scarface: 40th anniversary viewing

now, this is a movie i know well.  it was a staple rental tape during the mom&pop video store era.  this flick has become part of the popular culture.  it's lexicon & hyper-stylized violence are part of the pop landscape.  it's been 40 years & you can still hear someone say, out of a wizened glee, a la al pacino, as drug lord tony montanta, 'say hello to my little friend' in a overwrought cuban accent.  but i've never seen this flick on the big screen.  until tonight.  b. & i headed to the local cineplex where we could watch the 40th anniversary showing of this great exploitation movie.  this pic is not for everyone.  indeed, it is ultra-violent.  montana is a real dick.  so are everyone in this movie, including a young michelle pfeiffer who played the love interest of both montana's first boss & teacher in the arts of dope dealing, frank lopez, played by a wonderful robert loggia, & later montana himself.  this is an american story of rags-to-riches-to-bloody-rags again.  but rather than the filmmaker, brian de palma, & his screenwriter, oliver stone, craft a morality play of right & wrong we are treated to the very themes that run long in human civiilzation, the hunger for power, money & fame.  today, our action anti-heroes, be they john wick, or the equalizer robert mccall, or even the hardened loner of the wasted outback of the rover [2014], eric, played by guy pearce, all these characters of this century are men of action seeking vengeance in the pursuit of justice.  not so the world of tony montana.  rather, he operates as the lusty id on the body of cocaine trafficking in south florida.  a man with ganas who wants to rule the world.  & but for a short time montana does rule the world.  at least the world of cocaine traffickers in south florida.  it was fun watching this flick on the big screen in all its day-glo saturated colors & synth score by giorgio moroder.  the sound system kicked ass so every note of the score & every bullet wizzing the air enveloped the theater.  seeing it on the big screen brought out smaller details in the background, such as when the hit squad attacks montana's compound you can see bodies dropping on tony's surveillance monitors.  i called this an exploitation flick.  i stand by it.  the hyper-violence, the fears of the drug wars - which were deeply held at the time, are all of a piece of its era, the 1980s, when the american dream was - & still is - to get rich & die trying.