The Screen Addict | Carlito's Way

Very much against popular consensus, I have always preferred Carlito’s Way (1993) to Scarface (1983). Don’t get me wrong – both films are sublime and masterpieces in their own right, but CW simply moves me more.

I consider the films thematic siblings because of subject matter obviously, but also because of the creative team behind both productions – Al Pacino, director Brian De Palma and producer Martin Bregman.

There’s so much to gush over when celebrating these two films…

A lovely Easter Egg / Cameo in CW is the “return” of Scarface’s chainsaw-wielding maniac Hector the Toad. Al Israel, the actor who gave life to this unforgettable character, pops up as a crime boss from Carlito’s old neighborhood.

Also reappearing in CW is Ángel Salazar, to whom Tony “Scarface” Montana speaks the immortal words: “Chi-Chi, get the yayo!” in that same infamous chainsaw-sequence.

Aside from reconnecting with old friends, we also get to marvel at a couple of truly awesome performances by John Leguizamo, Luis Guzmán and Viggo Mortensen, all in early roles. Not to mention a frantic turn by the great Sean Penn, who ALMOST steals the spotlight from Pacino.

The phenomenal third act mirrors the famous stairway-sequence from De Palma’s own The Untouchables (1987) – which, in itself, is an homage to Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal film Battleship Potemkin (1925).

But most of all, it is the doomed romance between Pacino’s Carlito Brigante and Penelope Ann Miller’s Gail that gets me every time I revisit CW. You really, really hope they make it out of there together and start the car-rental place in paradise, even when the first shot of the film suggests that they probably won’t…

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Twitter (X): Robin Logjes | The Screen Addict