History YMMV / Scarface1983

** It is very common to find copies of the film, posters, as well as tons of "bling", clothes, and personalized weapons based on or inspired by Tony Montana's tasteless excesses in the raided houses of many a cartel ''narco''.

** The "No Kids" scene makes the rounds on {{TikTok}} and X occasionally as well.

** The "No Kids" scene makes the rounds on TikTok and X occasionally as well.

** The Skull, Sosa's assassin who kills Tony during the climax, bears a strong resemblance to the titular cyborg from Film/TheTerminator, released just a year later, from his general resemblance to Ah-nuld, to his BadassBiker wardrobe and shotgun.

* SignatureScene:

* FashionVictimVillain: Tony has what some consider horrible taste in both clothing and architecture, even for the decade's gaudy standards.

*** it's a fingerbowl that he eats the lemon from. You can see Omar dip his hands in it. Less common in restaurants now, where a packaged wet wipe is more likely provided, but in the period was a sign of sophistication with finger food meals.

** A number of times, Tony and Manny use the phrase "talk to Frank". To a British viewer, [[http://www.talktofrank.com Talk To Frank]] is the name of a government-backed drugs advice service - not exactly what you'd expect two aspiring drug kingpins to get their information from.

* ItWasHisSled: Tony dies in an assault of his mansion, [[LastStand but he goes down swinging.]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[BigBad Alejandro Sosa]] is a powerful Bolivian drug lord who proves to be the undoing of [[VillainProtagonist Tony Montana]]. Devising a clever cocaine transportation scheme that will cut out the middleman Columbians in his dealings with Frank Lopez, Sosa exposes Omar Suarez as a possible [[TheMole mole]] and executes him, earning Tony's respect and alliance. After Tony supplants Lopez as the premiere Miami crime boss, Sosa forms a successful business with Tony to distribute his drugs, and later dispatches Tony to help his men assassinate a troublesome activist damaging Sosa's reputation. Even though Tony foils the assassination due to his morals, Sosa gets the last laugh as he pays Tony back by wiping out his entire organization, Tony himself shot dead on Sosa's orders while Sosa continues his own operations.

** The film is extremely popular among a certain audience (gangsta rappers) who idolize Tony and seem to ignore all of his various, severe, and sometimes creepy, flaws or that his story ends with him, in more ways than one, falling from up high and dying in disgrace. There's even a [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395694/ documentary short]] about its influence on hip hop culture.
** It is very common to find copies of the film, posters, as well as tons of "bling", clothes and personalized weapons based on or inspired by Tony Montana's tasteless excesses in the raided houses of many a cartel ''narco''.

** Also the gigantic pile of cocaine on his desk, after Tony [[spoiler: kills his best friend for marrying Gina]]. Here you are, nearly teary eyed from the [[TearJerker very poignant scene right before]], and then you have to [[MoodWhiplash snap out of it to crack up.]]

* RonTheDeathEater: Overlapping with the MisaimedFandom, a portion of Tony's fans like to [[FreudianExcuse push the blame on his mom]] for disowning him, often interpreting that she's an AbusiveParent who failed as a mother and should've accepted his peace offer... this ignoring that both she and Gina were doing well until he showed up, that Tony himself is a bad tempered and power-hungry man willing to murder in order to gain power and caused the events that lead to Gina's doom, especially due his own [[IncestSubtext concerning obsession]] towards her, and that there's simply nothing noble or moral about unconditionally loving and forgiving a destructive family member with ties to crime.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** As noted by Creator/RogerEbert in his [[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-scarface-1983 retrospective "Great Movies" review]]:
--->The movie has been borrowed from so often that it's difficult to understand how original it seemed in 1983, when Latino heroes were rare, when cocaine was not a cliché, when sequences at the pitch of the final gun battle were not commonplace. Just as a generation raised on ''Series/TheSopranos'' may never understand how original ''Film/TheGodfather'' was, so ''Scarface'' has been absorbed into its imitators.
** The whole "Push It to the Limit" scene. This film obviously didn't invent the GoodTimesMontage, but the music video-inspired editing of it was quite novel at the time, keeping in mind that ''Scarface'' came halfway between the launch of Creator/{{MTV}} and the premier of ''Series/MiamiVice''. This scene would set the standard for many a montage through the '80s and beyond, which isn't helped by the fact that decades of this trope being parodied as an example of '80s filmmaking cheesiness (with some parodies even using "Push It to the Limit" as soundtrack) makes it harder to take the original seriously.

