Now don't get me wrong, I really liked the movie, but as a real gangster film fan I just thought this was very cheesy. Does anyone else get where I am coming from or should I articulate?
'Loneliness has followed me my whole life' - Travis Bickle Taxi Driver
Maybe dated would be a better way to describe it? 1993 isn't that far from the 80s, and a lot of 80s films have elements that don't hold up well such as the music choices and silhouette shots on the beach before the end credits, LOL. See Tequila Sunrise (1988) for another example of this.
Also, it is a Brian De Palma film and therefore is going to have some characteristics that are unique to his style of direction. To write it off as cheesy runs the risk of ignoring some classic De Palma scenes like the pool hall fight and the final sequence at the train station.
It also has an interesting cast, with good performances by Al Pacino and Sean Penn. You gotta love that perm that Penn rocks as the sleazy lawyer.
It's certainly not the best work by De Palma and the lead actors, nor is it the best example of the genre. However, I will watch it pretty much any time it is on cable. Just did, in fact
to me the score was oddly cheesy yes. That was my biggest gripe with the film.
shareAgreed.
Would have worked better in a 50s/60s movie.
Yeah. I'm not sure if that was done to promote the romantic aspect of the film but it seems to take away any sort of rawness the film could ever have had. We get that it's tragic. Don't really need "You Are So Beautiful" to be playing to get me to understand this.
share[deleted]
Cheesy is THE UNTOUCHABLES.
shareIt seems cheesy because it was made by an old person about an old dude. When you get old, you will realize how sentimental you are, and you will realize that being any other way is to try to be "cool" and a complete waste of your time and, therefore, life. When you get older, you realize you don't have much time left and, hopefully, you start really living.
shareI agree, especially compared to Scarface, which would be gritty as heck compared to this.
--------------------------------------------
I own you.
If you mean the romantic bits, I find the opposite to be. It makes the film that much more powerful. It makes the point that once you go past a certain line in life, say in crime/killing or whatever, you give up what most of us take for granted or at least expect to enjoy. That love he had for Gail and she for him, gave this film the power that it has.
Even with John Leguizamo AND Luis Guzmán I still didn't find it cheesy at all, personally.
Not overly gritty either, though.
UNCOMPROMISING UNDERGROUND FILTH
Cheesy your kidding me right this is a classic gangster film with three great actors! One of my favorite films!
shareI had to reply to this thread because on scrolling through i noticed a post from me further up from 10 years ago and it was
quite surreal, and it's so funny reading my opinions back then to compare to my perspective today.
I think speaking for myself because growing up the De Niro/Scorsese films were viewed as so realistic and 'this is how it really is' style that i never really had time for anything that i saw as inferior imitations
So for a while i always Viewed Pacino/De Palma as second rate Deniro/Scorsese
Even as impressionable child i thought Scarface was crap and Pacino never stood out to me in Godfather either, James Caan outshone him in the First and De Niro in the second.
But now i am a bit older a take him for what he is and i think he is wildly entertaining (if a bit cheesy and cringe)
Same for De Palma, i think he's a very Holywoody director in terms of the stereotypical script, bad scores and melodramatic but i really appreciate his style now and the set pieces are some of the best i have seen from anyone, there is a bit of Alfred Hitchcock about him
Quinten Tarantino raves about him and i can see why now, and in Carlito's Way i rewatched it the other day and i just noticed every little cinematic trick he used in every single scene, the lighting the camera angles every inch was stylized.
And i love that now, funnily on the flip side i recently re watched Casino and i found myself picking it apart.
'You beat him with fists, he comes back with a bat' the way they have to keep telling us what a baddass Pesci is bugged me, as did the over use of score all the way through, and the bad improvisation between DeNiro and Pesci
I think what i am saying is people prefer Casino/GF because they think they are watching more mature honest no fucking around films as opposed to sappy melodrama but my point is they are both BS Hollywood films but i will now rather a Carlito's way which has a wink to it than the one that takes itself too serious