OK as this is my first post of 2013 on this blog I thought I would say a happy new year to everyone out there, and as this blog is primarily a review one, its time to start the new year with a review of another classic film. This time I've gone for Brian De Palma's action thriller, The Untouchables, made back in 1987, which has been given alot of acclaim over the years, so let's give it a looksee.
Starting with the obligatory plot synopsis, the film is set during the prohibtion era in Chicago in 1930, where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) reigns supreme and has most of the city under his control, and he supplies liquor at high prices. One of the bar's in the city however refuses to buy Capone's beer, and as a result the bar is destroyed in an explosion by Capone's men. Meanwhile, bureau treasury officer Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) who has been summoned to stop Capone, and he organsies a raid on Capone's warehouses, only to find that he has been set up as the warehouse crates contain japanese umbrellas. Humiliated in the press, Ness soon is met by the mother of a girl who killed in the explosion in the bar, who insists that he stop Capone now. Ness is then compelled to meet up with one of the tough beat cops, Malone (Sean Connery), whom he met on a walkway bridge the night before, he asks Malone for his help, but Malone refuses as he doesn't want to risk his life (which was the reason he walks the beat).
Ness however is soon met by Malone again who tells him he will help him get Capone, and they set about putting together a small team of men, which includes a bureau accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Anthony Smith) and police trainee and sharpshooter, George Stone (Andy Garcia). Together the men successfully launch a raid on one of Capone's warehouses, where they impound the liquor and arrest the men. As a result Capone, at one of his dinner parties, kills the manager of the warehouse in full view of his men, with a baseball bat. Capone then sends his main enforcer, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) to intimidate Ness, by sending him a friendly warning about his family. Ness then sends his wife and his daughter away from their home, and at the same time Malone arrives on the scene with news that of a big international shipment coming in over the Canadian border. Ness and his men travel to the border and with the help of the Canadian mounties they raid the liquor shipment. Ness kills one of Capone's men in self defence during the raid, and Stone is injured in the arm by a gunshot.
Ness also interrogates one of Capone's men, George (Brad Sullivan), who they captured, and initially refuses to talk, but Malone takes the dead man who Ness killed earlier and shoots him in the head, after which George panics and cooperates. On hearing the news of the raid, Capone is furious and orders Ness to be killed as well his men and his family. As a result Nitti smuggles himself into the Chicago police station, disguised as a police officer, he shoots Oscar and George dead in a lift. Enraged by this, Ness storms into Capone's hotel and confronts him on the stairs, but Malone restrains and takes him away, leaving Capone yelling abuse at Ness. After this the DA (Clifton James) whom Ness was using to prosecute Capone, decides to drop the case. Malone angry at Ness's defeat tells him to stall the DA as he will try and find out the location of Capone's bookeeper, Walter Payne (Jack Kehoe) with whom if they capture him, they can force him to testify against Capone. Malone meets with his police chief Mike Dorsett (Richard Bradford) whom leaked the info about the previous shipments, and forces him to reveal the whereabouts of the bookeeper. However before Malone can meet with Ness to tell him the info, Nitti sets up an ambush at Malone's whom and shoots him down with a machine gun. Ness soon arrives at Malone's apartment, and with his dying breath, Malone tells Ness that the bookeeper is a on train, after which he dies.
Ness with Stone then heads to the train station where he has a gunfight on the stairs of the station with Capone's men who guard Payne. Having killed the men, Ness and Stone take Payne and he is put on trial and testifies against Capone in court. On the day of trial Capone consults with Nitti, and Ness notices that Nitti is wearing a gun inside his jacket. Ness tells the court bailiff to escort Nitti outside the courtroom, where Ness searches him and takes away his gun, but Nitti reveals he has a permit for it, written by the mayor of Chicago. Ness however also takes a pack of matches from Nitti's jacket, which reveals the address of Malone's apartment, which leads Nitti to flee in panic, shooting the bailiff. Ness then chases Nitti up onto the roof where they have a climactic gunfight and Ness eventually corners Nitti, who was trying to escape by using a rope to break into a window below. Ness pulls Nitti up onto the roof, who taunts Ness by saying Malone died screaming like a stuck pig, and that he will get off with his murder, which then leads an enraged Ness to push off Nitti off the roof. Shortly after Ness goes back into the court where Stone tells him that he found a jury list from Nitti's coat, showing that jury members have all been bribed. In the last scenes Ness goes back into court and speaks with the judge and confronts him on Capone's actions, which leads into the film's final judgment.
The Untouchables was critically acclaimed on its release and its fairly easy to see why as it is a very solid, polished and highly entertaining crime thriller. There have been in the past before it plenty of crime films, but in the Untouchables we got a great mix of drama, action as well as moments of humour. Brian De Palma also adds very well to the proceedings with his very stylish visual sense, and trademark shots, as he like his use of putting an actor in the foreground with one in the background, as well using big overhead shots, like the one at the start of the film. De Palma also knows how to make a really good thriller as well, and he certainly excels at this in the Untouchables as the film has several suspenseful moments, especially the scene on the stairs at the train station where Ness helps a lady up the stairs with her baby in a pram, only to have a gunfight with Capone's men, leaving the pram to clatter down the stairs during the fight. And the film's climactic gunfight up on the rooftops between Ness and Nitti is also a real highlight of the film also, as is the raid on Capone's shipment at the Canadian border.
