Essay Questions

Was it reasonable of Al Capone to believe this movie was based on his life of crime?

Although the movie's writers assured Capone's men that the storyline was not based on him or his criminal activities, they were really telling him this for their own protection. Before seeing the film and witnessing its commercial success, Capone was furious that the murderous and amoral character he had heard was coming to the big screen was based on him and would therefore draw attention to him and bring interest from the authorities. The writers knew that admitting he had been their inspiration would be very bad for their future health and wellbeing. Yet Capone was no fool. He knew that he was the most infamous criminal in Chicago and must be the inspiration for the film. Even some of his exploits that were officially involved were featured in the film and the characters were all recognizable to him. The writers were fortunate; the movie was a hit, Capone was pleased with the violent portrayal of him and felt that being portrayed in this way elevated him above all other syndicate gangsters and cemented him as kingpin. His certainty that he was the character on the screen is fueled partly by arrogance and partly by intelligence.

In what way does the film call out the authorities for the rise in street crime?

Aside from the obvious accusatory statement preceding the credits of the movie, Hawks lays the blame for the rise in violent crime and the unfettered rise of the mobsters as quasi-celebrities firmly at the door of the FBI and the government whom he believes have done nothing to prevent the city being walked all over by Capone and his men.To a degree he was absolutely right; the writers basically used real life criminals and real life events in the screenplay and exaggerated nothing at all. Clearly crime was getting out of hand and the police seemed to have no answer for it. Indeed sometimes they seemed to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. They were paid off or merely looked the other way for their own safety. The film shows them up as letting the criminals take over the city without an answer and the writers and director were no longer prepared to allow this to continue without showing the cinema going public who was responsible for letting their city get overrun with violence and crime.

What makes this version of "Scarface" more critically acclaimed than the more modern re-make?

Al Pacino's "Scarface" is a cultural icon, primarily for his over-exaggerated used of the F-word but also for his partially unintelligible delivery of parts of the script. He appears on posters, t-shoes and refrigerator magnets yet his version of the movie is ranked far lower on the top movie lists than the Howard Hawks original. There are several main reasons for this; the original version was released during the heyday of Capone and his criminal syndicate. This meant that the film has a greater impact because it is "real time" and it was groundbreaking for its time. It also had far greater shock value and contained more curse words than any movie that pre-dated it. Despite Pacino's brilliance the daring of releasing the original version at the time of Capone and his cohorts gave it a greater authenticity than the later remake.