The Untouchables

An excellent movie with an excellent story. I am a person who does not know anything about the story of Al Capone's fall, and this film presented it to me excellently, the acting was very good, but I think if the acting could have been better, it was especially from Robert De Niro, the atmosphere of the film was excellent and it simulated the 1920s From the twentieth century, I really enjoyed watching the film and I recommend watching it

This film takes place during the Prohibition, the golden age of American Mafia, and shows the difficulties that law enforcement ​​had to arrest Al Capone, Chicago's biggest mafia boss. Brian de Palma seems to have a powerful attraction for violence and the mafia, this being his second major film on the subject (the first, if I'm not mistaken, was "Scarface"), but there is no doubt that his work was good and deserves congratulations. The story is told from the point of view of law enforcement, which is a novelty since most of the films that focus on Al Capone tend to show his life, or moments of his criminal course. This film shows him as the big villain he was and glorifies police officers, easily transforming Eliott Ness (played brilliantly by Kevin Costner in one of the most interesting works of his career) into a paladin of justice and law. Robert De Niro revisits his gangster movies ("The Godfather", "Goodfellas" etc.) in a curious and comic interpretation of Al Capone, and Sean Connery plays a street policeman of Irish descent. In fact, it was precisely in this character that Connery got his only Oscar, despite all actors have fulfilled my expectations. The film is well constructed, looking to alternate epic action scenes (sometimes recalling in my mind the glory of cavalry battle charges) with moments of great psychological depth and some suspense. At times, however, the film seems a bit forced, with exaggerated appeals to sentimentality, as it does in the final sequence, often parodied or imitated in later films. Another problem with the film is that it is not faithful to historical events. Al Capone's arrest was not like that, nor was Ness behind it. The film contains some scenes of great violence and is inadvisable for children, adolescents and impressionable people.

Director Brian De Palma is the son of a surgeon, and perhaps this explains his high tolerance for the bloodshed that has translated into brutal, raw scenes in 'The Untouchables'. Then again, this film is set during one of the bloodiest chapters of American history and demands unflinching depiction accordingly. Zooming in on prohibition-era Chicago, a dirty, dingy, crime-infested retreat of mafia, the film lets us know a special unit headed by Kevin Costner whose objective is to frame the super villain himself – Al Capone (Robert De Niro).

There are, in effect, three or four things that truly stand out about The Untouchables–an otherwise standard crime by-the-numbers romp–and at least one of them should be attributed to the surface of the spectacle; the costumework and settings are superbly breathed life into, as is De Palma's accolade, with a screen that is awash with lyrical colours and accompanied by a swelly, jazzy moonlit music score. Another worthy accolade is of course Sean Connery as detective Malone – an American-Irish cop on the beat and down with the ways of the street – who may deliver one of the worst accents in film history, but makes up for what he lacks in verbal power with heaps of charisma. Malone is given, by far, the best dialogue in David Mamet's script as when he instructs Kevin Costner on how to get to Capone: "He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue."

Another worthy staple to The Untouchables is its strong individual scenes. In the front row for these sits the notorious baseball bat scene in which a furious Al Capone beats one of his associates' head into a bloody pulp with a bat, right in front of all the guests at the grand dinner table. Robert De Niro gained weight for his role as the crime-lord Al Capone and approaches his character with commitment, but sadly he is ineffective in the film as De Palma does not quite know what to do with him. Instead he craggily intercuts Capone's boisterous speeches and monologues with the template storyline of Kevin Costner's special unit, and the former are incongruous to the key story of 'The Untouchables'. Here it regrettably becomes apparent that the film possesses all the necessary ingredients but no blender in which to stir it – and De Palma is largely to blame for lacking the necessary skill.

Having said that, The Untouchables keeps up the appearance of an epic crime film so rigorously through seamless costumes, stinky Chicago accents, vivid chases and a swarming taste to its sets that for a long time we are led to believe that De Palma has truly done it with this film. Certainly there are many scenes that testify to this and aptly camoflauge the shortcomings, such as the suspenseful pre-battle sequence at the Canadian border in which the Western-loving Costner is up on horseback to ambush the incoming shipment. Another is the first meeting between Andy Garcia and Sean Connery, in which the latter decides to recruit Garcia's Italian character in spite of racial feuding (Connery's supposed to be Irish), and instead because he likes his mouthy, bold attitude. Finally there is the unspeakably epic climax scene that plays on operatic in length through a long, glorious slow-motion capture by a staircase, politely nodding to The Battleship Potemkin's 'Odessa Steps Sequence'.

