Film Analysis of Scarface the Movie
Uploaded by MichaelA31 on Mar 19, 2006
The American Dream in the Film Scarface
The film Scarface can be directly compared to the myth of the American Dream. The contemporary perception of the American Dream is one monetary gains and power in society. Scarface is a gangster movie in which the main character Tony Montana tries to reach his dream of overwhelming power and wealth. Tony Montana like Jay Gatsby believed that after obtaining enormous power and wealth, one would live in happily ever after. The director Brian De Palma like Fitzgerald shows that people seeking the American Dream will not attain happiness because of the unworthiness of its object and the means used to get to realize it. Money and power alone will lead to corruption and unhappiness. De Palma makes a statement about the facade of organized crime, and the farce of the American Dream by using Tony as a prime example of someone trying to achieve the American Dream. When Tony finally reaches a substantial level of power and wealth, pressure builds up and he gets easily angered and things begin the downward climb. Its first starts when he walks over his own partners that were loyal to him from the beginning. Things finally unravel when everyone around him is dead, including his beloved sister.
First and foremost, the director shows a classic example of a gangster working his way up literally from rags to riches. Tony starts out as a body guard for one of the big mobsters, and quickly learns that to get to the top in underground cocaine selling, you have to step all over people. The director correlates this advancement in status to the new American tradition of finding any way possible to get where you want in life. As Tony’s character ‘matures’ during the movie he gets greedier and more violent. His motto was the “World is yours” and believed the world and everything in it was primed for his taking. He climbs his way through the hierarchical ladder, surpassing his former bosses and he believes that he is on a pedestal alone.
Organized crime had developed a stigma regarding its power and influence, especially during its hay day in the 1930’s. The mob had always been viewed as a powerful “family-like” organization. By overturning Lovo’s (Tony’s first boss) position of power, Tony represents the idea of “every man for himself”. The viewer steps into a cut-throat world of power...