Scarface

It’s become such an iconic, culturally influential bit of cinema that it’s almost shocking to go back and watch this 1983 Brian De Palma and see just how outrageously over-the-top the movie was and still is. The performance by Al Pacino as the coke dealer Tony Montana is absolutely fascinating — nobody has chewed the scenery with such relish since. The accent he uses to play the part of a Cuban criminal thrown out of his home country as part of Castro’s cultural cleansing program is, in a word, awful. But it’s also fascinating as hell to watch him deliver his lines so passionately (or is that shamelessly?). The supporting cast, including a rail-thin Michelle Pfeiffer as Montana’s drug addict wife, fights like a pack of angry dogs to draw the audience’s attention away from Al, but it’s a hopeless act. This is Pacino and De Palma at their most operatic, so nobody else stands a chance. The extras on the Blu-ray give viewers a lot to look at, including a fascinating exploration of the film’s cultural influence.