The movie was written by Oliver Stone -- interestingly, the same man who directed the largely laudatory documentary "Command-ante" (2003), about his three days in conversation with Castro. Stone has always been at home with stories involving men, drugs, sex and violence, and his work here has a fierce energy; it is possible to see Montana reflecting Stone's own drive to success. His screenplay, like Ben Hecht's work for the earlier "Scarface," is filled with quotable lines ("All I got in my life is my balls and my word, and I don't break them for nobody"). Stone shows a certain toughness in not trying to soften Montana, who remains a snake from beginning to end; when he gives his mother $1,000, she asks him, "Who did you kill for this?"
For Al Pacino, the role was an opportunity to explore a crime boss who is the polar opposite of his Michael Corleone in Coppola's "The Godfather." Corleone is slick and smooth, intelligent and strategic; Montana is instinctive, impulsive and reckless. "The Godfather" was made in 1972, "Scarface" in 1983, and 10 years later Pacino and De Palma worked together on "Carlito's Way," where Pacino plays a Puerto Rican criminal who for a time tries to go straight.
His sadder and wiser Carlito, seen with psychological realism, helps us understand how many deliberate acting choices went into the creation of Tony Montana. "Though a busy performance, it's not a mannered one, meaning that it's completely controlled," Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times on the film's first release.
"Scarface" shows a man who wants the world, and at one point even sees The World Is Yours blinking at him from the Goodyear blimp. The world for him includes the possession of a desirable woman, and from the moment he sees the blond, slender Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer), he determines that he must have her. She is Frank's mistress, but soon Frank is dead, and his mistress and his business belong to Tony. That he must have her is clear, but what he intends to do with her is not; there is no romance between them, no joy, and they have two scenes -- one with Tony in a swimming pool and the other in a vast bathtub -- where her boredom is palpable. She's along for the drugs. Tony is much more interested in his sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), although his incestuous desires are deflected into a determination to keep all other men away from her. This leads him eventually to the murder of Manolo (Steven Bauer), his closest friend. Gina's response to his jealousy is so horrifyingly direct ("Is this what you want, Tony?") that it shows she knows exactly who he is and what buttons she can push.
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