Performance wise the film is also very good, as Sean Connery puts in a terrific performance as the tough veteran cop, Malone, who helps Ness in bringing down Capone. And despite the lapses in his so-called Irish accent, Connery is great throughout and it would be tough not to feel for him in his final scene where he dies from his gunshot wounds from Nitti's ambush. Connery also gets the film's best dialogue, some of my favourite lines include where he raids Capone's warehouse and the manager asks him "Have you got a warrant???", to which Malone replies "sure, here's my warrant!" and butts him in the stomach with his shotgun, after which he says "How do you think he feels now?? Better or worse?!". I also like one of his final lines in the film where he confronts one of Capone's goons who tries to attack him in his apartment with a knife, where he turns around with his shotgun and says "isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gunfight!". Robert De Niro as Al Capone does a fine job as the infamous gangster, having gained 30lbs in weight for the part, and his scene at the dinner party where he talks about his love for baseball in front of his men, before bashing one of his men's brains in with a baseball bat, is a real highlight, as well as quite chilling. De Niro also gets one of the film's best lines where he is angered by Ness's successful raids, and he shouts "I want him dead! I want his family DEAD!! I want his house burned to the ground! And I wanna go in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!!!".
Andy Garcia also makes a good impression as George Stone, the young police cadet who becomes one of Ness's team and his best moment comes where he meets Malone, who accuses him of "being a lying member of a no good race!", after which Stone angrily points a gun at his face and says "its much better you, you stinking Irish shit pig!". Charles Anthony Smith as the accountant, Oscar Wallace is also very good in his part as the bookish bureacrat, who becomes one of the untouchables, although he does keep making the same agument about how they should prosecute Capone for income tax evasion! And finally we have Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness, who to be honest is the weak link in the cast, as Costner is not the best of actors, and his performance is somewhat wooden at times, and he lacks the force and character that Ness really needs, and he delivers some of lines really lamely such as "you're not from Chicago" who he says to the Canadian mountie leader, who disproves of his methods. However Costner does have his moments and his best scene in the film comes when he is payed a visit by one of Capone's associates who tries to bribe him, but Ness tells him "you tell your master we must agree to disagree!!!" where he throws the bribe envelope at the associate and throws him out the office.
The film it has to be said also has some flaws, as for starters like quite a few Hollywood films, it heavily fictionalises the real life events behind Ness and Capone. As in the film it depicts Ness as almost single handedly bringing down Capone and successfully prosecuting him for income tax evasion. However in reality Ness had very little to do with Capone's actual prosecution in court as he had various grand jury cases before he was imprisoned. Another historical inaccuracy is the depiction of Frank Nitti in the film as Nitti is portrayed as more of a heavy than anything else, when in fact he was in acutally Capone's second in command and he headed the strong-arm and muscle operations, so while its possible he might have performed the odd hit, it seems unlikely he would have done it himself. Also Nitti in the film is killed by Ness, which is again fictional as in reality, Nitti died years later, after he took over control of Capone's organisation, he later took his own life in light of his downfall. In fact Nitti was portrayed more accurately in the crime film, Road to Perdition, 15 years later, by Stanely Tucci as a head business man and 2nd in command, rather than a heavy (at least I think!).
As for the film itself flaw wise I felt at times David Mamet's script somewhat overly simplified the events of the film, as he makes things happen rather quickly and simply. As an example in the scene where Malone takes Ness on their first liquor raid, they do it out of the blue, almost on a whim, rather than plan it out or make a choice, and Malone coveniently catches Oscar walking into the room, where he promptly hands him a gun, and before we know it, they go on the raid! I also didn't buy some of the scenes in the film, particularly at the end where Capone's defence lawyer decides to instantly change his plea from not guilty to guilty, simply because Capone shoves him! It just feels to me like Mamet rushed the script for the film, and in those moments it doesn't feel clearly thought out. In reality Ness also had a larger team of men with him, and not just four men, as in reality he had a team of 50 men which was eventually reduced to 11, and it seems very unlikely four men alone could bring down Capone's whole organisation! I also felt throughout the film that Oscar kept making his case that they could prosecute Capone for income tax evasion, yet Ness seems to ignore this until later, and its almost like Mamet is trying to remind us of this and throw it in our faces as to how they eventually prosecuted Capone! Yes I think we get it! ;-)
But despite all that the Untouchables is a highly enjoyable, suspenseful and engrossing thriller, and after 26 years its still as entertaining as it was on its release, and regardless of any of its flaws, De Palma and Mamet did a fine job in bringing the film to the big screen. And before I finish I can't leave without mentioning the superb music score by Ennio Morricone, and its title theme is one of the very best in recent years, with its eerie harmonica (synominous with Morricone!) piano and echoing drums.
So with that I shall finish there. Oh and happy new year! (again).
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