Everything Else SCARFACE Related Retrospect

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. SCARFACE. The reviewers, the critics basically said that it was the worst film of all time. I thought it would be controversial. Oh God, we got destroyed. And each other. Oliver Stone. Every day he would say, they're killing my script.

[00:00:28] Brian didn't want Oliver at Daly's again. It got to be that contentious. With so many people gunning to take it down, no one had a clue this film would endure quite the way it did. SCARFACE is running 24-7 somewhere. That's a phenomenon. SCARFACE, it's so over-the-top grotesque. People see it and they'll repeat all the lines. Lesson number one. Don't underestimate the other guy's greed. It was an epic film and then it just kind of went insane.

[00:00:58] It grabs you by the throat and holds you in place. He seemed almost like a renegade in all of this, which was an attractive thing in his character to play. Tony's story? The Dark Side of the American Dream. A classic tale of rags to riches to ruin. Tony Montana was a guy just fresh off the boat. He was going to get his. He didn't care. They didn't expect to live too long. So he was just going to live on the edge. It was hot. It was tense.

[00:01:28] And it was unafraid to make the heroes really despicable. He's ballsy. Real, real cocky. You know. He was an evil scumbag who killed everything around him. You can begin from nothing. And by making money, you can make something of yourself. That's the good side of it. The tragic part is that you can overreach. When you become excessively greedy, it causes your downfall.

[00:01:57] The fascination took the filmmakers by surprise. They saw their movie as a cautionary tale of ambition and self-destruction. Now it was seen as a glorification of thug life. Unfortunate as that might be. It always surprised me a little bit and confused me that that entire culture embraced Tony Montana, even though his ending is horrific. Bregman and De Palma, they almost still to this day seem puzzled by that whole kind of

[00:02:27] street-level acceptance of the movie. And they still had no real sense of why hip-hop music musicians and producers and young black actors really saw this as a real touchstone. In a certain way, it was a movie that baffled its own creators. And it wasn't just street culture. A much wider audience began embracing Tony Montana. And the actors in the film found they were being treated with a brand new respect.

[00:02:57] I go to Home Depot or to Lowe's or anywhere, and the first thing I asked, did you see the movie Scarface? Yeah. Well, I'm the guy that had the arms sawed off. Boom, man! You go to the front of the line. People just flip out. They go, oh my God, you're that guy that killed Scarface? Every other week, I squad with girls because of the movie. I've had people who recognized me on the subway. They say, Mama Montana. And right then and there, they did the scene.

[00:03:26] Guys in the street, if they pass you by, throw the dialogue at you. Coming up to me going, hey, Chichi, get the yayo. Chichi, Chichi, get the yayo. I don't want your money. I don't need your money. He comes down for one thing. Oh, boy. Lesson number one, don't get an eye on your own supplier. Lesson number two, don't underestimate the other guy's greed. And so it was the audience itself that changed the fate of Scarface.

[00:03:54] Taking it from being a sort of box office disappointment to making it into a cult classic demonstrates the power of audiences to give meaning to films that perhaps didn't exist in the first place. Sometimes we get so deep into conversation

[00:04:21] that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. Here is a reshuffled mini episode. Welcome all, welcome all. So everything Scarface related is being discussed tonight.

[00:04:48] So again, you know, it's a big deal. You know, we've already covered the movie. We had like five different recordings I slashed together in a Oliver Stone drug dealer themed epics, an unofficial trilogy, if you will. And I also just was like, hey, one episode is still not enough. And since we're talking everything Godfather and Scarface is often associated as the next generation for the 80s when it comes to that.

[00:05:17] Yes, I realized Godfather set in the 40s, but came out in the 70s, the movie. So Scarface was modern day in the 80s. And it was interesting in that it's trying to be its own thing. And it's also often imitated. And it's so funny when you see all these different movies that clearly owe to it, like New Jack City and Sopranos. And then they're also saying, but we don't want to be like that. And it's like, well, some of it's in your DNA, whether you want it to be or not. I grew up with a love-hate relationship for the 80s movie,

[00:05:47] but I've come around on it because so many people talked enthusiastically about it. I was always up for learning more about it. And, you know, I had seen the 1932 Howard Hawks movie. That's a good movie. Totally different, but similar material, especially it's funny seeing them say a curse word that then gets censored, but you can tell he clearly still said it. And it's a decent action movie,

[00:06:16] but it was produced by Howard Hughes, of all people, and Boris Karloff's even in it. But they make him be an Italian immigrant named Tony Camonte. And prior to that, that was the source of the Armitage Trail book. But before we get into thick of it, so I'm going to cover the book, the 30s film, the comic book, prequel and sequel from IDW Comics, two different fan films, and that's going to be it.

