YMMV / Scarface (1983)

• Accidental Aesop:
  • For all the vile things Tony does, one of his 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.
  • Alternatively, even if the banks are getting greedy, you should pay them what they want to launder your money. Don't be a cheapskate.
• Adaptation Displacement: Most people aren't even aware this is a remake of a 1932 film. Perhaps even fewer are aware of the 1930 novel that both films are based on.
• Award Snub: Because the film was negatively received by critics on its original release at the time, it received zero Academy Award nominations.
• Awesome Music: The Scarface soundtrack was composed by Giorgio Moroder in his heyday. Five of the film's songs made it into the licensed soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto III.
  • Special mention goes to the movie's most iconic song, "Push It to the Limit" by Paul Engemann (also see the extended version).
  • "She's On Fire'' by Amy Holland.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: One modern-day reviewer feels that this was the film's chief flaw — the film tries to tell people that Tony's lifestyle only destroys him, but its glitzy, glamorous 1980s style is largely responsible for the massive Misaimed Fandom surrounding it.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Tony Montana, as the Misaimed Fandom saw him as a role model instead of the cautionary tale he was intended to be. Some have argued that the film brings this on itself, as Tony makes a few too many good points about his actions (such as the "Say goodnight to the bad guy" speech) to be hated by the audience easily.
• Estrogen Brigade: The film is aimed towards men, but has attracted many females due to the main character's good looks and exotic accent.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans try to ignore Gina's death.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Tony has what some consider horrible taste in both clothing and architecture, even by the decade's gaudy standards.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • 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 James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. 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.
  • At the restaurant, Tony tries to eat a lemon but spits it out in disgust. In restaurants, lemons are used as a form of hand sanitizer and since Tony came from a poor household, he did not know this and tried to eat it instead.
    • 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.
• Harsher in Hindsight: 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.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Some times, Tony and Manny use the phrase "talk to Frank". To a British viewer, 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.
  • The Skull, Sosa's assassin who kills Tony during the climax, bears a strong resemblance to the titular cyborg from The Terminator, released just a year later, from his general resemblance to Ah-nuld, to his Badass Biker wardrobe, Cool Shades and shotgun.
  • This wasn't the last time Steven Bauer and Mark Margolis would play Hispanic drug dealers. Furthermore, both of the latter's characters' demises were related to a bomb. However, while Alberto's death was caused when he attempted to activate a bomb, Hector Salamanca died by activating a bomb.
  • Al Pacino is almost an anagram of Al Capone, the notorious gangster who was nicknamed "Scarface".
  • Brian De Palma would later direct The Untouchables, which was about how the real Scarface, Al Capone, was caught.
• It Was His Sled: Tony dies in an assault on his mansion, but he goes down swinging.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Elvira could be seen this way, especially in the dinner scene when she realizes what she and Tony were becoming. Not to mention the horrible way Tony verbally abuses her in the same scene, though both have been going back and forth, more so as time went on. This is most evident in one of her last dialogues: "Can't you see what we're becoming, Tony? We're losers. We're not winners, we're losers." It's also implied that Tony became very possessive and controlling of her following their wedding, presumably to keep her from being "stolen" in the way he'd acquired her from Frank.
  • Tony himself. Yes, some find him to be an utterly reprehensible human being for some definitely bad things he's done, but the 'utterly' still discredits that he does have standards and loved ones. His actions lead to the estrangement and/or death of everyone around him, and it's both horrifying and pitiable.
• Magnificent Bastard: Alejandro Sosa is a powerful Bolivian drug lord who proves to be the undoing of 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 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 is shot dead on Sosa's orders while Sosa continues his operations.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Say hello to my little friend!
  • The famous "mountain of coke" has gotten some circulation too.
  • "Push It To The Limit" is the song to use over any parody of 80's Good Times Montages. If not, then it will almost certainly be a soundalike.
  • The line "The eyes chico. They never lie" has been used as an Instagram caption to the point where its original meaning has been lost.
  • The "No Kids" scene makes the rounds on TikTok and X occasionally as well.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • The film is extremely popular among a certain audience (gangsta rappers, in many countries) who idolize Tony Montana 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 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 Montana's tasteless excesses in the raided houses of many a narco cartel.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • 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.
  • Hector the Toad, chainsawing Angel Fernández to death in front of Tony in the bathroom.
  • Tony himself likely threw away any grasp he had on still being a good guy when he killed Manny. Still, he was in deep regret.
