Ken Tucker - Scarface Nation

Table of Contents

D eep thanks once again to my wily, riotous agent, John Campbell. Also to my intimidatingly intelligent and witty editor, Elizabeth Beier, and her exceedingly helpful, thoughtful assistant, Michelle Richter. And effusive thanks to my photo editor and art-friend, Michele Romero.

Throughout the writing of this book, I consulted Bill Fentums invaluable Web site, briandepalma.net , as well as Geoff Songss superb De Palma a la Mod Web site ( angelfire.com/de/palma ).

My quotes from De Palma come from a brief conversation I had with him about my project while we both attended the 2005 TorontoFilm Festival. At that time, he said he would sit down for a more extensive interview. He subsequently declined all my follow-up requests. I will refrain from using a Scarfacian imprecation regarding this behavior, and simply say good night to the bad guy

Scarface as a Business Plan (or The 8 Habits of Highly Successful but Tragic Gangsters)

1. Know Your Goals Tony lays out the real rules of America to Manny; he makes it clear, early on in the film, when hes still hungry and disciplined, that he has his priorities straight. In this country, you gotta make the money first; then when you get the money, you get the power; then when you get the power, you get the woman. Thats why you gotta make your own moves.

No other moment in Scarface distinguishes so sharply the differencebetween not just Tony and Manny, but Tony Montana and the rest of the hustlers and poor people he came up from: his instinctive understanding of how the game is played, how individuals shape their own destinies, and how power must be grabbed, not merely lusted after or yearned for.

2. Old School Versus New School Tony commences his business education under the tutelage of Frank Lopez. Franks hardwon wisdom consists of a couple of lessons plus the business model Tony observes and improves upon.

Says Frank, Lesson number one: never underestimate the other guys greed! (punctuated by actor Robert Loggias gravelly laugh). In other words, be proactively suspicious and match greed with greater greed. This sentiment was very much in the 1980s air: What is Franks phrase if not a warm-up for Scarface screenwriter Oliver Stone to polish these words into the Gordon Gekko Wall Street mantra, Greed is good?

Franks cocaine empire consists of striking the best deal he can with his suppliers in Bolivia and Colombia, getting the product into this country via his own men, and then distributing the product through his long-cultivated network of sellers.

Tony gets his first opportunity to realize he has the instincts of a good businessman when he travels to Bolivia, accompanying F Murray Abrahams Omar, who is Franks mouthpiece/emissary in cocaine negotiations with the sleek drug kingpin, Paul Shenars Alejandro Sosa. Sosa wants Lopez to guarantee hell take 150 kilos a month to sellhe needs a regular buyer to keep his operation afloat. Omar sees this as a huge commitment, and one he doesnt have the authority to decide upon. But Tony, along for the ride as muscle and lackey, seizes the opportunity You got good stuff hereclassA shit, says Tonyboldly, speaking out of turn. Sosa and Omar take noticeSosa with amused approval, Omar with dagger-eyed annoyance.

Sosa offers the price of $750 a kilo for its pickup and distribution by Frank Lopezs organization. Omar is worried about cutting out the Colombiansi.e., Lopezs other source of cocaine. Theres some back and forth, and Tony interrupts, cutting through the bull, saying they should share the risk of alienating the Colombian cartel, proposing that Sosa deliver the drugs as far as Panama, and well take it from there.

Omar is royally pissed that Tony would make such a proposal without Franks authorizationbut it almost doesnt matter, because as we soon see, Sosa believes Omar is ratting on him and Lopez to the police, and, after asking Tony to stay behind, has Omar take a little helicopter ride that will reach its height with Omar dead, dangling from a noose tied to the aircraft. (Question: Was Omar an informer? Its never really provenone of a number of plot threads in Scarface that are left as dangling as Omars body)

Back in Miami, Tony assures a Frank who is livid that his minion has conducted business in his name without consulting him first. Look, Frank, the time has comewe gotta expand the whole operation, says Tony. Hes in a gray sharkskin suit nowjust like Franks, in fact. Tony is more tanned, hes taken on a gravitas that he didnt have even in just the last scene. Hes facing down Lopez, the aging boss whos getting soft. Tony tells a man set in his local Miami ways that he has to think bigger; Tony even ventures that they need to work in big northern cities like New York and Chicago. Lopez grows belligerent, calling the smooth, articulate Sosa a greaseball, and telling Tony he bought Sosas line, implying that Tony isnt seasoned enough to know when hes being played.

Tonys heard enough; he gets up to leave. But Frank has onemore bit old-school advice: The guys who last in this business are the guys who fly straight, low-key, quiet. And the guys who want it all they dont last. This is heavyoh, Ill just say it: clumsily obviousforeshadowing of what is to come for Tony, who wants it all.

Soon enough, Franks rulesincluding the other cardinal one, Dont get high on your own supplywill be irrelevant to Tony (but certainly not to viewers of Scarface , who will be making mental notes of everything Frank lays out). Tony will make his own move, in a more expensive suit: hell kill the man who mentored him and deal directly with Sosa.

3. Begin with the End in Mind This is a tenet held by Stephen Covey in his business bible, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People . Manny reminds Tony early on that just a year ago this time you were in a fucking cage, and Tonys responseYou remember; I like to forget thatshows him to have already become as pure an American character as anyone Mark Twain or F Scott Fitzgerald or Philip Roth has created. Like Huck Finn, Gatsby, and Zuckerman, Tony Montana is a self-re-created man, one who throws off the shame and limitations of his low upbringing to enlighten and empower himself, to give himself some control over his world. Me, I want whats coming to me .. . the world .. . and everything in it.

4. Think and Act Positively and with Balls Tonys rules, as opposed to Franks:

Were now at a tipping point in the movie, as Tonys giddy rise and fall commence; to emphasize this, were reintroduced to the films mantra: a zeppelin, moving across the night sky, whose illuminated message is THE WORLD IS YOURS. Theres renewed burst of visual energy, a flashy montage of drug money being counted by sorting machines that riffle the bills into bundles; Tony on the phone sharing a laugh with the Bolivian supplier Sosa; Tonys minions hoisting duffel bags full of cash and toting them into a bank. Montana is a big player, on the upswing, reveling in the control hes grabbed. Even the banker is glad to see him.

5. Always Be Moving Forward When is Tony most in danger? Whenever hes still: At the start of the movie, when hes sitting in the government interrogators chair, submitting to their grilling. When hes tied up in the bathroom in the chain-saw scene. When, at the end, he sits motionless at his desk, stunned by cocaine and impending doom. Clearly, Montana and all would-be Montanas must maintain the metabolism of a sharkkeep that forward momentum going. Aside from his grandiose the world and everything in it goal, Tony chops up his ambition into a series of individual, manageable goals and pursues them like nobodys business. Kill a communist: check. That gets him into Frank Lopezs organization. Kill Frank and steal his wife: check. Negotiate his own terms for drug importation: check. Marry Elvira, amass a fortune, and stock the backyard with tigers: check. Its only when he slows down (too many broody bubble baths!) that Tony gets into trouble. To borrow from another movie: Always be closing. Or you die.