Everybody thinks of Scarface when collaboration between De Palma and Pacino is mentioned. I don't see how. Carlito's Way is a way more powerful and human story, and a much better film overall. I fail to see Scarface as anything but a cliche filled gangster flick. Am I missing something?
sharePeople gravitate to flash and style and over-the-top movies with characters going out in a blaze of glory. Scarface is a great movie I think, but Carlito's Way is far better -- it just isn't nearly as "iconic," it doesn't have the camp value or the quotability, and Pacino's performance is more (rightly) restrained. It's much more human, and subtle, and that means it's naturally not going to be noticed as much as a huge cult favorite like Scarface, especially considering how popular that one has gotten over the years. But I'll say to anyone who'll listen that CW is De Palma's best work, honestly I think it's my favorite Pacino performance too.
Basically, it's easier for most to appreciate something as in-your-face and brash as Scarface than it is something like CW, which is slower-paced, asks us to invest in its very human characters, and doesn't have any BIG SCENES that immediately come to mind. However, I think if most people who quote Scarface simply sat down and watched CW, they'd love it.
For me, Carlitos Way is the most complete DePalma film. It holds plenty of the Visual Style that one would hope for in one of his films but it also has a really complete Screenplay, the Acting is generally solid being carried by Pacino and Penn. Guzman and Leguizamo were sharp as well. It's just more mature than Scarface, The Untouchables and the rest of his Catalog. Also, while it contains alot of that Style I mentioned, it isn't TOO much. It doesn't rely on it. I love Carrie, Dressed To Kill, and all of DePalma's early work that made him a name to look for but this is just his Pinnacle IMO. I actually enjoy Blow Out, Carrie AND Dressed To Kill more than Scarface... Hell, I'd even add Sisters to that list. I constantly list Scarface as one of, if not THEE Most Overrated Film of all time. It's not that it's BAD, it's just Average. Yet it's praised far too much. This is far superior... In every possible way.
shareI agree, but don't worry, my heart..,,it don't ever quit
shareI have a soft spot for SCARFACE and while over the top and larger than life in parts, it is a film that has stood up to the test of time. No gangster film had been presented like this before and De Palma's sense of visual style, makes the film look like a period piece of the 80's that was filmed in more recent times.
As for CARLITO'S WAY, it doesn't have the same pizazz, but dramatically it is more sound and technically brilliant. Penelope Ann Miller is the weak spot for me and was miscast and her scenes dragged the film down.
Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩
she was horrible, just horrible, and a better casted female would have made this film way better, even Ashley Judd in Heat was good, anyone like that would have nailed this.
shareNo, Carlito's Way is a great film, but Scarface is better.
shareI came on here to see if anyone was comparing Scarface and Carlito's Way. And there it is...in the top post (at the time).
I looked for it because i have loved Scarface for years. All of it....Pacino's horrible accent, the excessive...everything, the despicable characters...all of it.
But Carlito's Way is such a complete film in so many ways. A solid performance by Pacino and Penn, maybe one of DePalma's best, and the killer Koepp script.
This is just a great flick.
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Nope Scarface is WAY better I mean way better.It's the supporting cast of Carlito's Way that drags the film down.Pacino is good but even he just wasn't as entertaining in this as he was in Scarface.
shareSPOILERS for Scarface and Carlito's Way:
Its interesting that DePalma and Pacino elected to make Carlito's Way for release in 1993...exactly one decade after the release of Scarface in 1983. Both men knew that they would be taking on the movie that was perhaps the most iconic for each of them -- Pacino knew he had to share the Godfathers with Brando and Caan and the rest, but Scarface was HIM.
Another Latino gangster(or Hispanic? I'm not sure.) But the movies are very different, even with the stylistic "glue" of DePalma's visual style.
Scarface screams out "the 80s" with it power-disco "Flashdance"-style music and Giorgio Moroder score, with its garish neon color cinematography, with its "Miami Vice" predictive style. And of course Tony Montana is an explosive, scary guy, young and ballsy and fearless.
Carlito's Way has the gloss and restraint of the 90's...the images are crystal clear as opposed to the garish fuzziness of Scarface -- a decade has passed in movie-making and cinematography has changed.
And Carlito is , purposefully -- much older, wiser, and self-controlled than Tony. Interestingly, it is probably when Carlito acts MOST like Tony -- dissing Benny Blanco from the Bronx and throwing him down the stairs -- that the Scarface vibe emerges and bloody revenge is placed on the table.
Still, they are such different movies, with such different Pacino performances, with Pacino looking a different age and type in each(clean shaven in Scarface, bearded in Carlito.)
I think they are equally great films, but I'm more responsive to the melancholy tone and elegant look of Carlito's Way than to the garish flash of Scarface. Pacino's going down in both movies, but its with a bang in Scarface. He's kinda of sadly "run to ground" in Carlito's Way.
DePalma and Pacino benefit from having both films on their resumes.
I prefer Carlito, but not by much.
PS. Some irony: Carlito's Way was MADE 10 years after Scarface, but is SET about 6 years BEFORE Scarface. Its a newer movie about an older time....
Sean Penn stole the show in this film, which was no bad thing, Pacino was miscast as some confused yet rehabilitated romantic, made little sense.
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