I don't exactly know what to say about Scarface. When you watch older movies that have attained classic status, you run the risk of something perhaps not aging as well as you'd hope. To fully appreciate a movie, you need to understand the context, because just watching it by itself will make it not seem special.
Because... Scarface is very hard for me to take seriously if I'm being honest. I had the same problem with The Public Enemy, and I suspect I'd have similar problems with Little Cesear as well. The three movies were all made around the same time, and all helped create and influence the gangster drama to this day.
But I can't lie. When I say I find it hard to take it seriously, I'm specifically referencing the beyond parody of how everybody talks. Like I've seen people make fun of old time gangster voices, and I've seen parodies, but nothing can prepare you for the fact that those parodies... are not exaggerating in the slightest.
I don't know specifically why it's hard to take this seriously when other movies around this time also have goofy, parody ready voices. I have two theories. The first is that the goofy parody has tended to be a side character from the movies I've seen, and I can't take those characters any more seriously than I can here, but the characters you are actually supposed to care about tended to talk like a normal human being.
The second is that this is a gangster film and you're supposed to buy these guys as tough. But the way they talk has so devolved into obvious parody by this point, that it is impossible to think of these guys as genuine threats. It's like I'm watching a fucking Key and Peele sketch every time they open their mouth.
Which is a shame because, more than any other movie I've seen, I think this might be Hawks' best direction? Or at least, it's the one where his direction is most evident. Most of his movies are trying to hide his directing, which makes it tough to determine his influence beyond it just being a good movie.
Here, he makes the kind of choices that makes a director stand out, instead of hidden. He has to show quite a lot of violence, and even though this was pre-Code, it needed to be obscured and hidden. So in the opening scene, he has a very cool shot of a guy getting gunned down, seen purely through the shadows. The camera then pans back to the body, which is now lying on the ground.
And he does that more than a few times and it's waaaaay more effective than actually showing the killing, especially then. And there's very few actual people dying in front of us in this movie, and the few times they do, you're reminded why it's so much more effective to not show us the death. Because actors did not know how to die on film in a way that didn't look goofy for... a long time.
I wish I could watch this movie and make my brain not notice the goofiness of the voices. Especially since I can't really give you any sort of notes on the actors. I've seen Paul Muni in two other things and this is my least favorite performance of his, but I also readily admit it's entirely due to the things everyone else in this movie was doing. Everybody was guilty of the funny voices and weird mannerisms.
This is thankfully not one of those movies where I am befuddled over its reputation. The damn 1930s gangster parody is the only problem I have with the movie, but it's a problem that's hard to ignore since any good gangster film makes you fear the gangsters.
It is weird that, despite this being pre-Code, Scarface seemed subject to Production Code era rules. They have a ridiculous opening where they condemn gangsters and say we must stop them and what are the politicians doing. I know they needed to change the ending - it's based on Al Capone - who most certainly did not die by the events of this movie. And I'm sure they couldn't gotten away with what they got away with, but I just find it fascinating they still needed to change quite a bit.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on Scarface. I'm going to not give a grade, because it's impossible for me to grade this. It's a better movie than whatever grade I would give, but also I can't give a better grade because that would imply I bought into this world. So, hopefully one day I can get used to the parody.
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