[00:06:45] But as well as the video game sequel, but it's a whole other story. Overall, I just want to just get the point across as to why these things are interesting and why the concept is always being revisited in one way or another. And hopefully that'll be enough for many people. Again, I love talking about all kinds of entertainment, but I more importantly like describing why it got the way it is. We've done the franchises,

[00:07:13] but I don't always just go on my way to do other select specials and build on that. So, you know, I just figured, hey, since we're talking all different kinds of crime epics, some with action, psychological drama undertones, better use of my platform, really. You know, it's always interesting too when you can find a special way to describe something and see why it truly comes across that way.

[00:07:41] And I mainly like to focus though on, you know, the misinterpretations, why people take stuff out of contacts, as well as also how some stuff in certain cases becomes unappealing after a while. It's up to us to just use our discretion and remind other people, hey, you know, you can like this even if you're the only person on the planet, for God's sakes. And at the same time, if something's hated, you know why.

[00:08:11] So use your words. Don't go on a rant and have fun with this, you know, and I do. I really do have fun with this, but I don't have too much fun to where I refuse to describe it in more further length. So, yes, it all started with author Maurice Coons, who went by the pen name of Armitage Trail. He was a pulp writer. His book was adapted by Howard Hawks. I actually did make a chance to read the book. It's very brisk. I cannot believe it. Like it takes off.

[00:08:40] It might as well have been a comic back in the day in the 30s. The author's done other stuff like The 13 Guest, which he wrote in 29. under the title The Morgan Murders. That was about the investigation of a fictional character being checked out by a private detective. It's been adapted in two different movies as well, but he's written plenty of other stories over like 20 as well. And it's also been suspected

[00:09:09] that he wrote under different aliases as well. Don't really have any reasoning for why he did that. Yeah, he was a Nebraska kid born in 1910 to be exact. No, 1902, then passed away in 1930. And yeah, won a bunch of statewide essays at his school. And he was interested in covering gangsters like Al Capone at a young age. So his brother, Hannibal, Coons, interesting name,

[00:09:37] said that his brother was interested in gangsters as other men are interested in poster stamps, old coins, or spread eagle butterflies. So that tells me a lot. Yeah, I don't know if it was just because of the censoring, you know, crime protagonist movies being looked down upon, why he took that name. But yeah, he made some money back in the day. He sold his Scarface book rights

[00:10:04] to producer Howard Hughes for $25,000. And it is interesting how W.R. Barnett, of Little Caesar author fame, adapted that screenplay. So, I mean, definitely well liked. It's a very brisk book. It gets so to the point before you know it. And I got no equivalents with it. It's very moody. You know, it just shows the different schemes. It shows the clockwork

[00:10:32] and the prep that goes into being a gangster. And it's interesting how he's a pulp. Not pulp. He's a petty thief. And they go mainly into just how he's losing his relationships, but he can't stop all this raw energy that makes him do what he does. And yeah, the movie from 32 is great. Basically, it plays just as well as all those other Fritz Langs, Howard Hawks films. Scarface.

[00:11:01] In the 1920s, the United States was reeling under the impact of prohibition. The sale of whiskey, wine, and beer was prohibited by law. But there were many willing to break that law. Gangsters took over. Crime flourished. Mobs fought each other for prime territories. There's no step on it. It blew in the streets.

[00:11:42] That's only chicken feed. You've stepped into big company. To gang boss. This is the story of Scarface Tony Carmonte. His lust for power. For fancy women. Don't work too hard. I'll just finish up tonight. His drive to be number one. Next time I catch you in a place like that again, I'll kill you.

[00:12:11] You're telling me what to do. Why do it? Starring Paul Muni as Scarface. And Vorak. George Raft. And Karen Morley. The crime scenes in this film are based on events that actually happened. Don't you know it's Valentine's Day? Let's see if you're boarding his.

