Ok so Carlito's Way was directed by Brian De Palma roughly I think 10 years after he directed Scarface. Both star Al Pacino as the principal character, but differ alot story wise. Scarface was about an immigrant criminal climbing the ladder of gangster life, and ultimately flushing his success down the crapper with his drug habit. Whereas Carlito's Way is about an immigrant criminal who's had enough of it all, basically he's just run out of steam, but he's finding it hard to leave the "life". Crime follows him around like an old mangy dog that follows you around alot, you know what I'm talkin about? Ya I don't quite know myself.
Sean Penn(frackin brilliant in this) plays this hot shot lawyer who's clients are all mobsters, and he gets Carlito out of a 30 year sentence after only 5 years served. So Carlito is obviously over the moon and basically in love with this guy. But now that he's out he wants to go straight. Once he ran a huge drugs operation on the streets and was in charge of like 90 guys, so he's a legend around the streets. But now all he wants to do is get some money together, $75 000, so he can set himself up as a used car dealer in the Bahamas. His old crime buddies laugh their asses off when they hear about this, but Carlito is determined.
First he's gotta get the money together, so he takes charge of a club who's customers are basically all Mafia "made" guys. And slowly but surely, he lands himself straight back into his old lifestyle, but he's willing to pay the price for his dream. But soon he finds himself too far in, "past the point of no return" as he says. Will he ever get to where he wants to be? Will he get the girl?(there's a bit of romance, underwritten in the script really) Will he sell cars one day? Will his past fatally catch up with him? Watch and find out!
So this is a really well made film, and it really has a terrific ending, it just seems to hit the right note perfectly. You've probably all seen this, it's really well known and all, but I just thought I'd give it some more praise.
4 comments:
Trying to get myself to seeing it. I love Sean Penn and Pacino, they are just two great actors, that are lovely to watch on screen.
I have yet to see this, but the fact that it's a DePalma film makes me hesitate. I still haven't gotten over the big mess that was "The Black Dahlia."
@DantheMan - Sean Penn nailed his part in this one. And as for Pacino, he could have gone all Tony Montana with it, but he kept it restrained. Check this one out soon Dan!
@M.Carter - Ya he's supposedly made one or two howlers, but I mean he's also made Scarface and the lesser known Blowout which I think is fantastic. But this is definately one of his best.
a very well scripted movie , i loved it from the very beginning ,and towards the the end it just got more interesting as Carlito got tangled in those ways again ..... :)
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