massive Misaimed Fandom surrounding it.
  • Doomed Moral Victor: Averted, Tony does not kill the Bolivian anti-drug activist. Later played straight however, with the circumstances leading to Tony's death.
  • The Dragon: The Skull, for Sosa.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Although they are strained due to her being aware of Tony's criminal activities.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Tony does not kill women or kids, which gets him in serious trouble with Sosa. Carries over to The World Is Yours. Men too, so long as they're "not stupid enough to fuck with [Tony]."
  • Evil Versus Evil: Tony is no saint, but Sosa and the other gangsters are worse.

Tony Montana: What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of fuckin' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." So... what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Better get outta his way!

Tony Montana: Say 'ello to my little friend!

Tony's Mother: "Son? I wish I had one! He's a bum! He was a bum then and he's a bum now!"

  • Implacable Man: Tony in the end, from the huge amounts of cocaine he took.
  • Infant Immortality
  • Instant Death Bullet: Averted by Tony until the very end.
  • Jerkasses: Just about everyone in this movie, especially Tony and Elvira. Made particularly obvious because they all speak in Cluster F Bombs. However, Sosa is a big one.
    • Word of God said that this is on purpose by making the characters deliberately unsympathetic, so that the audience won't feel a little bit sorry for them.
  • Karma Houdini: Sosa... until the games and Scarred For Life.
  • Kick the Dog: Sosa and the wife and children that would have been in the exploding car.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Or Shoot the Son of a Bitch in this case. Manny, as ordered by Tony, kills Frank not because he's a drug lord, but because he ordered an assassination on Tony.
    • Also Tony killing Mel not because he's a corrupt cop, but because he was sent by Frank to keep watch on him. This thus begins Tony's rise as a kingpin.
  • Kill'Em All: The film's ending.
  • The Last Dance: Tony's last stand.
  • Lonely at the Top: In spades.
  • Made of Iron: Tony at the end, due to being seriously coked-up.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Gina, according to Tony.
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: Tony follows this rule.
  • Noble Demon: Tony.
  • Number Two: Manny to Tony.
  • Parental Abandonment: Tony's father has left the family.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: The reason why Tony does not likes working with Colombians.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: The famous quote under Memetic Mutation.
  • Psycho Serum: The partial-Implacability through cocaine.
  • Psycho Strings: The creepy tune that picks up every time Tony notices a guy hanging around Gina a little too closely.
  • Redemption Equals Death: After Tony proves he's not so bad after all, he gets attacked and killed by Sosa's men.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Sosa's army is storming his mansion, Tony is too coked up and too depressed from how badly his life has gone to do anything to stop them...until one of the hitmen shoots his little sister Gina.
  • Same Language Dub: The two immigration officers that interview Tony at the start of the film were dubbed by someone else. They were dubbed by Charles Durning and Dennis Franz.
  • Sanity Slippage: Tony gets more crazier and more insane every passing week or month due to his coke addiction.
  • Say Hello to My Little Friend: Trope Maker and Trope Namer.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules: Tony's mother when he briefly reunites with her and offers her and his sister some money he had gotten... from less than honest ways.
  • The Siege: The final siege of the mansion at the end of the movie.
  • Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!: Invoked by Tony himself, where his restriction of jobs to kitchen duty leads him to continue down the path to a life of crime.
    • And again during the finale when he yells at his attackers as he gets shot many times in the mansion, just before The Skull kills him.
  • The Stool Pigeon: Sosa believed Omar to have been this and dealt with him thusly.
  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: If Tony had thought out his actions he could have avoided the situation without antagonizing the only person who could have fixed the mess he was in.
  • Tragic Mistake: Tony killing Sosa's hitman resulted in antagonizing the one person who could have helped him out of his mess. Granted, the hitman deserved it, but that one act triggered Tony's downfall.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Played straight then subverted at the mansion siege.
  • Villainous Breakdown: In the last several minutes of the movie. Tony is alone in his office, coked out of his mind, being hit with the Heel Realization of killing his best friend ("What did I do? Oh Manny, what the fuck did I do?"). He sees Sosa's men on the security monitors and tries to recover. "We gotta get organized," he mumbles, trying to gather his thoughts, but there's no one to listen. He picks up a phone, but drops it without dialing; there's nobody to call. He needs someone he can trust to help him, but he's driven away or killed everyone that fits that profile. He's all alone and about to die and only has himself to blame.
  • Villainous Incest: Tony can't have his sister and consequently doesn't want anyone else to have her. This is lampshaded by her right before she's gunned down.
  • Villain Protagonist
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: How Tony proves he's not so bad.
    • It's an interesting example, because protecting children by killing Sosa's assassin leads directly to Tony's death. On the other hand, he's only in that situation because he agreed to help kill an innocent man who'd done nothing to him. The moral of that particular story is left ambiguous.
  • You Bastard: The movie itself spend the first half of the duration challenging our sympathies for the protagonist, who is actually an asshole who constantly say curse words, kill other criminals, selling drugs and abusing his sister.
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