[00:13:31] Paul Muni. But not to be confused with the comedian was from years later's main lead. And Durak. George Raft. Karen Morley. John Lee. Malene. Paul Fix. Vince Barnett. Karen Morley. Yeah. I got no issues with this at all. No. No. And it's interesting how they portrayed the different waiters and stag parties. Like they really do give it a voice

[00:14:00] and head home on so many different things. Yeah. He's dealing with the Irish gangs on the north side as an Italian. With the north side as retaliates. He essentially massacres them. Leaves them on top of the earth. World. When Johnny, his right hand, is worried about his overconfidence. He first killed. This also backfires. So Tony finds himself even closer. So it's different enough. It really is. And I've only grown on it in years. It's because it's just so fast paced and it should be more appreciated

[00:14:29] than it actually is. But yeah, if you can find it, go check it out. So then, you know, the 80s movie, they've always joked around, do a sequel, do a sequel. And it's like, I can't. Tony's dead. But I did check out the comic books and their delight. You know, first in 2006, we had Scarred for Life,

[00:14:57] where, I love this description, the human era of Miami, still carries the scent of cartite and ambition. Tony Montana, his body, a map of fresh scars, has clawed his way back from the edge of a morgue slab. The empire he built is now just bloodstains on marble floors, claimed by rivals who thought him dead. With nothing left, but a familiar burning rage, he begins the slow, brutal process of reclamation. Every street corner is contested territory. Every former associate,

[00:15:27] a potential enemy. The city's glittering surface hides a new, more dangerous underworld, and Tony moves through it with the cold precision from the man who has already died once. So, this was written by John Lehman and illustrated by Dave Crosland for IDW Publishing. Again, they're the kings. They've been given dynamite a run for their money with zany movie and TV show crossovers and tie-ins. Then, 2007,

[00:15:56] they did a prequel called Devil in Disguise before Tony Montana could reach the shores of America. He was a young assassin in Cuba, sharpening his skills in the military and navigating the underworld of Avada. His ambition for a new life currently blocked by the walls of Castro and Poe's prison cell outside a volatile alliance between La Casa Nostra and CIA operatives, which complicates every potential escape route. Central to this conflict

[00:16:26] is the man responsible for carving the infamous mark on Montana's face. The Path to Freedom is a series of brutal negotiations where every headshot carries the weight of a different betrayal. The human heir or the prison block smells of rust and still sweat. Written by Joshua Jepkuba Illustrated by Alberto C. Dose once again for IDW and both these were neat. I kind of dug the revenge a little more because how could I not?

[00:16:55] They convolutely just explained that he's had just like so much drugs he's still kept barely kept alive. And don't get me wrong Scarface has been referenced in comics before. There was even a Tomb Raider. That's right. They did video game crossovers into comic book form and they implied that Tomb Raider was going after Scarface's treasure in a Top Cow comic back in 2003. But yeah, I mean much like the

[00:17:25] standalone book that inspired the 30s movie it's interesting here how like we see basically just all sorts of stuff and in the prequel comic like it's well illustrated and well said it's like my name is Tony Montez I am a political prisoner you know they show him in this prison block they open up with that it's very confusing the way they describe these Italian

[00:17:55] mobster guys and the CIA stuff only gets more convoluted there's all kinds of other cool subtext these are not your typical Florida snowbirds they go back and forth a bit by wisely recapping the movie in both the prequel and sequel it's like that's cool give people a tie-in for those who haven't seen it and basically there's all kinds of other stuff we'll take back Havana and the CIA guys who

[00:18:25] are scheming are very dastardly it's interesting how Tony gets into fights as a kid at a young age he sets off a car bomb he's pretty much always a violent kid and he loves his mother you mess with his mother oh man it's a big deal but I love how he just realizes I can't come to America it's fun seeing him beat up a prison guard and break out get into Cuban soldier

[00:18:54] schemes while occasionally wearing his Miami flair he of course falls in love with a prostitute with a heart of gold he fights the one main handler of his missions that he put him on he's like stop right fucking there Montana he's about to friend this other prostitute he loves and and they got his voice down to a tee while avoiding making him look entirely like Pacino but he still talks like

