A film that a lot people consider a modern classic, Brian De Palma takes on the period gangster genre with his visually stylish, star-studded pic that shot Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia on the road to stardom and further cemented that Sean Connery is a film God.
With the failure of 1984’s ‘Body Double’ and 1986’s ‘Wise Guys,’ 70s auteur extraordinaire Brian De Palma was badly in need of a hit. On the prowl for a commercial property that he could combine with his own very distinct sensibilities, De Palma came across a script by David Mamet about the fall of Al Capone during a 30s era Chicago. Loosely based on an old television show called ‘The Untouchables’ about the real-life & times of Eliot Ness, the man responsible for Al Capone’s ultimate downfall, Mamet distanced himself from the show and the facts to fashion an enormously entertaining, highly quotable, old-fashioned gangster yarn.
De Palma, responsible for ‘Carrie,’ ‘Blow Out’ and most prominently the remake of ‘Scarface,’ rolled the dice on a few casting choices that, of course, in retrospect seem like a no-brainer. Not completely sold on Costner at the time, who was not a star and only had a few pictures to his name (‘Silverado’ among them), the producer thought Costner would be perfect for the relatively straight man role of Eliot Ness and was able to convince De Palma to take a chance. The role of a hot-headed Italian rookie also seemed destined to be played by Andy Garcia, also unknown at the time.
The role of Al Capone was a point of contention for the studio and De Palma as the studio wanted to fill the picture with non-stars for budget reasons and was pushing Bob Hoskins for the role (who arguably might have done a better job…). De Palma thought the film needed a classic gangster villain heavyweight (obviously never seeing ‘The Long Good Friday’?) and had early ties to Robert DeNiro (whom he directed very early on in 1970’s ‘Hi, Mom!’) so De Palma was pushing for DeNiro.
DeNiro was demanding a fantastic amount of money for only a few weeks of work and the studio was fighting it. De Palma, completely convinced DeNiro was the man for the role, asking price be darned, basically made the ultimatum that it’s DeNiro or he’s off the film.
The studio relinquished (paying off poor Bob Hoskins $200,000 who had already been cast) and DeNiro was in the movie. Connery was quite simply a fan of Mamet and De Palma and liked the well-scripted character of Jimmy Malone and hence his Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning role was born. Adding little Charlie Martin Smith (‘American Graffiti,’ ‘Never Cry Wolf’), an actor I’ve always enjoyed and wonder what he’s up to now?, to the cast rounded out the fantastic pedigree in front and behind the camera. Adding an iconic, lively score is the master Ennio Morricone of ‘The Man with No Name Trilogy’ among hundreds, and a flawless fashion sense by none other than Giorgio Armani and we arrive at a film that can’t and doesn’t miss.
The year is 1930 and Capone is the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful gangster warlock of Chicago. Heading up all the illegal activity in Chicago, most notably the bootlegging of an enormous amount of liquor during the prohibition, and with most public officials in his back pocket including the majority of the police force, the Treasury Department decides to send in a relatively green T-agent Eliot Ness (Costner). Somewhat naïve about the situation, his first attempt at a liquor raid ends with him holding an umbrella for the front page of the Chicago Times as the bribed officials around him scoff.
Quickly disenchanted and moping across a bridge on his way home, he comes across an aging beat cop Jim Malone (Connery), a sly old-fashioned pro who has since given up on risking his life and seems content to whistle and wander the streets in relatively safety. When Eliot knocks on his door to recruit him for help, Malone resists at first, but then puts the question to Eliot that will decide his involvement: “And what are you prepared to do?” Ness: “Everything within the law”.
Needing a few more recruits and not wanting to pick a “rotten apple”, they head to the tree where they pick up rookie gun wiz “George Stone” aka Guiseppe Petri along with nebbish accountant Oscar Wallace who gets involved by Malone handing him a shotgun and heading out the door. With his team of ‘Untouchables’ four strong, the name coming from one of Capone’s goons as he tries to bribe them: "You fellows are untouchable, is that the thing? No one can get to you?", they set out to make havoc for the man that rules Chicago.
Episodic in nature and filled with great set pieces, the film bounces from one great scene to the next; the Canadian border ambush where the four ride in on horseback with the Morricone harmonica score blaring recalls the great Leone westerns, the rooftop chase between Ness and Capone’s main man Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) and the coup de grace train station sequence which is a marvel of tension derived from patience, music and angles. A scene famously inspired by the Odessa steps sequence from Eisenstein’s ‘Battleship Potemkin.’
There are pundits of the film that claim the film is a style over substance exercise that blatantly distorts history to which I say: fuggedaboutit! Mamet’s script may be totally fictionalized but I think this is rather irrelevant due to the film’s effectiveness. De Palma was never out to film history but to film myth, a bigger than life story and his substantial, almost operatic direction gels perfectly with the big beats of Mamet’s screenplay.
DeNiro’s Capone is the one mildly indifferent element of the film, which is ironically the one element De Palma fought for the most. Maybe one of DeNiro’s first roles where he begins to parody himself, his few scenes in the film are overplayed and one-dimensional. Wearing a fat suit to bulken up, the method actor had to squeeze this part in between two films and it shows in the performance. It seems he decided to squeeze months of shooting into only a few weeks. The bat sequence remains memorable, but I can’t help but suspect that Bob Hoskins would have added a little more weight to the role, so to speak, as he may have been a little hungrier for the role….so to speak. DeNiro certainly doesn’t distract to the point of annoyance, but I think he gives the film a slightly camp air that might not have been there otherwise.
The film is presented in a 2.35:1 ratio and encoded in hi-def using VC-1 compression. The HD transfer looks expectedly great for a film of its age and while there is some minimal film grain and edge enhancement, I couldn’t have asked for better.
Special Features are carried over from the ‘Special Collector’s Edition’ DVD which include a 20 minute ‘The Script, The Cast’ featurette that includes interviews with De Palma and producer Art Linson. ‘Production Stories’ at 17 minutes is next which looks at production design and costumes.
‘Reinventing the Genre’ looks at the stylistic flourishes that De Palma added to the film. ‘The Classic’ focuses on the score and the films commercial success. Rounding out the extras is a vintage promo featurette ‘The Men’ at 6 minutes and the original theatrical trailer which has been bumped up to HD.
The special features are passable, but the great HD video presentation of what I would label as a modern classic can’t be overlooked. A memorable score by Morricone, a great Mamet script, beautifully technical direction from De Palma and strong to stronger performances from Smith, Garcia, Costner, and Connery adds up to an extremely entertaining pic that doesn’t aim to compete with ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ but succeeds on it’s own uniquely operatic ambitions.
The Untouchables (Special Collector's Edition) [HD DVD] is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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