Well, I thought I would get another post in before the end of the month, so I'm doing another revisitation post and this one is on the action thriller, The Untouchables, which I've re-done a few years ago but figured I would update it anyway.
So, 35 years onward, let's take another look at this action classic and see how it fairs!
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!
STORY
So, the film is set during
the prohibition 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
organizes 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 defense 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.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, who they kill and take Payne to stand trial.
Payne is soon put on trial and
testifies against Capone in court and during the 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.
And from here Ness engages Nitti in a cat and mouse gunfight on the
rooftops as Ness tries to get revenge for the deaths of Malone and Oscar
while his court case with Capone hangs in the balance...
THOUGHTS
The Untouchables was
critically acclaimed on its release and its easy to see why as it
is a very solid, polished and highly entertaining crime thriller.
There has 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 that make it stand out.
The film however is of course based on real life events but it also does
take some liberties with the truth as well but I will get more into them
later in the review and for the sake of Hollywood sensationalism you
will always get some distortions of the truth. Regardless of this
though the film still is well crafted and has a largely fine script by
the acclaimed playwright, David Mamet.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain strong language and spoilers!)
Performance
wise the film is mainly very good and its features a strong solid cast.
However I have to start with Kevin Costner, who while he is a
very decent and competent actor, I feel his performance here as Eliot
Ness is a bit wooden and stilted at times and he lacks the intensity
required to play the character. This is not however to say that he
doesn't have some good moments in the film as he certainly does have
some good scenes and overall his performance isn't bad.
And to mention a few for starters there is the scene where Ness first
meets Malone on a bridge as Ness throws away a piece of paper with a
message from his wife saying she's proud of him and Malone tells off
Ness for throwing his garbage away. And in the scene Ness reaches into
his jacket pocket for something but Malone stops him and places his
truncheon on the jacket and he asks "OK pal, why the mohashka?? Why are
you packing the gun?!" and Ness says "I'm a treasury officer!" and
Malone takes a moment and says "Alright, just remember what we talked
about now!" and walks off.
This however leaves Ness in a state of anger and disbelief and he walks
after Malone and says "Hey, wait a minute! What the hell kind of
policemen you got in this god damn city? You just turned your back on an
armed man!" and Malone says "You're a treasury officer" and Ness
sharply says "How do you know that?! I just told I was??" and Malone
says "Who would claim to be that, who was not?? Hmm?".
Then there is perhaps Costner's best scene in the film where an
associate of Capone's, Alderman (Del Close) tries to brive Ness in his
office. And in the scene, Ness suddenly cuts off Alderman's bribe offer
and asks Malone, Stone and Oscar to come into the office. And Ness
tells Alderman "In roman times, when a when a fellow was convicted of
trying to bribe a
public official, they would cut off his nose, and sew him in a bag with a
wild animal, and throw him in a river" and Ness crumples up Alderman's
bribe envelope and tells him "You tell your master that we must agree to
DISAGREE!" and he throws the enevelope at Alderman. And Alderman warns
him "You're making a mistake" and Ness says "Yeah I know, well I've
made them before I'm beginning to enjoy them!" and he grabs Alderman by
his jacket and says "And you tell Capone, I'll see him in hell!" and he
throws him out.
Another good scene is just after (SPOILER!!) Oscar is murdered by Nitti,
Ness storms into the hotel where Capone is staying and he sees Capone
walk down the stairs with his men and his young son. And one of
Capone's goons walks toward him and says "Something you want in here?"
and Ness says "My friend was killed today" and the goon says "I don't
care!" and Ness says "You don't care...." and decks the goon and he says
"Now he does!".
And Ness challenges Capone "Come on here, Capone! You want to fight? You
and me, right here?! That's
it, come on! What's the matter? You afraid to come out from behind your
men, you afraid to stand up for yourself?!". And this pisses off
Capone, who says "You wanna do it now?! You wanna do the mat right
now?!" and Ness shouts "Yeah! Come on, you guinea son of a bitch!" which
riles Capone even more and he shouts "You talk to me like that infront
of my son?! Fuck you and your family!" and Ness goes for his gun but
Malone suddenly arrives and restrains him and they leave.
Then there is the gunfight between Ness and Nitti, which kicks off with
Ness finding a pack of matches from Nitti's jacket and he lights one and
from the back of the pack he sees the address of Malone's apartment,
which Ness immediately susses that Nitti killed him. And Ness says
"1630 Racine....you know I had a friend that once live there...!" and
Nitti pulls his gun out and does a runner and Ness chases up onto the
rooftops.