[00:19:24] him he's like the fuck the matter with you main and this guy wants revenge when he's taking this prostitute house he's like this is about flesh and blood it's about healing the wounds you inflicted upon me familia you remember guapo don't you it was me her brother slaughtered him in the mountains now I take your heart okay so yeah he stabs her and Tony pretty much kills him with his own knife but not

[00:19:54] after well also scarring him so it's a bit of deliberate irony the guy survives actually but he still lost a hand and he's all bloody and everything is so funny as the Cuban guards are taking him away because again this guy is so crooked and he's way high up with the CIA and the nostra mob but he's like he's just sold to el diablo Montana and you're gonna pay back every day to

[00:20:24] goddamn life so Tony gets a big scar in this whole fight as well and I prefer some of the zany kind of portrayals in the sequel comic but it is kind of interesting how you think at first oh you know it's just so simple you know and they do a good job of illustrating the skull and some of the other guys who we wronged but nope it goes even even further like we later find out

[00:20:54] that none of the Michelle Pfeiffer's character that's right his girlfriend Scarface well of course Elvira Hancock and it's like yeah it is wild how you know she's they don't really touch on her Baltimore background but it's like I like getting the power from my husband but yeah she just loves the drugs so they play into that a lot how there

[00:21:24] never really was any love but she kind of still likes them so that's fun and complicated and it's so funny he has a Tony's taken on this giant mansion where the other prime lords are located slaughtered pretty much all of them and then he sees these giant DEA helicopters outside and drones and next thing you know someone cocks a gun right behind him the fuck you're doing he's like you ruined everything just like

[00:21:53] you always ruin everything I was weak I took pity on you and you ruined my life again I had a good thing without Alejandro he loved me I loved him we were both happy and then you came back I'm gonna pull it right into your stubborn goddamn saw Montana it's like yeah let's go but yeah it's so funny the DEA guys who have actually given him some resources so that they can have an excuse to him basically do their job for him and then they're gonna

[00:22:23] kill him behind his back when he's susceptible but they're seeing this exchange go down between them and it's so funny the DEA sniper is in the copter and he's like I've got the shot sir and the other DEA handler is like no no give me that but son of a bitch left my partner to be killed as gator bait on Florida swamp I got my legs crunched up like a bag of Frito Lays Montana's ass is mine but it's even funnier as Avira and Tony

[00:22:53] are going back fun unfortunately it then leaves it up in the air to where we don't know who shot who that would work in comic book form this would not work in movie form Tony does exclaim to a virus she's all weepy so she definitely still likes him even though she's in denial but I love Tony exclaims

[00:23:23] you shoot me the fed shoots you and if you somehow wiggle out of that you got an entire village of angry well-armed Bolivians that want payback of what you did to their boss finished me I don't think so honey I faced worse than this and I'm still standing plenty of people try to take me out and I've taken plenty of bullets look at me I'm still at the top of the heat catch me can't touch me can't nobody touch me I'm fucking Tony Montana so then it ends with a bang I would rather some kind of closure

[00:23:53] like he just kills the DEA guy but whatever both are interesting in their own right especially seeing Tony you know go after the rat bastard who killed his senorita and there's all kinds of off color stuff even the subtitles it's like Tony was treated like a Cuban jack-o-lantern and yeah the crossroads of a new decade began it's like I love this I

[00:24:22] love this wording there's all kinds of utter cool narration especially in the prequel everyone has a choice in life live in hell or die for your sins I love that that is poetic you know very few have touched a movie property like this and given it some kind of justice and these were definitely made by people who are just poetic in general kind of got it there's some other funny stuff when he Tony visits that other

[00:24:52] handler or two in this comic book and it's like the Cuban cowboy he needs and he is that why Fidel still alive I love this dialogue that's in between looking at all the illustrations all kinds of under just wordplay that's dynamic

[00:25:50] and and again I've only seen gameplay I wanted to play it but you know I wasn't going to bring I was already had a love hate relationship with Scarface growing up but they used archived footage of Al Pacino and the guy who voiced Montana in the game was none other than you know Andres Sogaluzo

