A criticism of the Prohibition-Era America that can still be considered today, a film that emerges the reflection of a time when organized crime flourished at absurd levels, fueled by the contradictions of a society that criminalizes consumption, but glorifies excess.

The protagonist is both a product and a perpetrator of this chaos. His ambition is intoxicating yet corrosive, a symbol of the seductive fascination of the unchecked ego. The film situates him not as an anomaly but as an inevitability in a system that rewards cruelty over virtue, making its rise exciting and, at the same time, deeply worrying.

The use of sound is also amazing, a relatively new tool in cinema at the time. Gunfire erupt a surprising…

in many ways, both hawks and de palma were the perfect directors to tell this story, all of their films are centered around gendered anxieties, and both are equally masterful portrayals in differing ways.

for de palma, tony is a cloaked shark in an ocean full of fishes, his masculinity obsessed with social jousting & self-perception as an 'underdog', and in the end, he made himself into an actual underdog, destroyed by his own panoptic vanity. for hawks, tony is the ultimate professional, he actual is a better gangster than everyone else, he's the real deal, a public menace who bulldozes over the world. de palma's tony is constantly undercutting himself by posing as a small fry against a cruel world;…

“Scarface” is an essential American culture historical document. It bears teaching right alongside “The Great Gatsby” for its depiction of how the American Dream became American Excess. 

It’s also a cheeky, gloriously beautiful, loud ride into the foundation of the gangster genre. 

Paul Muni’s Italian mobster Tony Camonte is a vulgar and tactless fiend. After the film’s opening titlecard plea for the American Government to curb the gangster menace, he Tommy Guns his way across nighttime Chicago with more manic laughs than worries. 

Compared with the static shots of politicians placing blame on one another in a stuffy room, are we supposed to see Tony’s fall as a fable or a teasing promise? 

Director Howard Hawks might have been one…

Vague spoilers ahead but, I mean, it's not like you don't know what's going to happen anyway.

One of the best things about Howard Hawks' Scarface is its lack of origin story. There's no tough childhood, no early mistreatment to overcome; no life of poverty that made Tony dream big, no striving father whose death proved that the honest way is a brutal waste. No, Tony (Paul Muni) is who he is, and that's all that matters. He's violent, impulsive, arrogant and proud of it all, no matter how much it upsets his mother (upsets mother 2.0, the one the Hays Office demanded condemn him), his boss, or the cops. The world, as he likes to remind Poppy (Karen Morley)…