YOU'RE GETTING OLDER, DEAR: "Scarface" is 40 Years Old This Month!
"Scarface" is now 40 years old, and if you saw it in a movie theatre during its original 1983 run, then, oh, my, you're getting up there, aren't you? Me? I wasn't even a stye in my mother's eye yet (just go with me on this) (because you know it's true). As you're likely aware, "Scarface" was a remake of the 1932 original directed by Howard Hawks and headlined by Paul Muni. But this wasn't just any remake. Though it was released in 1983, having been kicked around in development in the late 1970s, I've always looked upon it as a late-1970s movie which predicted the 1980s-era of unshackled greed, or the coke-snorting, bloody reality of Reaganomics. This isn't a stretch on my part. Though the script was written by Oliver Stone, there was a reason De Palma famously kicked Stone off the set once shooting commenced, since De Palma, though excited by Stone's dialogue - which is gloriously obscene - was far more interested in creating...