* SoBadItsGood: Not the film itself, but rather, the EditedForSyndication version. According to those who saw it, the film was straight up turned into a comedy, and some of the dialogue was actually made funnier by the censorship.

* {{Squick}}: Gina begging Tony to have sex with her had many people cringing. This is even portrayed as squicky in-universe, with Tony looking at her with a "What the hell are you saying?" look on his face. It's also pretty much disturbing, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation unless you go by the popular theory that Gina was being sarcastic.]] Tony's underling mentions shortly beforehand he gave Gina some pills to help calm her down, so being in a drugged haze probably played a part there.

** The two immigration officers that interview Tony in the first scene are blatantly dubbed over by other actors.
* TheWoobie: Tony and Gina's mother. Her husband left her and her son became a criminal. She left Cuba with Gina and worked hard to secure a good life for both of them and raise Gina right. Then Tony comes back and despite Mama's efforts Gina is dragged into Tony's world. In the end [[spoiler:both of her children are murdered in the same night.]]

** In Latin America, there's three dubbed versions of the film. Two of them (the first and the third) were dubbed in Mexico and the second one in Los Angeles, CA by Latin American expats and by Hispanic voice actors. While there's not much information about the first dubbed version other than being dubbed in Mexico, the L.A. and third Mexican dubs used profanities, albeit the third Mexican one used [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles even more expletives]] than the L.A. or even the original English version. The most visible example is the famous ''Say hello to my little friend!'' line: While the L.A. dub translate the line quite literally, in the third Mexican dub the same line was translated as ''¡Diganme hola, hijos de la gran puta!'' (Say hello (to me), you sons of a big whore/bitch!) instead.

* RonTheDeathEater: Overlapping with the MisaimedFandom, a portion of Tony's fans like to [[FreudianExcuse push the blame on his mom]] for disowning him, often interpreting that she's an AbusiveParent who failed as a mother and should've accepted his peace offer... this ignoring that both she and Tina were doing well until he showed up, that Tony himself is a bad tempered and power-hungry man willing to murder in order to gain power and caused the events that lead to Tina's doom, especially due his own [[IncestSubtext concerning obsession]] towards her, and that there's simply nothing noble or moral about unconditionally loving and forgiving a destructive family member with ties to crime.

* RonTheDeathEater: Overlapping with the MisaimedFandom, a portion of Tony's fans like to [[FreudianExcuse push the blame on his mom]] for disowning him, often interpreting that she's an AbusiveParent who failed as a mother and should've accepted his peace offer... this ignoring that both she and Tina were going well until he showed up, that Tony himself is a bad tempered and power-hungry man willing to murder in order to gain power and caused the events that lead to Tina's doom, especially due his own [[IncestSubtext concerning obsession]] towards her, and that there's simply nothing noble or moral about unconditionally loving and forgiving a destructive family member with ties to crime.

* RonTheDeathEater: Overlapping with the MisaimedFandom, a portion of Tony's fans like to [[FreudianExcuse push the blame on his mom]] for disowning him, often interpreting that she's an AbusiveParent who failed as a mother and should've accepted his peace offer... this ignoring both she and Tina were going well until he showed up, that Tony himself is a bad tempered and power-hungry man willing to murder in order to gain power and caused the events that lead to Tina's doom, especially due his own [[IncestSubtext concerning obsession]] towards her, and that there's simply nothing noble or moral about unconditionally loving and forgiving a destructive family member with ties to crime.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/StevenBauer (Manny) would be more recognized later on for his role as Don Eladio in ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul''.

* SoBadItsGood: Not the film itself, but rather, the EditedForSyndication version. According to those who saw it, the film was straight up turned into a comedy, and some of the characters have an unexplained obsession with pineapples.

