Seems I can’t turn around these days without seeing a “Scarface” T-shirt, poster or reference (“Say hello to my little friend…”). Why has it become so big in the past few years?
That is an excellent question. I have noticed it in every mans dvd/video collection like its a requirement. I figured it must be good so I finally watched it. Honestly, it sucked. It had its entertainment value but thats about it. Hope we get some of those big fans in on this one.
Right now, it is big to be a “Gangsta”.
Well, Scarface brings back the image of a white “Gangsta” Thus, all the frat boys are buying all the t-shirts they can.
Maybe this is the thin edge of a new Paul Muni revival?
To be honest, I’ve seen those oversized posters sold at college shows for dorm rooms picturing Tony Montana since my sister was in college (when I first had reason to be at one of those shows) in '92.
However, I have noticed it more on the streets lately. I have no explanation, since the 20th Anniversay DVD came out over two years ago.
The best sighting: Decal-ed to the windshield of some guy’s SUV in white script, the famous line, with accent added. Say hallo to my little friend…
Scarface’s real rennaisance was within the hip-hop community; I think its subsequent mainstreaming into fratboy-dorm posterhood is sort of a trickling down from that. The reasons why are fairly obvious: Tony’s conspicuously flaunting his wealth, his ruthlessness, and his tremendous self-regard are echoed (with varying degrees of irony) by many hip-hop artists. A documentary on the 20th Anniversary DVD explores this, but I confess I haven’t got around to watching it yet.
I think the movie is a gritty but fun melodrama, with a lot of stuff you can enjoy if you’re of a mordant frame of mind. (You can’t help but chuckle when Tony agrees not to kill his turncoat friend, then casually tells his friend to kill him.) Like Goodfellas, it’s a fun movie to quote, although the “little friend” bit is pretty overdone.
I always loved that movie. I saw it in the theater when I was in 10th grade, I think. Pacino’s performance is so over the top, you can’t help but get caught up in it. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I remember the whole coke-snorting, gunfighting finale vividly, and the slurred "F*** you"s.
On every episode of MTV Cribs I’ve ever seen (and yes, I regret seeing them all), each rapper has to show off his DVD collection, particularly making a reference to owning Scarface, and how you’re not a “baller” if you don’t have Scarface. I think that chubby bald metalhead kid, Ian Robinson, made a joke on his episode that he must not be a “baller,” because he doesn’t have Scarface in his movie collection.
But it’s definitely tied in closely with the hip-hop community, a story about a ruthless drug dealer who rose to the top through violence and flaunted his “bling bling” all the way. What’s that other quoted line? “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women”? I think that line sums up what so much of mainstream hip-hop is about, which explains why that scene/lifestyle has embraced the movie so much.
Yeah, Tony Montana is a role model for many people, particularly hip-hop fans. The best way to get from poverty to wealth is to become a ruthless, violent drug dealer. :rolleyes:
I saw the DePalma Scarface for the first time a couple of months ago, and basically thought it was the Showgirls of violence (or, timing-wise, Showgirls is the Scarface of sex).
Over the top, tongue-in-cheek, hyper-gratuitous (not that that’s bad), but overlong and not as witty or incisive as it’d like to be. Then again, I run warm and cold on DePalma, just as I do with Verhoeven.
It was nice to hear familiar lines of dialogue in their original context, though.
I too, was going to start a thread about this.
On the way home from work, I drive past two (mostly) black high schools. I have seen several black students wearing the T-shirt with a large image of Al Pacino on the front of it.
I couldn’t figure out why black guys would be wearing a t-shirt with a white guy on it. You just don’t see that like…ever.
It’s not the Godfather, it’s not Goodfellas.
But does have a delightfully over the top Pacino and that’s the big draw for me. Without him, I probably wouldn’t watch it much.
Besides, you know you have a drug problem when you’ve got a moutain of coke on your desk and just keep dipping your head forward when you need a high.
It’s big with professional athletes, too. Our paper runs bits on individual Tennessee Titans in the margins during the preseason. Inevitably, they ask about favorite movies/music/etc. and 90% of the black athletes will say ‘Scarface’. The white dudes almost always say something like ‘Shawshank Redemption’ or ‘Hoosiers’.
I think so many hip hop stars and pro athletes come from broken homes and near-poverty that they relate to Montana going from nothing to ultra-powerful.
Ironically, the careers of these pros and rappers never seem to grasp that their careers will probably be as meteoric and short as Montana’s.
Yeah, I can just hear the cries next month:
“Mom, this is a Louis Pasteur costume! I wanted to be Émile Zola for Halloween!”
Darn. I placed my bets on a George Arliss revival.
It sounds like you speak from experience.
That gets my vote.
Thank god! This question has been on my mind for weeks!
I’m also perplexed as to why now. I’m working with high school students right now- a lot of whom can be considered “inner city”, and Scarface is everywhere. There are even nifty embroidered Scarface jackets. When I was in high school in the ghetto five years ago, if you talked about Scareface people would probably make fun of you or say “Uh…I think my mom watched that movie.” There has to be one person or incident behind this bizarre revival.
Are you suggesting that there is a lot of racism and lack of respect for white people among young black males?
Not so much as with people arn’t all that “cool.” I’m all about old ladies, but I’m probably not going to buy a tee shirt with Margaret Thatcher on it.