And after Ness prepares to arrest Nitti, he says to him "They're gonna
burn you, buddy!" and Nitti says "Oh yeah?" and Ness says "Yeah! I'm
going to see you burn, you son of a bitch, because you killed my
friend!" and he pushes Nitti away. And Nitti taunts Ness by saying "He
died like a pig" and Ness grabs Nitti and says "What did you say???" and
Nitti again says "I said your friend died screaming like a stuck Irish
pig. Now you think about that when I beat the rap!". And as Nitti walks
away, a furious Ness suddenly walks up behind him and pushes Nitti off
the rooftop to his death and Nitti screams as he falls to the ground and
Ness shouts at him "DID HE SOUND ANYTHING LIKE THAT????!!!".
Then there is the scene where Ness speaks to the judge in his office and shows the judge the juror list that was taken from Nitti's pocket showing they had been bribed but the judge refuses to accept it as evidence.
So, in the scene, the judge after looking at the list dismisses it and says "This constitutes no evidence, it has no provenance. I'm not about to allow..." and Ness interrupts him and says "Your honor the truth of the case is that the man Capone is a killer and he will go free and there is only one way to deal with such men and that is to hunt them down. I have. I have foresworn myself. I have broken every law I have sworn to uphold, I have become what I beheld and I am content that I have done right! Now that must be stopped and you must...!". And the judge interrupts him and says "I will be judge of what I must do, Mr Ness!" and Ness turns to the others and says "Will you excuse us?" and Stone opens the door and he and the DA and Capone's defense lawyer all leave.
And last of all is the final scene where Ness clears out his desk and is about to leave his office and Stone comes in and says his goodbyes. And Stone says to Ness "So, I guess this is goodbye" and Ness smiles and says "Goodbye, George" and Ness takes out Malone's pocket watch and Stone says "Mr Ness, I think he would have wanted you to have that" and Ness says "No, he would have wanted a copy to have it" and he gives it to Stone with a handshake and says "I'm going home" and leaves. And as Ness leaves, the reporter, Scoop, from earlier in the film asks him "Mr Ness, the man who put Al Capone on the spot. Any comment?" and Ness says "I just happened to be there when the wheel went round" and Scoop asks him "They say they are going to re-appeal prohibition. What will you do then?" and Ness smiles and says "I think I'll have a drink" and he walks off.
Sean Connery next up puts in a terrific
performance as the tough veteran cop, Malone, who helps Ness in bringing
down Capone for which he won an Academy award for best supporting
actor. And despite the lapses in his so-called Irish accent,
Connery is great throughout and his final scene certainly packs an emotional punch for audiences.
Connery has his share of great moments in the film and he gets the best
dialogue and it would be hard to mention all his great scenes so I will
confine myself to a few and for starters there is the scene where Malone
meets with Ness in a church. And the two of them sit together and
Malone says to Ness "You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really
wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?"
and Ness says "Anything within the law" and Malone says "And THEN what
are you prepared to do?! You see what I'm saying? If you are gonna
open the ball on these people you have to be prepared to go ALL the
way! Because they are not gonna give up the right until one of you is
dead!".
And Ness says "I wanna get Capone, I don't know how to get him" and
Malone says "You wanna know how to get Capone? This is how you get him.
They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He
sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.
THAT'S the CHICAGO way! And that's how you get Capone! Now do you
want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm offering you a deal. Do
you want this deal?". And Ness says "I have sworn to capture this man
with all legal powers at my disposal and I will do so!" and Malone takes
a moment and says "Well, the Lord hates a coward" and he shakes hands
with Ness and says "Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr Ness?" and Ness
says "Yes" and Malone says to him "Good, cos' you just took one!".
Then there is the scene where Malone and Ness try and recruit a rookie
cop for their team down at a training firing range and Malone questions,
an Italian American, George Stone (Garcia). And in the scene Malone
asks Stone "Where are you from, Stone?" and Stone says "From the South
side" and Malone says to him "Stone. George Stone. That's your name?
What's your REAL name?!" and Stone says "That is my real name" but
Malone persists "Nah, what was it before you CHANGED it?!" and Stone
takes a moment and says "Giuseppe Petri". And this angers Malone, who
says "Jeez, I knew it! That's all you need, one thieving wop on the
team!" and George asks him "Hey, what's that you say?" and Malone
carrying a clipboard prods it against George's chest saying "I said
you're a lying member of a no-good race!". And this prompts George
batter the clipboard out of Malone's hands and he points his gun at
Malone's chin and says "Much better than you, you stinking Irish shit
pig!" and all of a suddeny Malone is impressed and says "Oh, I like
him!".