[00:26:19] who's a big voice actor but man like stacked cast can't not talk about it like Dante Bosco from Hook is in here David Kay from Mad TV who's gone on to be a voice actor Fred Tata score plays Sosa he's a big deal Glenn Plummer from Speed ER is in here as a voice there's plenty of people who don't even have a name Michael Rodriguez from Cobra

[00:26:50] Paul Dobson even singer Pitbull is a henchman at the mansion but whatever he was popular back then singer Tommy Lee plays a record manager named Dean they use of course stock footage of all the other characters like Stephen Burkhoff and F. Marie Abraham so yeah all kinds of other characters in here even the skull Geno Silva

[00:27:20] so but just a hell of a cast everybody from Michael Rooker being Tony's enforcer and playing an old civilian Miguel Sandoval as a voice Jason Muse from the J and Son of Bob movies plays a small supplier Roma Mafa from everything movie and game you've seen from Nip Tuck and movies like Double Jeopardy and Nick of Time is in here

[00:27:49] yeah I mean Robert Loja gets the narrate so that's cool James Woods pre-cancellation is here as George Sheffield one of the villains Al Israel comes back as Hector the Toad so that's cool because I mean this was literally his best known role so it was cool that he needed the work the big supplier Johnson is played

[00:28:19] by Ice-T so cool to see him get in on this there was a making of documentary about this including Oliver Platt and Tommy Lee and even Tommy Chong and he jokes like I only get cast as a hippie so you can find that on YouTube to complete the Cheech and Chong circle Cheech Marin is in here as a guy named Gaspar Gomez Michael York from Logan's Run and Austin Powers is here

[00:28:49] as Jerry the banker of course it being English man Jay Moore is here playing two I mentioned Oliver Platt there's also Brenda Strong is the hotel booking agent you know her from Starship Troopers and a lot of other TV shows Daniel Day Kim plays Mr. Lee a Macau manager so here you go Robert Lozardo who's a tattooed henchman in every movie we got

[00:29:18] Bayling as the bar manager Tommy Tiny Lister as the doorman how appropriate because he would totally be a doorman in real life we have Jack McGee from Rescue Me the firefighter show on FX Jerry Ferreira before that was a little after Entourage even Dale Earnhardt Jr that's right oh god so they would have a NASCAR guy in here so it's an interesting cast but it's very

[00:30:00] occasional actress so yeah she had a moment in the sun there even other rappers like be real of all people so yeah Cypress Hill so yeah pretty inspired Dora Baird is here Charger Binks himself I'm invested a voice but yeah Robert Davi played Sosa so and

[00:30:30] two different people basically playing Sosa but hey glad that he got the main voice Megan Good plays Fem Fatale Stacey that's cool Kevin Dillon so yeah these guys are totally Entourage fans but Rodrigo international superstar Rodrigo Santora Elliot Gold has a cameo Rick Yoon and voice actress herself Chris Summer many will know from Disney productions and various sitcoms

[00:31:00] it's also in here so that's cool but yeah Steven Bauer got to play Sandman so that was cool playing a different character Phil Lamar did a voice well but it's a packed cast and I've seen gameplay it looked awesome out of all the Grand Theft Auto knockoffs it was definitely looked just as much fun because I did play the Godfather video game but that's a whole other story

[00:31:31] and I'm just glad I played it when I did well I didn't play it I saw gameplay and I'm glad it came out when it did is what I meant and overall yeah just a lot of fun so let me get on the fan films that's right there's been some fun fan films there was this guy named Jin

[00:32:01] Kid and he was a San Diego TikToker his real name was Ali Abu Laban and Jin Kid was a social media handle and unfortunately in 2024 he got indicted into a trial for a murder of two different people and they were basically his wife and her friend and yeah he lived in an East Village high

[00:32:31] rise apartment in 2021 and yeah he just looks like a total shit bag and it's a shame because I thought it was all an act and I came late to the parade I was seeing his voice over so I was like the reason he's not spying to any of his handles is because he's in prison and the judge had serious reservation that he was truly remorseful for his actions according to this NBC San Diego 2024

[00:33:01] report he's a very selfish person as I think the jury saw the bottom line is here he will die in prison he will never be a free man he will take his last breath there so yeah I don't know any other details on how he murdered him but yeah I did see the video and the guy has zero remorse he's totally seems to

