Introduction
Scarface is actually an American crime film reproduced in 1983. Oliver Stone is its writer, Brian De Palma is its director, Martin Bregman is the producer, and Al Pacino as Montana is the movie starring. This movie is a remake of Scarface of 1932 by Howard Hawks. The movie tells a Cuban refugee story where this Cuban in 1980 comes to Miami with Mariel Boatlift. It is here that he becomes drug cartel kingpin in the 1980s cocaine boom. The movie is essentially dedicated to Ben Hecht and Howard Hawks, the principal screen writer and director of original movie respectively. The first critical response to this movie was actually mixed. It was criticized over graphic language and excessive violence. A number of Cuban expatriates living in Miami demurred to its portrayal of the Cubans as drug traffickers and criminals.
Motifs, plots, themes, characters, props, and setting are in fact the conventions, which define what a genre is. From the first gangster films to the modern ones, these conventions still remain. This isn’t to suggest that genre does not experience change since as the society has experienced change so has movies and various genres which exist in movies. Genres have essentially seen experimentation and redefinition but the mentioned conventions still provide essential idea of the meaning of genre. Therefore, this essay provides genre analysis of the 1932 Scarface and 1983 Scarface. The essay shows how the two films represent gangster genre. In addition, the differences in conventions between the two are explored to determine whether there exists relevance.
The Scarface of 1932 by Howard Hawks is most powerful, elaborate, and disturbing among the films that are credited with playing seminal role in genre development. Starting with the plot, it is evident that its plot is a classic upsurge and fall narrative that is seen in many gangster genre films. Tony Camonte emigrates together with his family from the Italy to Chicago slums. He possesses a tragic flaw just like various famous gangster characters. In addition, Tony has overbearing need of sheltering his sister up to the point where relationship borders on the incest (Trail 23). He goes after each man that his sister dialogs with, not allowing her to be out of his grasp. He even kills Guino after realizing that he was flirting with his sister, Cesca. Thus this probes to be his downfall where there is a confrontation between the police officers and Angelo, Cesca, and Tony. Therefore, this movie is like the other gangster movies since the chief gangster character lives and also exists within city.
Camonte is in fact a character who is very powerful. He is an unstoppable monster and a homicidal maniac, dangerously comic lout, demented, arrogant, brutal, and unsophiscated. These characters are proved by his actions. The entire movie is filled with characters that resemble him. Apart from his secretary whose key purpose is for the comic relief, his gang and rival gang characters can be described as demented characters since they have relentless urge to kill. It is worth noting that this is how gangsters are portrayed in the 1930s gangsters’ films (Trail 35). The themes that we find in this movie are the crime does not pay and mafia business themes. Therefore, these themes elaborate the gangster genre in the movie. In terms of motifs we find the motifs of isolation, violence, and revenge. The movie violence advances the narrative. Tony’s final revenge act is against the gangster. In terms of isolation, we observe that Tony does not require anyone since he is so determined to succeed by himself. Furthermore, letter X, guns, and cars play crucial roles in the movie and prove the gangster genre.
The Scarface of 1983 by Brian DePalma follows same basic upsurge and fall narrative just like the earlier movie. Only this time, Manny and Tony Montana who are friends are actually Cuban instead of being Italian. The plots in the two movies are similar. Montana just like Camonte is in fact overbearingly defensive over his sister up to the point where he kills Manny after his sister; Gina is in love with him (Trail 45). This makes Sosa to send hit men to the house of Tony to murder him and after a gory battle and several casualties, both Tony and Gina are killed. Tough the plots in the two movies are alike; some changes which reflect time period are present. For Montana, his wealth comes from the cocaine while for Camonte; his wealth actually comes from bootlegging.
The themes, which are present in the two movies center on mafia as a business and gangsters as sympathetic characters. Just like Camonte in the initial movie, Montana in the second movie moves up in the Lopez’s organization swiftly until he lastly reaches the top. Just like Tony Camonte, Tony Montana is multidimensional character. Distinct from Camonte who is actually uninvolved and uncaring, Montana has heart underneath gangster exterior as proved when he declines to murder the journalist, his children and his wife (Trail 57). The motifs in this movie are also violence, revenge, and corruption. We find the police force in this movie as being corrupt. In addition, instances of revenge and violence are present. The props in the film are guns and cocaine. The guns in this case are louder and also cause more harm than those in original Scarface. Cocaine as a motif plays a greater role in this remake than the alcohol did in original movie.
However, the two movies differ in their portrayals of gangster character. This is established by a change in conventions from 1932 film to 1983 film. Therefore, the similarities and differences between the Scarface of 1932 and that of 1983 clearly bring out the gangster genre.
Works cited
Trail, Armitage. Scarface. London: Bloomsbury, 2005.
