The movie Brian De Palma called “the American Dream”
The 20th century was made up of cinematic innovators and experimenters, from the early days of the Lumière brothers, who helped pioneer the moving image, to Quentin Tarantino, whose pulpy distinctive style would lead the industry into the new millennium. Among these names were such icons as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma, who each helped to cultivate a flourishing art form.
Whilst the likes of Spielberg and Scorsese have since become iconic names, American filmmaker Brian De Palma has never truly received the necessary praise, having made some of the most ingenious movies of the late century. Coming into form at the start of the 1970s, De Palma worked alongside Robert De Niro in his formative years, creating such admittedly poor flicks as Greetings, The Wedding Party and Hi, Mom!.
Indeed, it wasn’t until the ‘70s that De Palma would find his feet, releasing the bizarre musical Phantom of the Paradise in 1974 and the Stephen King adaptation Carrie two years later. A sharp-minded filmmaker with a keen interest in cinematic style, the director would inspire countless other peers, particularly in the following decade when he released Blow Out in 1981 and Scarface in 1983.
Speaking about his 1983 film, which starred Al Pacino as an immigrant gangster whose character was partly inspired by the real-life mobster Al Capone, De Palma revealed to The Talks how his movie was initially rated X for its bloody violence.
“I was able to beat the ratings board with Scarface,” he told the publication, “Even though they rated it X, I was able to appeal to the whole committee and we got it passed. There’s a lot of controversy about how Scarface was edited, but in reality, everything I cut out to appease the rating board I put back in and that’s what you see”.
A favourite of fans and filmmakers across the world, the movie was based on the 1932 original of the same name, directed by Howard Hawks. De Palma’s remake is well-known as a superior refresh of the original script, with Pacino taking on the starring role of Tony Montana with terrifying power, thriving as the character alongside Michelle Pfeiffer’s Elvira and F. Murray Abraham’s Omar.
Speaking further about the legacy of the beloved crime flick, De Palma adds: “Yeah, but that’s fate or I don’t know what, serendipity, when you have a movie that transcends the decade that it was made and it keeps on going on and on and on. There’s something that connects with it from generation to generation. I mean, Scarface is basically the American Dream told through a gangster saga”.
Many movies and pieces of classic literature follow the story of the American dream, which details the ideals of economic power and domestic joy that underline the lives of the prosperous living in the country. Any American can aspire to get to the very top of their chosen profession, with David Fincher’s Social Network being a modern take on the American dream, telling the story of the Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
Other American dream tales include the likes of Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