[00:33:42] so if you want to check out his impersonations he can you'll have fun with it but don't get too attached and yeah definitely keep the art separate from the artist because the artist sucks as a person now my favorite of the fan films is Montana 2023 I'll go ahead and spoil it because it'll make you actually want to

[00:34:15] basically has a vision 40 years in late it's 40 years later and it's a seven minute fan film it gets straight to the point it almost feels like a scissor reel what could come after and it's very reasonable while it takes a while to get going but it's worth it for any kind of indie or crime movie fan just to see hey someone had a scissor reel so it's inspired direction and lo and behold they imply that the guy who ordered the hit on

[00:34:45] Scarface was his betrayed friend Manny Rivera and they actually got Steven Bauer to come back in the part and it makes sense he's a B-movie guy he was never as big as Scarface in in between stints on Ray Donovan and Breaking Bad unfortunately but yeah it's like he got the memo and he gave the performance what it merited and that's cool that he still takes the fan forward for it

[00:35:15] and overall this has been fun discussing this guys because again Tony Montana even though he's supposed to be kind of you know he starts off as a tragic villain and then he's not supposed to be like someone you like it's like I understand how much like all these gangsters some people are just like he's so fucking cool it's like I get it but that's just part of the whole thing in the end you ultimately don't want to be like him and I

[00:35:55] like I I am a Hans Gruber guy that dude is a smooth talking cool backstory but at the end of the day I don't want to actually behave even be a psychopath like him so all I can say people is at this point in your life you should know the warning signs of when people are just crazy motherfuckers and those who are just having fun just joking around so use discretion

[00:36:25] be responsible and enjoy the legacy of this fascinating movie villain because there's a reason he's a villain he is fascinating he is pretty well developed the style is a little uneven and over the top but that's just a product of the 80s unfortunately yes there was brownwashing by having an Italian man a talented actor but the irony is he was accepted for playing that role even though I had Latino friends who were like he's not

[00:36:54] Cuban but he's fucking awesome so it's a rare mixture of actors just going for it and being edgy but yeah definitely most all of these deliver be sure to check out both the comic books the original book material and the original movie if you want another dose of it and definitely check out other similar dramas that are clearly Scarface inspired you won't regret it that's all you got to go on if you want to continue your

[00:37:24] love and nostalgia of the unstoppable Montana but thanks for listening gang and hopefully I entertained your ears for half an hour

[00:38:17] you'll time 6pm eastern then catch it Wednesday mornings at 11am eastern time 10am central 1077 k-twins then hang out with us Wednesday afternoons on mxtr and house radio 3pm eastern time then Thursday get up bright and early with us on

[00:38:49] 12pm eastern time on mxtr fm and 10pm eastern time 9pm central 1077 k-twins find everything on house shack welcome to the better call daddy show the number one podcast where we admit no matter what happens daddy has the advice we need to fix our problems introducing my dad mr. Wayne

[00:39:19] Friedman that was good it would be nice if you could also sing a song what would the song be you love Paris in the springtime I just made up some words to it I love people of interest share it with my dad and get my dad's advice my dad is my hero nobody's

[00:39:55] got my he accidentally cut his dick oh my god I'm dying and then he started to enjoy it I started going down the phone sex rabbit hole you've got the wankers and they jerk off in five seconds and then they're done because they don't want to spend money and they're quick my stepfather had mania if I'm yelling at one of my kids that fear that rigid fear mom even said to me I hope you

[00:40:25] have a kid just like you there are lots of people that are being bought and sold right now for profit if you think you're gonna kill yourself shut up and kill yourself if you're not gonna kill yourself then shut up smart and it's all on you the bullshit has to end wow when I was 11 years old I was raped and molested over the course of a year what Jeffrey Epstein had was a sickness inside of him I am Evan Castrilli Carmichael I can do anything that I believe that I can I'm so excited too let's go

[00:40:54] next on Better Call Daddy with my mom and my grandpa stay tuned follow us on the web on Facebook Twitter and Instagram the podcast is available on Podbean Spotify iHeartRadio Anchor Apple and anywhere else podcasts are available feel free to review our show and leave comments on any

[00:41:24] of those sites thanks a million for listening