Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where "A favour will kill you faster than a bullet", 29 Nov 2007
Originally released in 1993 Carlitos way re-united director Brian de Palma and actor Al Pacino ten years after they had made the notorious "Scarface" together. Carlito's Way is adapted from the novel "After Hours" by Edwin Torres. However, it took the title from Torres' first novel about the rise of crime boss Carlos Brigante so that it would not be confused with Martin Scorsese's New York club-based comedy-drama, After Hours (1985).Like "Scarface" it is a ferocious gangster film but also has large elements of classical tragedy with the main characters hubris and stubbornness costing him dear .
Though the film starts with a flashback sequence and a voice over that alludes to events to come it starts with all round gangster and drug dealer Carlito Brigante( Al Pacino) just being released from prison after serving five years of a twenty year sentence. His seedy Lawyer Dave Klienfeld(Sean Penn who only took the part to help fund his second film "The Crossing Guard") armed with a truly terrifying perm has secured his release on the grounds that the original police case was based on illegally obtained evidence.Carlito is determined to go straight and rekindle his relationship with dancer ex-girlfriend Gail ( Penelope Anne Miller). He informs a sceptical Kleinfeld that he intends to buy into a car dealership in the Bahamas. His main problem is obtaining the money to make this dream come true and before you can say f***, something that this film does a lot -in fact a total of 139 times Carlito is inexorably dragged back into coercing with old associates.
Carlito,s main problem is he feel he owes the duplicitous and flaky Kleinfeld , something the lawyer who is up to his neck in the brown smelly stuff is all too ready to exploit. Plus his allegiance to his family drags him back into his old world when a young cousin of his has got involved in the drug trade as a messenger and runner is on his way to a big deal when Carlito meets him. The cousin, who seems to regard his criminal profession as a game, insists on Carlito coming along as his backup during a drug deal just to see the reaction to his semi-legendary cousin.As Carlito notes "A favour will kill you faster than a bullet". Unfortunately, the gang being dealt with have already killed the cousin's boss, and betray and kill Carlito's cousin as well. Carlito ends up having to shoot his way out of the drug dealer's den in a bravura scene expertly orchestrated by De Palma, and in the course of fleeing from the scene he takes the money from the deal. He uses the money to buy into a nightclub owned by a gambling addict named Saso (Jorge Porcel), who needs investors to avoid being killed due to his gambling debts.
Through this he meets other nefarious individuals including bringing old Pachanga ( Luis Guzman) as his assistant, the pathetic Lalin ( Vigo Mortensen) who attempts to implicate Carlito by wearing a wire and the budding preening Benny Blanco "From the Bronx". It,s a moment of weakness involving Benny Blanco- ironically the one moment where his old instincts would have served him best that proves pivotal to the films denouement.
The climatic chase through New Yorks Grand Central Station( De Palma originally wanted to use the Twin Towers but a bomb attack put paid to that) is a quite stunning piece of kinetic film making. De Palma had already provided one memorable sequence in a movie with "The Untouchables" but this tops that with Carlito being chased by Italian gunmen -including a profusely overweight one while trying to catch a train that will wisk him away from "his self righteous code of the goddamm streets" as Kleinfeld put it forever.
Carlitos Way is gangster movie that deserves to be put on one of those imaginary pedestals with the other acknowledged greats of the genre . Though it did,nt fare especially well commercially or indeed critically on it,s original release the film has become recognised a a classic.it does not have the epic familial sweep of The Godfather movies , or the sheer visceral velocity of "Goodfellas" or indeed "Scarface" but it does something that neither of these manage, it makes you truly care what happens to its main character. Or to put it more succinctly you really empathise with Carlito as he struggles with the dichotomy of achieving his dream against that of his loyalty to his friends. That his loyalty is massively misplaced makes the outcome even more poignant. Carlitos Way is a technically dazzling cinema experience, exciting and absorbing with a pulsing heart as it,s flawed moral centre.Plus it will look fantastic on HD DVD.This is a film that teaches us that you can no control over who your enemies are to some extent but you sure as hell can control who your friends are.
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DePalma shoots himself in the foot with the dumbest opening scene ever, 29 Dec 2007
Fortunately the rest of the film is good enough to make up for it. The opening shows Carlito Brigante, former criminal, being hauled away in a stretcher, covered in blood after being shot. Well, now I know how the film ends. The suspense of the film's climax is ruined if we immediately know his fate. Duh!
Pacino (surely more deserving of an Academy Award here than he was for his overrated performance in Scent of a Woman) narrates us through the last week or so of Carlito Brigante's life as he is let out of jail after five years out of thirty for mitigates circumstances coming to light. Determined to go straight, Carlito shrugs off all advances from crooks old and new but is eventually drawn back into a quagmire of trouble by his cokehead lawyer (Sean Penn dressed up as Disco Stu from The Simpsons, who also deserved to take home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar)
The 145 minute running time passes in a breeze and there's loads of interesting story developments to keep you hooked. But DePalma's sterile widescreen photography and sets reek of the crassness of Scarface. This film is miles ahead of that junk (but let's not get into a debate about that) though I do think that a more vivid production design and cinematography and slicker editing would have stopped the film from looking so bland.
I don't think DePalma is a great director but I do enjoy Carlito's Way, The Untouchables and Snake Eyes. The fact that he has also directed such godawful sludge like Carrie, Scarface and Mission to Mars only proves how unpredictable he is.
The HD DVD features a frequently gorgeous 2.35:1 1080p transfer, it's a little bit soft at times but is generally stunning. A decent DD+ sound design and a fair amount of extras are also included.
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