• Narm
  • Tony's possessiveness is portrayed as very over the top, which causes sudden and bizarre shifts in mood during any scene where it comes up.
  • Anyone from South Florida can tell you that Al Pacino has one of the worst "Cuban" accents ever.
  • Also the gigantic pile of cocaine on his desk, after Tony kills his best friend for marrying Gina. Here you are, nearly teary-eyed from the very poignant scene right before, and then you have to snap out of it to crack up.
  • Tony's increasingly unhinged behavior later in the film can look more comical than scary, thanks to Al Pacino's over-the-top performance. It would probably look great on stage, but not on celluloid.
• Narm Charm:
  • While Tony's accent does often sound pretty silly, it debatably 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. Roger Ebert 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.
  • As mentioned above, Tony has questionable (horrible to some) taste in clothing and architecture, but his sheer badassery manages to make his incredibly tacky fashion choices seem cool and stylish - you can't say it doesn't suit him.
  • Furthermore, Tony's unhinged behavior makes him at once frightening and pathetic as his cocaine addiction grows.
• Obvious Stunt Double: When Omar is shown on the helicopter before he gets hanged, it is extremely obvious that he's played by a stunt double before he gets dropped out.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • As noted by Roger Ebert in his 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 The Sopranos may never understand how original The Godfather was, so Scarface has been absorbed into its imitators.
  • The whole "Push It to the Limit" scene. This film didn't invent the Good-Times Montage, 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 MTV and the premier of Miami Vice. 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 the soundtrack) makes it harder to take the original seriously.
• Parody Displacement: The "Say hello to my little friend" quote was actually an allusion to Pan Am's 1980 slogan "Say Hello to a Brand New World, Say Hello to Pan Am", introduced after Pan Am completed their merger with National Airlines, which no one remembers today.
• Retroactive Recognition: Fans of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul will recognize Steven Bauer (Don Eladio) and Mark Margolis (Hector Salamanca) as Manny and Alberto the Shadow, respectively.
• Ron the Death Eater: Overlapping with the Misaimed Fandom, a portion of Tony's fans like to push the blame on his mom for disowning him, often interpreting that she's an Abusive Parent 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 to gain power and caused the events that lead to Gina's doom, especially due his own 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.
• Signature Line: Well, of course, "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!"
• Signature Scene: The film has become iconic and so much of it has been borrowed from, adapted, parodied that it's hard to say any part of it isn't iconic. However, two scenes of note absolutely stand out.
  • Angel's death by chainsaw. Commonly regarded as one of the scariest scenes in a non-horror film, for good reason.
  • Tony's shootout in the final scene of the film also counts, especially with the iconic Signature Line above.
• So Bad, It's Good: Not the film itself, but rather, the Edited for Syndication 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.
• Spiritual Adaptation: More than a Homage, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is basically a straight video game reenactment of the movie (mixed with Miami Vice and Carlito's Way^note —Another Pacino/DePalma film) to the point it sparked a renewed interest in Scarface for a new generation. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto III, had a radio station that consisted of songs from the Scarface soundtrack. Funnily enough, Scarface: The World Is Yours ended becoming a pretty well-regarded Grand Theft Auto clone itself that influenced Rockstar Games when making Grand Theft Auto IV.
• 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, unless you go by the popular theory that Gina was being sarcastic. Tony mentioned shortly beforehand he gave Gina some pills to help calm her down, so being in a drugged haze probably played a part there.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • When Mel is offed, it's clear he's folding his arms on his stomach throughout the scene to keep the obvious blood pack around his gut in place. When he doubles over in pain from the gutshot, you can see the pack's corner protrude into his shirt. When he's finally shot dead, Mel has magically lost his sizable gut as the pack is gone.
  • The two immigration officers who interview Tony in the first scene are blatantly dubbed over by other actors.
• Tear Jerker:
  • After Tony shoots Manny for sleeping with Gina, Gina reveals that they just got married.
  • After Tony sees Gina get gunned down, he goes into denial and starts talking to her corpse.
• The Woobie: 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 both of her children are murdered on the same night.
  • 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. This breaks her so badly, she goes off the deep end 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.
• Woolseyism:
  • In Latin America, there are 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 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.
  • Also, in the L.A. dub, Tony speaks with a very thick Cuban accent in his voice, while the Mexican dubs used neutral accents instead. Ironically enough, Tony's voice actor in the L.A. dub (Rodolfo Vargas) was Mexican.

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