Al Pacino in character as *Scarface’*s Tony Montana.

Get the Money, Get the Power

In 1983, critics panned Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone’s remake of Scarface. A decade later it became a cult hit, thanks to the hip-hop community

By Nat Segaloff

How many surprises can there be while researching a 40-year-old movie? Quite a few, as I discovered when I embarked on writing Say Hello to My Little Friend, my new book about Scarface.

The 1932 original, written by Ben Hecht, directed by Howard Hawks, and produced by Howard Hughes, tracks the rise and fall of bootlegger Tony Camonte (Paul Muni). The Scarface remake, written by Oliver Stone and directed by Brian DePalma, re-interprets Hawks’s original into the cocaine era, starring an explosive Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban-born mobster who climbs to the top of Miami’s cocaine trade. It was released in December 1983 into an eel pit of negative reviews. Critics were incensed by its extreme violence and profanity.