Scarface Nation: The Ultimate Gangster Movie and How It Changed America is a 2008 book written by Ken Tucker and published by St. Martin's Press about the 1983 American crime film Scarface and its influence on society, film, and the music industry.
Tucker is a former critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer . He interviewed most of the film's cast and crew, except Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. He observed that they were unaware of the reasons for the popularity and influence of the film. Tucker researched for two years; he read the 1930 novel Scarface by Armitage Trail and watched both the 1932 and 1983 films numerous times. [1] He also bought a lot of Scarface-related products, such as flip-flops, shower curtains, dartboards, and poker chips. [2] The Scarface pajamas that he bought "kind of freaked out [his] wife". [3]
The book is divided into seven main chapters: Major Immigrant Smuggling Ring, The Director, Scarface Music, Howard Hawk's Scarface, Armitage Trail's Scarface, Movies TV Shows Novels, and A Meaning of Scarface. [4] An appendix titled "Scarface as a business plan (or the 8 Habits of Highly Successful but Tragic Gangsters)" was also included in the book. [2] Martin Scorsese told Steven Bauer that "Hollywood is going to hate this film, because it's about them". Tucker notes that the film was created by White males, yet it has influenced Black and Hispanic youth the most. [5] By the suggestion of Sidney Lumet, the origin of the main character Tony Montana was changed from an Italian to a Cuban. [2] In his work, Tucker calls Scarface an "ultimate gangster film" and "a great shallow masterpiece". [5] [2]
Louis Bayard wrote for Salon that Tucker had set a difficult mission for himself, writing about a film that was "not good at all". [6] S. James Snyder wrote for Time magazine that "Tucker bolsters his argument that whatever your opinion on the film, Scarface cannot be dismissed." [5]
Paul Muni was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater. During the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Bros. studio and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted.
Scarface is a 1932 American pre-Code gangster film directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Hawks and Howard Hughes. The screenplay, by Ben Hecht, is based loosely on the 1929 novel by Armitage Trail which was inspired by Al Capone. The film stars Paul Muni as Italian immigrant gangster Antonio "Tony" Camonte, a gangster who violently rises through the Chicago gangland, with a supporting cast that includes George Raft and Boris Karloff. Camonte's rise to power dovetails with his relentless pursuit of his boss's mistress while his own sister pursues his best hitman. In an overt tie to the life of Capone, one scene depicts a version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.
Scarface may refer to:
Christopher Tucker is an American actor and comedian. Tucker made his debut in 1992 as a stand-up performer on the HBO comedy series Def Comedy Jam, where he frequently appeared on the show during the 1990s. He appeared in the films Friday, The Fifth Element, Money Talks, and Jackie Brown, and later gained fame in the 2000s for playing Detective James Carter in the Rush Hour series, for which he received several accolades.
Scarface is a 1983 American crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone. Loosely based on the 1929 novel of the same name and serving as a loose remake of the 1932 film, it tells the story of Cuban refugee Tony Montana, who arrives penniless in Miami during the Mariel boatlift and becomes a powerful and extremely homicidal drug lord. The film co-stars Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Robert Loggia. De Palma dedicated this version of Scarface to the writers of the original film, Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht.
Antonio Montana is a fictional character and the protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface. This character is portrayed by Al Pacino in the film and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Embodying the rise from the bottom to the top, Tony Montana has become a cultural icon and is one of the most well-known movie characters of all time. In 2008, Montana was named the 27th Greatest Movie Character by Empire magazine. The character is partly based on Tony Camonte, the protagonist of the original novel and the 1932 film adaptation; Camonte was, in turn, an adaptation of Tony Guarino from the 1929 novel, who in turn was a loose fictionalization of real-life Italian-American gangster Al Capone, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. In contrast to Guarino and Camonte, who were both Italian immigrants, Montana is a Cuban immigrant. According to Oliver Stone, Tony's last name was inspired by former NFL quarterback Joe Montana, Stone's favorite player. A prequel novel, Scarface: The Beginning, written by L. A. Banks, was published in 2006. Montana has a large scar on the side of his face, which explains why he is known as Scarface. This is the same as did Al Capone from a bar fight in 1917 at the Harvard Inn.