-->The movie has been borrowed from so often that it's difficult to understand how original it seemed in 1983, when Latino heroes were rare, when cocaine was not a cliché, when sequences at the pitch of the final gun battle were not commonplace. Just as a generation raised on ''Series/TheSopranos'' may never understand how original ''Film/TheGodfather'' was, so ''Scarface'' has been absorbed into its imitators.
** The whole "Push It To The Limit" scene. This film obviously didn't invent the GoodTimesMontage, but the music video-inspired editing of it was quite novel at the time, keeping in mind that ''Scarface'' came halfway between the launch of Creator/{{MTV}} and the premier of ''Series/MiamiVice''. This scene would set the standard for many a montage through the 80's and beyond, which isn't helped by the fact that decades of this trope being parodied as an example of 80's filmmaking cheesiness makes it harder to take the original seriously.

* HarsherInHindsight: The bikini girl who distracted the lookout car during the infamous chainsaw shower scene was an aspiring actress called Tammy Lynn Leppert. Several days after that scene was filmed she disappeared, traumatised by the bloody scene on the set and terrified that someone was about to murder her.

* SpiritualAdaptation: More than a {{Homage}}, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' is basically a straight video game reenactment of the movie (mixed with ''Series/MiamiVice'' and ''Film/CarlitosWay''[[note]]--Another [[Creator/AlPacino Pacino]]/[[Creator/BrianDePalma DePalma]] film[[/note]]) to the point it sparked a renewed interest in ''Scarface'' for a new generation. Its predecessor, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', had a radio station that consisted of songs from the ''Scarface'' soundtrack.

* FridgeBrilliance: Tony's accent is seen as a source of {{Narm}} for sounding nothing like an actual Cuban accent, but pay attention to the opening scene where Tony talks to the immigration officers. He claims that his father was an American and that he grew up watching old-school cinema "tough guys" like Creator/JamesCagney and Creator/HumphreyBogart. If you assume he's telling the truth, Tony's accent (and actions) make much more sense when you realize that he's attempting to imitate his role models.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: As noted by Creator/RogerEbert in his [[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-scarface-1983 retrospective "Great Movies" review]]:

** For all the vile things Tony does, his one of few acts of decency or even honest goodness is what leads to his downfall. In short...if you're going to play the game, you'd better be prepared to go all the way.

** While Tony's accent does often sound pretty silly, it debatedly helps him to become a more distinctive character. He might not have become quite so iconic if he didn't have such a memorable way of talking. Creator/RogerEbert also noted in a Great Movies essay that Tony's endless bravado is essential to his character, as it makes him seem like the most dangerous man in any room, which gives him an advantage over other characters with more resources.

* SpiritualAdaptation: More than a {{Homage}}, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' is basically a straight video game reenactment of the movie (mixed with ''Series/MiamiVice'' and ''Film/CarlitosWay''[[note]]--Another [[Creator/AlPacino Pachino]]/[[Creator/BrianDePalma DePalma]] film[[/note]]) to the point it sparked a renewed interest in ''Scarface'' for a new generation. Its predecessor, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', had a radio station that consisted of songs from the ''Scarface'' soundtrack.

* MoralEventHorizon: Also, Sosa's hitman crosses it when he insists on killing Gutierrez by blowing up his car even though he knows damn well that Gutierrez's wife and kids are also in the car.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Sosa crosses this by ordering the killing of a man along with his wife and children, just so he wouldn't implicate him and his friends at the UN.
** Also, Sosa's hitman crosses it when he insists on killing Gutierrez by blowing up his car even though he knows damn well that Gutierrez's wife and kids are also in the car.

** Gina herself, she is trying to provide for her mother and her mother tries to keep Gina from being corrupted by Tony, but fails as she gets roped into Tony's criminal life and gets abused by him for talking to guys, and Tony ''murders'' Manny after finding him with Gina, which makes her reveal that they got married the previous day. [[BreakTheCutie This breaks her so badly]], [[SanitySlippage she goes off the deep end]] [[BrotherSisterIncest and tries to seduce Tony into having sex with her, all while shooting at him]], and then gets shot to death repeatedly by one of Alejandro Sosa's men.