The whole film is in fact an operatic affair with technicalities deluxe. With its mindboggling ensemble (Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia and Patricia Clarkson) it is easy to see how it is cuing us in to like it. To some extent it succeeds well, for it is suspenseful, but it is not well sewn-together. What good is a De Niro if you are not going to use him opposite the rest? What good is a Kevin Costner (who has never looked so ridiculously handsome in his career for that matter) if you are not going to let him emote? And lastly, what good is a large handful of fully-fledged wonderful scenes if you are not going to juxtapose them with something, instead of dishing them out every now and then to keep our interest?

7 out of 10

Quite a few words spring to my mind when I think of The Untouchables. Words like: Excellence, entertainment, larger than life and Sean Connery. These words basically summarize the entire film from my point of view of course because in my opinion (which I don't expect people to agree with) this is the best gangster film there is. Obviously people aren't going to agree because people prefer the likes of the operatic Godfather trilogy or the ultra realistic Goodfellas but in my head The Untouchables is the best.

Here are a few reasons why. First reason is that The Untouchables is just so darn entertaining. All the other films had completely different aims and even though I love a deep and brilliant story my main objective when I see a film is to be entertained and basically no film does that better than The Untouchables. That does not mean, however, that The Untouchables is just some half baked action comedy. No. There is genuine emotion and real story in this film. The story is, as most people know, loosely based on the actual events during the prohibition era in USA in the 1920s (the story is also based very, very loosely on the series that go by the same name) which to some extent means that what we see on the screen is real making the characters and general story seem that much more believable. This also adds greatly to the already very high entertainment value of the film because it draws the audience in. To add to the realism of the film the dialog is also very memorable and there are some great one-liners including some of my all time favorites in this film.

The acting is nothing short of brilliant. This is without a doubt Kevin Costner's best role. Some people have remarked that he seemed stiff and unable to portray the emotion of the character and to that I can only ask: Were we watching the same movie?! He is a hundred percent believable all the way through. In the beginning he seems a bit too much like a square I-wanna-do-some-good kind of character but as the story progresses he really evolves and becomes more and more emotionally involved in what he does. Both in his friends and in the cause. He even bends some of the rules he initially tried so hard to uphold. Brilliant. Charles Martin Smith does a good job as well and even though his character is very limited he still manages to pull the audience in. Andy Garcia appears in this film in a very limited role as well and he serves his purpose brilliantly. He is the sharpshooter of the group and he is perfectly believable in that part. He doesn't get to say much but what he does get to say is said with as much passion as I have ever heard from him (he seemed a little stale and lifeless in Godfather III). Robert DeNiro is great as Al Capone. He steals every scene he is in and he really brings the larger-than-life quality to the character which is extremely fitting. The film's best performance belongs to Sean Connery though. The film is for lack of a better expression a Sean Connery tour-de-force. Not only does he steal every scene he is in but he also brings the certain indescribable something to the character that he always does and in every situation you feel with him (as you do in all his films whether he is a villain or a hero). He also got a well deserved Oscar for his performance. People have claimed that the Oscar wasn't as much for this particular performance but an Oscar in recognition of his contributions to the film industry. This belittles his performance which I can safely say is the best of his career and one of the best displays of acting that I have ever seen.

The film also has a memorable score made by the legendary Ennio Morricone who is perhaps best known for the work he did with the equally legendary western director Sergio Leone (who doesn't know the score from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and in my opinion the score he did for The Untouchables is the best he has ever made. The score is very unlike most scores from the 80s which does that the film doesn't feel like an 80s film as much as Scarface which I find inferior to this masterpiece. The score is grand and epic just like the story and the effects. For an 80s movie the effects are pretty amazing. Once again everything works.

All in all The Untouchables is a riveting story which is highly recommendable to all fans of crime/gangster movies.

10/10 - on my top 10 of best films

This one isn't holding up all that well in my books. There are some undoubtedly fantastic scenes and Oscar-worthy performances. But the overall quality is spotty.

Connery's performance remains one of my all-time favorites. His first meeting with Ness is very enjoyable. His death scene never fails to move me every single time I watch it. Great musical score as well.

DeNiro's Capone is too one-dimensional (no fault of his), Martin-Smith's is entirely cartoonish. Garcia is good, as is Costner, the earnestness which always characterizes his performances finding a perfect match in the character of Ness.

The bridge scene is so bad that it almost ruins the whole film. Connery manages to provide some saving grace with his interrogation tactics and opposition to running.

It seems as if this film is composed of nothing but caricatures, from the photographer to the police trainee, but the performances are so good and there are so many strong scenes that they somehow balance out the crude (read banal) writing. A friend of mine saw an interview with Mamet in which he said that the best stuff was actually edited out of the final product. Ya gotta hate studios. The Untouchables really could have been much better than it already is.