“There’s no Scarface 2, no part three, none of that with this picture. There’s just Scarface. And I think there’s something to that.” — Al Pacino during last night’s Scarface Bluray event at L.A.’s Belasco theatre (1050 So. Hill Street).
Why does Michelle Pfeiffer never take part in these tributes? She never records commentary tracks or is interviewed in any looking-back video essays…nothing. Her performance as the snotty trophy wife Elvira wasn’t Lysistrata-level, but for what it was she delivered quite well. And Scarface certainly boosted her profile and made her known to the multitudes. So why the attitude?
There are several minor first-act irritants, by the way, that popped through during yesterday’s viewing of the Bluray. One, the dubbing of the senior immigration official in scene #1 (by Charles Durning, no less) is horribly mixed in that it sounds like dubbing — it stands completely apart from the other soundtrack elements. Two, when the actor playing Emilio Rebenga (Roberto Contreras) is being tormented by cries of “Rebenga!” and “libertad!” before his assassination in the Cuban detention center, he puts up his hands and seems to stupidly mouth at one point, “No, not me…please be nice…don’t kill me!” Three, as Pacino complains to Steven Bauer about working at that Little Havana food stand, he hold out his hands and goes, “lookadat…fuckin’ onions!” Onions aren’t made of acid — they don’t leave stains.
There are at least ten or fifteen other things in this film that bother me. I could do 2000 words on this but I have a plane to catch and things to do before I leave in three hours.