Another good scene is when Malone and Ness along with Stone and Oscar go
on their first raid on Capone as they prepare to break into one of
Capone's liquor warehouses. And Malone says to Ness as they stand
outside the warehouse door "If you walk through this door now, you're
walking into a world of trouble and there's no turning back, you
understand?" and Ness says "Yes, I do" and Malone then takes an axe and
smashes the door in and unlocks and they go in and raid the warehouse.
And as Malone says to workers "All this stuff is impounded! You're all
under arrest!" and as the manager walks up and says "Hey this isn't
good! This isn't right! You got a warrant?!" Malone replies "Sure,
here's my warrant!" and he hits him twice in the stomach with the butt
of his shotgun and Malone says to the others "How do you think he feels
now? Better? Or worse?!".
Another good scene is when Malone turns up to see Ness outside his home with news of Capone's latest shipment at the Canadian border. So, in the scene Ness angrily says to Malone "I wanna hurt the man, Malone. I wanna take the battle to him! I wanna HURT Capone!" and Malone says "Well, then a Merry Christmas! Cos we've got some good news!" and he says to Stone "Tell him" and Stone says "We just got word of a big international shipment coming through" and Malone says "We got the time, the place, the whole shebang" and Ness says "Well, what are we doing standing around here then?". And as the men start to run off, Ness asks Malone "How do you come by this information?" and Malone says "Oh, that's the second rule of police work. If you wanna keep a secret, don't tell the boss!".
Then we have the scene where Malone confronts the police chief, Mike
Dorsett as he presses Mike to find out where they can find Capone's book
keeper, Walter Payne. And in the scene the two of them argue loudly
and Malone shouts at Mike "Mike, they ruined this town! And for 20
years I can't eat my food with the shit that's goin' and saying I'm a
cop!" and Mike shouts at him "Bullshit! Fuckin bullshit!". And Malone
shouts at him "I need to know where this guy is and I need to now, or
I'm gonna rat you out for all the shit that I know you've done in your
life! I'm gonna turn you over!" and the two of them start to fight,
which ends with Malone slamming Mike against a wall and taking out his
gun. And Malone says to Mike "Right, let's cut the woofing, pal! You
tell me, or you goin' to hospital or the fuckin morgue!".
And last of all there is the scene where one of Capone's thugs sneaks
into his house armed with a switchblade and as he tries to creep up on
him, Malone suddenly turns around carrying a sawn-off shotgun. And
Malone laughs saying "Isn't that just like a wop?! Brings a knife to a
gunfight!" and Malone starts to chase the thug out of his apartment and
he shouts "Get out of here, ya dago bastard! Go on! Get your ass out
of here!" only for him stop at his door and see Nitti from a distance
with a Tommy gun, who opens fire on him....
Robert De Niro here also does a fine job as Al Capone and for the
role he put on 30 pounds in weight (half the weight he put on for
"Raging Bull") although he still does have some hammy moments in the
film himself, however overall when it comes to play a sinister gangster,
few do it better than De Niro.
And De Niro has quite a few good scenes in the film, too that include the film's opening scene where Capone is about to be shaved and some newspaper reporters stand over him asking some questions. And one of the reporters asks Capone "And what do you say to those about your reputation is that you control your business through violence. That those that don't purchase your products are dealt with violently". And as the barber is about to shave Capone, Capone flinches a little at the question, which accidentally causes the barber to cut his chin but Capone puts him at ease and says "Its alright" and Capone says to the reporter "I grew up in a tough neighbourhood. We used to say, "You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word." And in that neighbourhood it might've been true. And sometimes your reputation follows you. There is violence in Chicago of course, but not by me and not by anybody I employ. And I'll tell why, because it's not good business".
And Bradford's most notable scene is when Malone confronts Mike over the whereabouts of Capone's book kepper, Payne. And in the scene the two men run into a back alley while it rains heavily and Mike says "Where are we goin' for a swim?! Get out of the rain, you fool!" and Mike angrily asks Malone "What?! What?!". And Malone says "I need just on more piece of information" and Mike says "One more?! I just risked my life for ya!" and Malone says "I need to find that bookkeeper" and Mike says "You're crazy! I warned you to get out of town, if they find out it was me I'm dead!". However Malone continues to press Mike "I need to find that book keeper!" and Mike angrily shouts "Your fuckin nuts, man! Your fuckin out of your mind! And I tried to save your life".
And as they continue to Malone angrily says to Mike "I need to know where this guy is and I need to now, or I'll rat you out for all the shit I know you'd one in your life! I'm gonna turn you over!" and Mike stares at him and says "This is dead man talkin to me" and Malone says "Is it?!" and Mike says "You're dead" and tries to walk away but they start fighting. And Mike appears to gain the upper hand and shouts "Who the hell do you think your are?! I'll have your ass hangin from the flagpole in the mornin!".
