Scarface (1932)

This week, our class watched Howard Hawks’ 1932 film Scarface. In general, I really enjoyed this film because it was much more exciting than the past few films our class has seen. The amount of violence that was present in this film actually shocked me, as I’m sure it did early audiences, because I wasn’t fully ready for it. Since we looked at some of the Motion Picture’s Production Codes before viewing this film, the violence just really seemed to catch me off-guard. According to the 1927 Motion Picture Production Code, some things that were prohibited from being in films included profanity, suggestive nudity, sex perversion, and more. To my surprise, almost all of these were present in Scarface, which was produced after these rules came out. It was also interesting to see the amount of items that were on the production code’s “Be Careful” list that were also in this film, including firearms, robbery, brutality, murder, sympathy for criminals, man and women in bed together and lustful kissing. Although there wasn’t really a scene where a man and women were in bed together, there were a few scenes where it was suggested that a man and a women would be in bed together or were just previously in bed together. This movie was full of suggestions like that, but I actually thought it made the film more intriguing. It suggests an idea but allows each individual audience member decide what happens next. I think this is one of the aspects of this film that really kept my attention and left me wanting more by the end of the movie. But there were a few things I didn’t particularly enjoy about this film.

One thing I was really bothered by was how many characters there were in the movie. I kept getting confused on who was who, except for the actual character of Scarface. Due to his scar, I was able to keep track of him. But many of the other male characters looked and dressed the same, so I found it difficult to keep track of all of them. Even the extra men who were just at restaurants or at the Men’s Club seemed to dress the same. It just kind of confused me, so I wish the director would have made the characters more distinct. I also didn’t really like the movie’s ending. I didn’t like how (in the version we viewed) Scarface basically begged for the police to show him mercy and not shoot him. The character of Scarface that most of us today know and love would never have begged the police for anything; he would have stuck to his values and had his own shoot out (which he basically did in the 1983 version of this film). I just felt like it wasn’t a great way to end a “gangster”-type film, but I suppose that is one of the big differences between gangster films today and in the past.

Overall I did find this film entertaining and intriguing. I would find it really interesting if our class had the chance to watch this version of Scarface and compare it to the 1983 version of Scarface. I would also be interested to see what the people who created the 1927 version of the Motion Picture Production Company would think of the newer version of Scarface. I’m sure they would be absolutely appalled….but it would still be interesting to hear their thoughts. :)