Dana Snyder is an American actor. He is known for his voice roles of Master Shake in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Granny Cuyler in Squidbillies, Baby Ball on Ballmastrz: 9009, and other roles in various Adult Swim television shows. His other voice roles include voicing Dr. Colosso in Nickelodeon's comedy series The Thundermans and Gazpacho in Cartoon Network's animated series Chowder, alongside live-action work in shows such as Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell and Saul of the Mole Men.
American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe with co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr.
Music Inspired by Scarface was released in 2003. This compilation album features songs by various hip-hop artists which either draw direct inspiration from the 1983 film Scarface or contain subject matter that can relate to the film.
Scarface: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album featured on the 1983 American crime film, Scarface, which was directed by Brian De Palma. Composed by Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder, the vinyl soundtrack was released on December 9 of the same year through MCA Records. The album features music created by Moroder, who wrote and produced all of the tracks. Scarface counts with the collaboration of multiple singers, including Paul Engemann, Debbie Harry, Amy Holland, Elizabeth Daily, among other artists. The soundtrack received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 41st Golden Globe Awards.
Urban Justice is a 2007 American vigilante action film directed and shot by Don E. FauntLeRoy. The film stars Steven Seagal, who also producer, with a supporting cast of Eddie Griffin, Carmen Serano and Danny Trejo. It was released direct-to-DVD in the United States on November 13, 2007.
The Thirteenth Guest is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery comedy thriller film, released on August 9, 1932. The film is also known as Lady Beware in the United Kingdom. It is based on the 1929 novel The Thirteenth Guest written by crime fiction author Armitage Trail, best known for the novel Scarface on which the 1932 movie of the same name was based. The novel was filmed again in 1943 as Mystery of the 13th Guest.
Maurice R. Coons, known by the pen name Armitage Trail, was an American pulp fiction author, known best for his 1929 novel Scarface. This novel was based on the life of gangster Al Capone, and was adapted as the 1932 movie Scarface directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes. The movie of 1932 was later modernized and remade as 1983's movie Scarface. His only other significant work is the detective novel The Thirteenth Guest, though Coons is speculated to have used a variety of pseudonyms.
Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and non-fiction book writer.
Louis Bayard is an American author. His historical mysteries include The Pale Blue Eye, Mr. Timothy, The Black Tower, The School of Night, and Roosevelt's Beast, and they have been translated into 11 languages.
Elvira Hancock is a fictional character in the 1983 American crime drama film Scarface, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer. This proved to be her breakthrough role. She is the mistress of Frank Lopez and after his death, becomes the wife of Tony Montana.
Alejandro "Alex" Sosa is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1983 American crime film Scarface and the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. He is an international Bolivian drug lord and the chief supplier of cocaine for his business partner Tony Montana. Only when Sosa was betrayed did his relationship with Tony Montana end. Sosa is portrayed by Paul Shenar in the film. He is based on the Bolivian drug lord Roberto Suárez Gómez.
Scarface is a novel written by Armitage Trail in 1929 and published in 1930. The 1932 film Scarface was based on it. The twenty-eight year-old author died suddenly of a heart attack in 1930.
Al Capone is one of the most notorious American gangsters of the 20th century and has been the major subject of numerous articles, books, and films. Particularly, from 1925 to 1929, shortly after Capone relocated to Chicago, he enjoyed status as the most notorious mobster in the country. Capone cultivated a certain image of himself in the media, that made him a subject of fascination. His personality and character have been used in fiction as a model for crime lords and criminal masterminds ever since his death. The stereotypical image of a mobster wearing a pinstriped suit and tilted fedora are based on photos of Capone. His accent, mannerisms, facial construction, physical stature, and parodies of his name have been used for numerous gangsters in comics, movies, music, and literature.