Carlito's Way (1993)
Spoilers follow.
Movie rating: 8/10
Like probably most dudes, I consider Scarface one of my favourite movies. The 1983 crime epic, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino in an iconic turn as Tony Montana, is one of the all-time great gangster flicks, being massively influential on pop culture and one of the most quotable films ever. I’m sure I’ve watched it dozens of times. Montana’s fate at the end of that film made a direct sequel impossible. Yet Carlito’s Way, the second collaboration between De Palma and Pacino, acts as something of a spiritual sequel to Scarface and poses the intriguing question: What if Tony Montana went to prison, was legitimately reformed, and tried to go straight?
People who haven’t seen Scarface may still appreciate Carlito’s Way, but I think the film works better for those who have. Pacino’s character, Carlito Brigante, is close enough to Tony Montana that Scarface fans will see the parallels. Instead of a Cuban career criminal, Brigante is Puerto Rican (or perhaps more accurately, “Nuyorican”). Like Tony, Carlito falls in love with a beautiful blonde woman and wants to have kids. His past is much like Tony’s, having trafficked hard drugs—heroin in this case rather than cocaine—and left a trail of violence in his wake.
In so many other ways, however, Carlito is the polar opposite of Tony. Pacino here is playing a more mature character, one who regrets his past and is seeking to mend his ways. (Pacino’s Puerto Rican accent is also a bit more subtle than his Cuban accent in Scarface, which was enjoyably over the top but dubbed “Cuban blackface” by some critics). With its arguable glorification of Montana and his lifestyle, Scarface has exerted a particular appeal on young men, who have adorned many a dorm room with posters and quotes from the film. Hip hop artists, of course, have also embraced the Scarface philosophy. Yet celebrating Tony Montana is something of an adolescent mentality; even Tony going out in a blaze of glory is romanticized. Carlito Brigante, by contrast, has seen the price of the criminal lifestyle and wants out.
Tony and Carlito are both capable of violence at any time, which brings a tension to Pacino’s performances. But Carlito, unlike Tony, usually prefers to defuse situations rather than escalate them. When he threatens and blusters in Montana style, here it’s usually a bluff: “If I ever, I mean if I ever see you again here, you die,” he tells hot-headed gangster Benny Blanco (John Leguizamo), who reminds Carlito of his younger self, when Benny makes trouble in his club. Carlito tells his men to throw Benny out into the alley. He knows he must have Benny killed or rivals will consider that Carlito has gone soft. Yet he tells his men to let Benny go. Even when putting his own life at risk, Carlito wants only to break the cycle of violence.
Both Benny and Carlito’s lawyer David Kleinfeld (Sean Penn) evoke the violent unpredictability of Tony Montana, or in this case the old Carlito Brigante. Kleinfeld grows increasingly addicted to cocaine and alcohol, puts himself and those around him at risk by insulting and threatening gangsters, makes dangerous enemies, and puts a death warrant on his own head by killing mob boss Tony “Tony T” Taglialucci (Frank Minucci). Throughout the film, Carlito constantly tries to warn the younger men about the path down which they’re headed:
Carlito: You ripped him off, didn't you?
David Kleinfeld: What?
Carlito: Tony T. You did take the million dollars, didn't you?
David Kleinfeld: [guiltily] Yeah.
Carlito: You ain't a lawyer no more, Dave. You a gangster now. On the other side. A whole new ball game. You can't learn about it in school, and you can't have a late start.
Against the pleas of former girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), Carlito helps David in a criminal endeavour because Carlito considers David a friend who helped get him out of a 30-year prison sentence in five years. But when David finds himself in trouble with the law, instead of repaying Carlito’s loyalty, he tries to rat his friend out. When Carlito confronts him, David fires back with a rant that somehow feels like both an endorsement and mockery of Tony Montana’s self-centred (“Who do I trust? Me!”, “The world is yours”, etc.) philosophy:
David Kleinfeld: Fuck you and your self-righteous code of the goddamn streets. Did it pull you out of a 30-year stint in only five years? No, it didn't, I did. Did it get you acquitted four fucking times? No, it didn't, I did, so fuck you, fuck the streets, your whole goddamn world is this big, and there's only one rule, you save your own ass.
Unfortunately for David, Carlito takes his advice to heart.
Another way Carlito’s Way evokes Scarface is in the garish fashions and music of its setting—in this case the mid-1970s, close to Scarface’s early 1980s, but with disco instead of new wave (plenty of wide collars in both though). One area where Carlito’s Way tops De Palma and Pacino’s earlier collaboration is in the action setpiece that climaxes the film: a prolonged chase sequence in which gangsters chase Carlito through a subway and train station. De Palma keeps the tension high throughout.
The main theme of the film is a man seeking redemption and constantly being pulled to revert to his old ways. Pacino has plenty of great dialogue where he shuts down attempts to provoke him, or mocks the macho posturing of other men—as when an intoxicated Kleinfeld sees a man dancing with Gail:
David Kleinfeld: [watching an Italian man dancing with Gail] You're gonna let this fuckin' goombah paw your woman like that?
Carlito: Hey, they're just dancin'. Don't you appreciate that? The movement. The rhythm.
David Kleinfeld: What I don't appreciate is he's got his fuckin' hands all over her ass.
Carlito: He's doesn't have his hands over her ass. I believe those are hips.
David Kleinfeld: [still watching the Italian man dance with Gail] This shithead. These fuckin' wiseguys think they're so hardass. I am so sick of hoods like *that* coming into my office, MY office, thinkin' they can push me around.
Carlito: [sarcastically] Oh, I think you should tell him what you think. I mean, why would you ever hold something like that inside? I mean, why not get something like that off your chest? It's a terrible thing to carry around with you.
David Kleinfeld: I will.
Carlito: I think you should.
David Kleinfeld: I will.
Carlito: Oh, yeah. Go ahead, look, see how interested he's gonna be in your comments.
There are some goofy moments in the film, in particular the repeated use of the song “You Are So Beautiful”. Pacino’s voiceovers at the beginning and end come off a bit laughable. And I was a little perplexed why Benny Blanco doesn’t “finish the job” immediately after shooting Carlito, though I suppose he does technically finish the job. But these are minor complaints.
Carlito’s Way is a fascinating interrogation and subversion of the outlook and themes of Scarface. The tantalizing sign that bookends the film reads “Escape to Paradise”. That’s what Carlito wants to do more than anything: to escape his old life, to run away with Gail and their unborn child to the Bahamas. Sadly, it is not to be. As another iconic Pacino character said: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”