What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #109

I’d never seen the original Scarface, but it comes included with the upcoming Blu-ray release of Brian De Palma‘s ’83 feature and over the weekend I watched and reviewed the Blu-ray (the review will be posted soon) and finally gave Howard Hawks‘ original ’32 edition, starring Paul Muni as the titular character, a spin and it’s quite entertaining.

I was surprised how closely Oliver Stone‘s script for the ’83 version sticks to the original film. I was always under the impression the two really had nothing to do with each other outside of the title, but they are essentially the same story with an Italian gangster instead of a Cuban refugee and cocaine replaced with alcohol during Prohibition in a film loosely based on Al Capone. Both versions have a political bend, but Hawks’ version even more directly as the request for the government to do something about Prohibition era gangsters is woven into the film. I laughed a little when I saw the notice at the beginning of the film, thinking it was simply there so the censors wouldn’t stop the film’s release (which they eventually did and producer Howard Hughes had to take to states without strict censors and the film thrived), but then the film pretty much repeats the opening salvo almost word for word.

Several films have been inspired by this flick, but one recent film I thought of while watching was Scorsese‘s The Departed and how Scorsese used an X to depict times when a character was about to be killed, something he had to have gotten from Scarface. Most notable is a line of seven Xs as a group of seven men are confronted by a group of fake cops and executed.

Now, for the best surprise. The entire film is available on YouTube and I’ve included it directly below if you have 90 minutes to spare.

The credits are rolling on this one as I type. It’s a film I absolutely love and only discovered after seeing Before Sunset. As far as I’m concerned Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are a pair of classics. As much as Jessie and Celine don’t want to leave each other I don’t want these movies to end. Yet, I think a third film would be unnecessary. I like where Sunset leaves off, without us knowing full well what happens. A lot of the time less is more and these two films are proof of that.