In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, we look back on Brian De Palma’s ultra-violent crime drama Scarface starring Al Pacino.
Of all the big-screen gangsters, none outside of maybe the Corleone family have had the impact on audiences that Al Pacino’s Tony Montana has had. To this day, dialogue from Brian De Palma’s Scarface is referenced in hip-hop, and it’s hard for people to remember that in 1983, Scarface was not considered all that successful a film. It did decently at the box office, but it wasn’t a runaway smash. De Palma faced a lot of criticism for the movie’s extreme violence, with him infamously swapping an X-rated movie cut with the MPAA-approved R-rated cut for general release. In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie (written by Jake Dee, edited by Ric Solomon, and narrated by Mathew Plale), we dig into the making of De Palma’s classic. So say hello to my little friend and press play on What Happened to Scarface!