What I do not understand about Scarface (1983) is why anyone would idolize its main character, Tony Montana (Al Pacino).  There was a time in my life when I listened to a lot of rap music.  One consistent theme in much of it, unfortunately, is drugs.  It is a sad product of the environment in which many performers were raised, and thus it finds its way into their music.  While recently rewatching today’s film, I heard many samples taken from it that were used in rap lyrics or hooks.  It suggests a connection to the main character that is baffling.  Not to get ahead of myself, but the guy dies in the end.  Is that what rappers seek for their careers, to have them cut short by being shot to death?  I also do not get why anyone outside of the aforementioned community would enjoy a movie about a drug dealer.  It tries to make the point about the darker side of the American dream.  In actuality, it is an insult to the immigrant community and hardworking people in general.  Read on to find out why.

Oddly enough, Scarface has a basis in fact despite its later distortions.  Tony comes to the United States from Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boat Lift, the last mass exodus of refugees fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime.  When the communist dictator allowed his citizens to leave the country, he expected a low turn out because he underestimated the number of people eager to settle in another country, namely the United States.  When he saw the droves of asylum seekers, he decided to empty the jails and mix them with the hordes crossing the straits of Florida to America.  This is how Tony and his best friend, Manny Ray (Steven Bauer), arrive.  After some scrutiny, they are allowed to enter the refugee camp set up under the overpasses of local interstates.  This does not suit Tony’s ambitions, and when Manny presents him with the opportunity to carry out some criminal activity in order to obtain a green card, Tony does not hesitate.  Besides, the assassination mission involves murdering a former associate of Castro’s, and Tony hates anyone who is currently or once was a communist.  Still, the job he and Manny take once they make it into Miami proper is not glamorous, working at a local food stand.  Not long into their tenure, they are approached by Omar (F. Murray Abraham), the person who had arranged the hit on the Cuban government official.  As a representative of the local crime boss, Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), Omar is looking for muscle to do drug deals for his organization.  After some negotiation, Tony agrees to do the job, along with Manny and a couple other guys with whom he came from Cuba.  It almost results in Tony being killed with a chainsaw when the buyer attempts to double cross them.  Tony’s violent but effective handling of the situation earns him Frank’s notice.  When Frank and Tony finally meet, it is Frank’s woman, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), that Tony notices.  Though it is ostensibly to advance his criminal career that Tony stays on with Frank, any chance Tony gets to interact with Elvira he does it.  She is as addicted to cocaine as the rest of them, and is initially put off by the uncouth Tony, but he is persistent.  Meanwhile, after amassing enough wealth to appear successful, he finally presents himself to his mother (Míriam Colón), who had been in the United States before 1980.  She is not happy to see her son, unlike his little sister, Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who has grown into a young woman since they had last met.  Because of this, Tony is enraged whenever anyone makes any kind of advance towards her, as seen when Manny comments on her beauty and Frank threatens physical harm to his friend.  Speaking of violence, Tony’s position in Frank’s organization grows to the point where he is sent with Omar to Bolivia to meet with Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), a Bolivian land baron who grows the plant that becomes the cocaine that Frank’s organization sells.  It is Tony’s desire to make deals over Omar’s, and even Frank’s, head that attracts Alejandro’s attention.  Alejandro, in turn, does Tony a favor by killing Tony’s rival, Omar.  With Alejandro’s backing, Tony returns to Miami emboldened to begin openly challenging Frank.  As is par for these films, this leads to a public assassination attempt on Tony.  Its failure paves the way for Tony to turn the table on his one-time boss, becoming the undisputed king of illicit activities in Miami.  This also allows him to marry Elvira, with the laughable promise of a family with children.  In short, Tony attains everything he had dreamed of by coming to America, and yet he is not satisfied.  Unsurprisingly, his marriage with the strung out Elvira is not a stable one.  His own cocaine habit also clouds his judgement on a number of matters, namely Gina.  Yet, the biggest problem comes when Alejandro asks Tony to blow up the car of a South American activist speaking out against drug trafficking at the United Nations (UN).  Before the explosion happens, he sees his target’s wife and children in the same vehicle and thwarts the execution.  Predictably, Alejandro is furious.  Then, upon returning from Bolivia, he finds Gina and Manny shacked up together.  Tony shoots Manny dead before his friend can explain that he and Gina had gotten married.  Tony takes the visibly distraught Gina with him back to his own compound, getting there just as men sent by Alejandro to eliminate Tony are infiltrating the estate.  Tony sits in his office in a drug induced stupor, only truly snapped out of it when he witnesses the distraught Gina murdered by the first attacker.  From here, Tony arms himself and begins fighting back, but eventually succumbs to a similar fate, dying face down in a pool with the words “The World is Yours” circling a globe above him.

There are some Biblical references to be drawn from the final shot in Scarface.  It would seem to be an answer to the question asked in Mark 8:36, which says, “What profit is there to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”  The movie would tell you that there is no profit.  Indeed, in one of the scenes leading to this climactic moment, a drunk Tony sits in a fancy restaurant with Elvira and Manny wondering if this and other trappings of wealth are the culmination of all to which he had aspired.  In other words, is this it?  He then proceeds to loudly drive off Elvira before lecturing the other patrons about how he is at least honest about being the bad guy.  The problem is, of course, greed.  Frank had warned Tony about this, telling the upstart to never underestimate the covetousness of the next guy, all while breaking this rule with Tony.  God warns against such feelings because ultimately the riches become a god, replacing the One who should be worshipped with an idol that can never be satisfied.  Jesus, too, speaks to this, saying in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”  If you read “mammon” and you were confused, do not worry.  It is another way of saying treasure.  The lesson is that God should be valued above all things.  However, God is completely absent from this film.  If this was not the case, it would, naturally, not end as it does.  Tony should have followed the example of his mother, who is Catholic judging by the picture of Mary and Child hanging in her modest house.  Such things were, at one time, a major part of Cuban culture.  Then again, had this been done there would not have been a movie.

It should not surprise anyone that God would be absent from Scarface despite its Cuban heritage.  When visiting Havana a few years ago, I found the state of the Church there to be much degraded thanks to Castro.  This is one of many reasons, along with the drugs, nudity, and violence, to not watch this film.