Carlito's Way (1993)

More than simply a gangster movie, a great drama. Good plot, superb acting by Al Pacino and Sean Penn. And Brian De Palma's direction was excellent, for once more than a B-grade version of Martin Scorsese. (Scarface was another exception).

The first temptation is to say - I know this story, I know what Al Pacino does. bbut you make a mistake. Carlito is a story about gangsters and it has the all ingredients of genre. but Al Pacino and Sean Penn are masters to transform the known story in something real original. and this is basic virtue of film - it is not The Godfather or Scarface. it is a story about survive, fights, succes and fall who could not be reduced at simplicity of sketches, cliches or stereotypes. it is an alive story. that defines it. and does it great.

There's no rising above your station in life or destiny when you've been trained since adolescence. Pacino goes from Cuban mobster in Florida to Puerto Rican drug lord in the barrio. Not much has changed in my neighborhood as far as locations are concerned with the Metro North running above Park Avenue. The only difference is the clean-up it has undergone with police presence. But once upon a time, there was little safety walking down the streets of East Harlem, and this documents those ugly violent times where gang members didn't break into sing and dance a la "West Side Story".Practically every well known tough looking Hispanic actor makes an appearance in this, including several comics who show off their dramatic chops. While John Leguizamo went onto great fame in comedy standup, Rick Aviles (in a bit role as a brutal thug who gets a violent demise) is best known for the murdered in "Ghost", yet had a promising career in comedy before his early death. Among the other Hispanic actors, Luis Guzman stands out as Pacino's best friend who stands by him until a shocking end. Individual moments with these characters make you want them to escape, just as other moments want to make you see them fry.So while the cast is uniformally great (including a much disguised Sean Penn as an equally messed up defense attorney), the lives their characters lead are not so respectable. Through Pacino's voice over's, you get to hear his inner voice longing for a way out, but like Moses being lead to the burning bush, it's his destiny. He loves a beautiful white dancer (Penelope Ann Miller), but escaping his life is out of the question thanks to his past always sneaking up behind him. There are enemies who openly hate him (Leguizamo), those he trusts who betray him (Penn and Guzman) and the woman who loves him (Miller) and openly fears seeing him dying slowly in the middle of the night. While the film runs a lengthy 2 1/2 hours, the horrors of the every day fears will keep you mesmerized. Throats are slit, heads are bashed in, and flying bullets strike their victims in the most shocking of places. Many of the characters are pretty much perverts or beyond reproach, although there's a subtle hint of the gentleman in the often philosophical Carlito, as far away from "Scarface's" Tony Montana that Pacino and director Brian DePalma could make him. But it's obvious that this is a life where there are no winners. Like Faye Dunaway reveals as Bonnie Parker sadly, the only way out is death.

This quote from the film's third act could easily be the tagline for Carlito's Way, one of my favourite films and even a possible contender for my top 10 of all time. It tells the story of Carlito Brigante, a former criminal on early release, and his attempts to leave his past life, despite pretty much everyone around him dragging him back.It's only natural to draw comparisons between this and Scarface, both are crime movies directed by Brian DePalma and starring Al Pacino and in some ways the automatic comparison might be what has hindered this films popularity. Scarface is the more iconic and quotable film (and rightly so) but for my money Carlito's Way is the better film overall; a more mature and contemplative piece. There's a scene in a diner about mid-way through the movie in which Carlito tells Gail"This counsellor in Lewisburg, Mr. Seawald, once said to me: "Charlie, you run out of steam. You can't sprint all the way. You gotta stop sometime. You can't buck it forever. It catches up to you. It gets you. You don't get reformed, you just run out of wind.""This felt almost like a direct acknowledgement of Scarface and how this film would differ from it; Tony Montana in Scarface is clearly a character who tried to sprint all the way and ultimately paid for it. Carlito's lived to be older than Montana, he's more world-weary and experienced. In some ways Carlito's Way benefits from the fact Scarface came before it. Montana was petulant, he lived fast and died young. Now DePalma and Pacino present us with a different story, one that takes its time and carries the weight of experience and of maturity.There's several instances where Carlito shrugs off something that would've outraged Montano. Clearly Carlito's the more relaxed of the two, more comfortable in his own skin and less likely to cause a stir when it's unnecessary. Carlito seems tired of who he was in his youth and so he tries to do something different.The main problem with this plan, and the main conflict of the film, is that his departure from who he used to be is far from a clean break. He takes what he tells himself is a temporary job, running a nightclub populated by criminals, many of whom knew him when he was younger or are familiar with his legend. In other words: bad influences. Carlito makes the potentially fatal mistake of trying to be both a semi-gangster and a reformed citizen simultaneously and the end result was always going to be problematic.This very interesting dimension of DePalma's film is brought to the forefront by the character of Benny Blanco, an up-and-coming criminal who Carlito takes a strong dislike to despite the fact a friend tells him "It doesn't make sense you should hate this guy because this guy is you twenty years ago." He's essentially the physical manifestation of Carlito's younger self. When Carlito compromises on his no-crime promise and runs the nightclub, Benny is often lurking in the background. He represents Carlito's old life and Carlito now represents the new life he wants, it's only natural conflict should arise between the two. This external conflict between them matches the internal conflict between the two forces inside Carlito. Because he doesn't completely eradicate his younger avatar and instead keeps him around, the past (Benny) ultimately throws the future (Carlito) into severe jeopardy. When Carlito throws Benny out of the club, the two stand illuminated by red light. Blanco's whole face is covered in it; he's fully a gangster, totally at ease with what he is with no internal struggle to rectify. Carlito only has red light on one half of his face, divided exactly in the middle. He's not quite a gangster anymore but he can't quite fully leave it behind. It's this internal struggle that causes so many problems for him.There's also themes about growing older and hopes being dashed. There's a great scene where Carlito goes to see his former girlfriend who he still has feelings for. She tells him she's a dancer, yet, when he goes to see her perform, it turns out she's a stripper. Pacino plays it brilliantly, keyword: nuance. Up until that moment he had thought Gail had achieved her lifelong dream and yet instead he sees it's simply a pale imitation (a storyline that parallels his own). He has his shirt buttoned up to the top but when he enters the club and sees what kind of place it is he unbuttons his top button, adjusting his expectations (as well as demonstrating how easily he can oscillate between the two worlds when really he should stick to one). It's a film about the perceived necessity of compromise but also the dark ramifications of it.The dialogue, and Pacino's delivery, can feel a little cheesy occasionally but, if you let yourself enjoy the film and be invested in the characters, that won't be a problem.Slow in parts, but never boring, when the action scenes arrive they're some of the best you'll see in film (Particularly the chase sequence). DePalma uses long shots for the chase scenes rather than the more traditional quick, excessive jump cuts and the end result proves to be very effective, giving a real sense of peril. IMDb only allows 1,000 words so I can only briefly praise Sean Penn's fantastically seedy character and the excellent soundtrack.Overall, it's an interesting story, exploring a dimension of criminal life that's rarely been explored (and rarer still been explored this effectively). The tragedy of this film is that Carlito just can't shake off his former life, his compromises end with him getting in his own way, which makes for a more human story, even a more relatable one. One of Pacino's best films and the best DePalma film I've seen so far. Great for fans of cinema, directing and characterization.9/10