Brian De Palma
Scarface

Tony Montana is a nobody. The same goes for his friend Manny Ray (Steven Bauer) and the other refugees who embark with him to the United States, the promised land. Tony Montana is not an idiot: "In this country, you have to make the money first, and when you have the money, you get the power, and when you get the power, you get the women".

Tony Montana moves forward with only the force of his own fierce determination: the one that drives him to kill a communist dissident in the middle of a riot to gain his way out to freedom. Freedom that he will achieve by any means necessary: he will make his way up to the Olympus without looking anyone in the face, starting from a job as a dishwasher at a sandwich stand ("I didn't come to this country to bust my ass like this!") sowing death and destruction, forging alliances with the most powerful drug traffickers on the planet, stealing the moll (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the boss (Robert Loggia), and sweeping everything in his path. In hindsight, Tony Montana is a character to analyze: ruthless with enemies, distrustful and authoritarian with friends, even willing to show an incestuous affection toward his sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and an unexpected moral sense when it comes to slaughtering the wife and children of a powerful enemy.

"Scarface" is this: an infernal moral parable about power and greed, about the desire for redemption of a man who becomes the most dangerous boss in Florida and falls under the blows of his own ferocity. Director Brian De Palma sets aside his more surreal tricks to offer a dry and essentially realistic direction, suitable for the rawness of the events narrated. The role of Tony Montana, then, seems tailor-made for Al Pacino: boastful, sarcastic, violent in language (the word "fuck" and its derivatives are uttered 219 times), and almost always over the top. The final scene is one for the anthology, which I won’t describe not to spoil the surprise for those who haven't had the chance to enjoy this masterpiece yet.

Not just a simple gangster movie, but a moral and psychological fresco, a true work of art disguised as a genre film.