The Book Scarface and its Movie Version - Term Paper Example

The book Scarface and its movie version The movie “Scarface” 1983 got produced by Martin Bregman, directed by Brian De Palma, and written by now director, Oliver Stone fighting against a cocaine addiction. Oliver stone consulted the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Miami police while writing the film, integrating many true crimes in the film, including employing crime scene photos to instigate the infamous chainsaw scene (Banks 13). Being derived from the book “Scarface” by Armitage Trail the movie relies so much from the book’s plot and themes. The film was to be filmed originally in Florida but received condemnations from the Cuban society who objected to various parts of the movie. They became mainly opposed to the portrayal of Cubans as drug traffickers and demanded the script to be changed to integrate anti-Fidel Castro pomposity (most notably, altering Tony Montana, its main actor, into a detective working for Castro and the employment of anti-Castro political government into the plot as stops for Montana) into the movie. The experience while watching the movie, it will perhaps be thrilling to some individuals, particularly those already keen on Brian work, and exceptionally off - putting to others. Montana may not be a pleasing character with dominates in the movie lasting nearly 3 hours, but there is little chance of disremembering the experience. The movie got adapted for the screen by Brian De Palma in 1983, Scarface (by Trail) fictionalizing Al Capone career. Capone had become the most widely recognized figure of American gangsterism by the end of 1920s, seen as dynamism in American life that the government had no power to control. Capone had also a considerable political influence and an instance of how a gangster might make a business benefit of his reputation. In narrating his story, Trail (Maurice Coons) sunk to some lengths in the chase for credibility, seeking out Sicilian gangsters and dipping himself in Chicago’s gangland so as to gather facts for the book (Banks 37). One of the key concerns in the illustration of so flashily transgresses a figure is if the gangster ought to be contained in a moralizing frame that operates in the manner of the customary detective narrative – explicitly, to judge, disempower and discipline the criminal. When Hawks Howard directed the Scarface movie, he came under extreme pressure from the film’s producers to create a moral background for the story that could point the blame at the gangster. The movie could not be released till scenes got amended and added, allowing orators for official morality to provide an attack about gangsters as an evil power in society (Banks 23). In the novel, conversely, the frame is rather dissimilar, moralizing the profession of the gangster but similarly quite explicitly reconnoitering social - political foundations of gangsterism. Tony Guarino, the main figure in Capone, is both scapegoat and protagonist, and Brian way of commenting on the story is to interpolate numerous channels that function to create a normative moral, viewpoint. He maintains that, as a model figure, the gangster delivers a warning tale rather than a stylish role model, but, from his opening explanations to the moralizing culmination of the novel. He also presents the renowned career of Scarface as an admonition to the society that shaped him – a lesson that helps in the restoration of a decent government. Trail also gives to Scarface to himself the role of expressing the origins of his own corrupt superiority. Moved by a social impulse, Tony Guarino transcribes prior to his death a “damning indictment”, unveiling his “expansive vision” of own role in making the “monster” of his mob and of the corrupt organization that has facilitated his growth (Banks 68). One of Hecht's strongest insights, that criminals are not so many masterminds as undisciplined, ruthless children, came from chats with gangsters while employed as a journalist at Chicago. Hecht portrays Tony as a child, refusing to recognize the presence of the motivations of other humans." Consequently, despite the violence showed in Scarface, the movie theaters more as a comical satire about preening apes and buffoons in hats than the reverent portrayal of larger than lifespan anti - heroes numerous gangster into which the novel decentralize (Banks 99). In accustoming Scarface, Hecht patterns the novel's backstory, cop brother, and adds a sister whom Tony has incestuous desires ostensible to everybody but himself, a desire which ultimately attests to be his weakness. He also employed Scarface as a means of criticizing his colleague journalists whom he sensed had helped in glorifying gangsters. Hecht centered the character Johnny Lovo, the boss of Tony, on Johnny Torrio, and the North-side boss named Big Louie on Big Jim. He also drew on numerous incidents well - known to the movie viewers, such as the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Deannie's assassination at a flower shop and the murder of Legs Diamond at a hospital bed (Banks 45). After receiving Hecht's handling, Hawks turned the story two young writers, John Lee and Mahin Seton I. Miller, who remain credited for the movie's dialogue and continuity. Miller was a writer who worked with Hawks before he co wrote the early Louise Brooks exertion “A Girl in Every Port”, and provided the dialogue for “The Criminal Code” and “The Dawn Patrol. Like Miller, Mahin was only 28 years old. Unlike Miller, Scarface was the first screenplay for Mahin's. He had worked as a journalist in New York City. He got fired by William Randolph for writing a negative analysis of Marion Davies, Hearst's mistress, and later headed for Hollywood at the invite of fellow journalist Hecht Ben (Banks 143). Handing a screenplay from one writer to another was not an unusual process in those days. Hollywood studios moved toward screenwriting practice as an assembly line procedure for decades. With one team of writers developed the story, another team worked on the dialogue while another provided re - writes, with little collaboration between the groups. In this case, Hecht fetched out the novel's storyline, created many new ideas, defined characters, wrote dialogue, then Mahin and Miller worked out the continuity and progression of the scenes, they also wrote additional dialogue. Whether Mahin and Miller worked together as a group or one after the other, it can not be said (given the notch to which Miller later begrudged collaborating with other writers). It is also indistinct which, if either of them did re - writes attempting to content the restriction boys in the Hays Organization. Hawks himself did work on the script, and, as was frequently the case, did not yield any credit. In any event, the procedure of producing a Scarface screenplay turned out to be rather painless. To get the movie from pages to the screen attested that something existed at least done (Banks 201). Infinitely quotable, Brian De Palma modification of Armitage Trail novel version revels in its liberty to be greater than life. The work reworks the crime story in bold, primary colors, frequently blood red. Attracting a perceptible attention for its violence when it got released, the controversy outshined the fact that everything contained in the film run to extremes, counting Pacino's performance. The director's visual stylishness found him almost relapsing to the novel mode, the dialogue from the script and most significantly the themes of the novel and the movie correlate. Scarface emphases on words like "America" and "crime" then lets itself with the connotations (Banks 232). Could Brian De Palma manage to come up with his work or something close to it without Armitage Trail work? The answer no answer stands well observed when someone goes through these works. Works Cited Banks, L. A. Scarface: The Beginning. New York: DH Press, 2006. Read More