And last of all Patricia Clarkson does well as Ness's wife, Catherine, who's role in the film is rather small but she still does well with what she is given. And I will mention two of her scenes with the first where Ness reads the paper about the bar being blown up at the start. And Catherine says to Ness of the bombing "Yes, I heard it on the radio, but now its time to go to work" and Ness get's up and straightens Ness's shirt and his puts her hand through his hair "You'll make a good first impression" and they hug and she says "I love you, Eliot" and then she smiles and pushes him away and says "Now shoo!".
And the second scene is where not long after Ness scores his first big raid on Capone as he seizes the shipment at the Canadian border, Ness after visits Catherine in the hospital as he looks at their newborn baby.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally moving onto the direction, Brian De Palma does a great job here with the film as he is an expert at cranking up the suspense during the film's tense action scenes especially in the scenes where Ness and his men raid Capone's men at the Canadian border, Malone's demise, the train station shootout and finally Ness's cat and mouse chase of Nitti.
De Palma also proves his skills again when it comes to creating interesting and eye-catching visual compositions in the scenes, particularly the opening scene where we see an overhead shot of Capone sitting in a barber's chair surrounded by reporters and his men. He's also great at framing actors such as in the scene where Ness and Malone meet in a church and Malone is one the left side of the frame and Ness is on the right and makes great use of the anomorphic format. So, its a great effort from De Palma overall and the film's pacing is tight throughout also.
As for the film's score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, its simply terrific and its main theme is very memorable and the score also has plenty of other highlights that include the Ness's raid at the Canadian border, the gunfight at the train station and also Ness's pursuit of Nitti over the courthouse rooftops. And for me it easily stands out as one of Morricone's very best scores overall although he would go on to provide a similar score in the Clint Eastwood thriller, In the Line of Fire but for me this score is far better.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for flaws....yeah OK as good as The Untouchables might be it still does have a few.
And to start off it has to be said like quite a few Hollywood films, it heavily fictionalises the real life events behind Ness and Capone. And 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. Ness is also depicted as being happily married to his wife but in reality his marriage was fraught with tension and difficulties as he himself struggled with alcoholic issues in his later years and would go on to die from a heart attack in 1957 at the age of 55.
Another historical inaccuracy is the depiction of Frank Nitti in the film as Nitti is portrayed as more of an enforcer or a middle management figure like a capo, when in fact he was in actually Capone's second in command (or technically speaking an under boss) 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 1943 in order to avoid prison. 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.
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! So, again this is a prime example of taking liberties with the truth but then it would have been more hectic to have 50 guys on the screen to deal with than 4 I guess.
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! To be fair though, the point of the scene was as Malone said, they know the location of Capone's liquor manufacturing, just no one will cross him. However its funny how Malone says to Ness "Everybody knows where the booze is!" well except Ness himself!
Actually I have to correct an error I made in my original post where
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. This is NOT the case at all (and apologies for that!) because in
the film as the judge decides to switch the juries due to the jurors
being bribed by Capone and I'd assume since they would switch juries,
the other jurors would not be bribed and would therefore probably not
bring in a "not guilty" verdict, so Capone's lawyer recommended that he
plead guilty.
However there is an additional error here in the film because apparently
a defense lawyer cannot have the power to directly overturn the
defendant's verdict as he would need to really have his client's consent
before doing so. So again Capone's lawyer makes a rather rash decision
without even consulting with Capone in the first place!
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, David!
Another daft scene in the film for me comes when Ness during his raid at
the Canadian border shoots one of Capone's thugs, who doesn't speak
English but Ness afterward shouts at the dead man "What are you deaf?!
Didn't you hear what I said?! What is this??!! A game???!!". However
Ness has just shot the guy dead so surely he must realise the man could
not hear him since he's now deceased! Its a moment in the film that
always kind of bugged me.
And last of all I found it strange how Nitti murdered three people
during Ness's chase of him yet none of this really gets back to Capone
in the courtroom and the court is not adjourned or anything either! I mean his right-hand man has just killed three
people but nothing is really made of it given that Capone is in direct
control of this man, yet he has just ran amok shooting people! Although
Ness probably was keeping it quiet during the court proceedings
anyway. I also found it quite convenient how Nitti was able to land
neatly into a diagonally parked car as he fell to his death but that's
another thing!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up The Untouchables is still a highly enjoyable, suspenseful and engrossing thriller,
and after 35 years is still as entertaining as it was on its release with some very solid performances from its cast and great action scenes from De Palma as well as a terrific score by Ennio Morricone. And despite the film's various historical inaccuracies, they don't detract from the film's qualities and its still an excellent thriller worth a look.
And I will rate The Untouchables:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back probably next month if not before then with another post.
Till then, bye for now!
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