Now that we're past the main problem with this film - let's get on to the good stuff.

1. Sean Connery - don't buy all the rumor's that he won the Academy Award for this film just as a "gift" from the Academy. That Academy doesn't hand out gifts. This is a great role for Sean Connery and he's excellent in it. The actual award is "Best Actor In A Supporting Role" - and that it is. He's ingrained himself in this portrayal of a working-class beat cop.

2. Andy Garcia - what's he doing here? Just being incredibly charming and stealing a whole bunch of scene's. Particularily the wonderfully framed ( and quite famous ) staircase scene in the train station.

3. The cinematography is amazing. The blocking is great and helps pace the film. You won't realize how great it is until you start to think about how GOOD the film looks. Not just that it's nice to look it - the film has presence.

4. Robert DeNiro - as Capone. Come on? Shouldn't that be enough? He's one of the defining actors of our time. He's great here. It's a small part but he sinks his teeth into it and comes out on top.

5. Brian DePalma - he's a very underated director and this is one of his best films.

It's worth the money - add this film to your collection.

Here Endith The Lesson.

Best Regards, turtlex


Great movie... lousy DVD!   January 17, 2001
 30 out of 39 found this review helpful

Back in 1987, I had the opportunity to see an early "rough cut" of this film. There wasn't much fat at that time, and the final cut was ever so slightly tighter. It also helped that the music from "Silverado" had been replaced by Ennio Morricone's wonderful score for the final print.

The film itself is visually stunning. Even Costner's wooden performance seems to fit the character. (Though his trying to attempt a Chicago accent for brief moments becomes a bit funny after his "Robin Hood" stint.) Kudos to Sean Connery for turning in an Oscar winning performance against Costner. Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith round out the title team with great performances as well.

Then, there's Robert DeNiro as Al Capone. Say what you want about him playing the same type of character. The fact is, the man is a true talent as he proved with his recent turns in comedies like "Analyze This" and "Meet the Parents." As Olivier said: "...comedy is hard." His Capone is not subtle, but he's fun to watch.

Unfortunately, Paramount has once again decided to blow it on the DVD release. After "Braveheart" there was hope they might try and get with the program. But no! This DVD has no features. It's not like Brian DePalma is doing anything worthwhile. A couple of hours of studio time and you have a commentary track. Throw on a few trailers and storyboards and you have at least a decent DVD. Oh well.


The Worst DVD Transfer Job Imaginable   January 19, 2001
 20 out of 24 found this review helpful

A fabulous movie, but totally wasted on DVD. Paramount is only going for a money grab on this one. No features, shoddy sound quality. One measley trailer. All of this for a kings ransom in price. This DVD is simply not worth purchasing...Garbage!

Shame on Paramount for this obvious money grab. Next time spend more than 10 minutes on moving a masterpiece onto a terrific forum. You have done the movie no justice.


Good versus Evil in a deadly dance of operatic proportions.   March 6, 2004
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

Sometimes dubbed "the Master of the Macabre," director Brian De Palma is best known for his enactments of the supernatural ("Carrie"), mania ("Dressed to Kill") - and his mob stories. The latter part of his reputation is primarily grounded on four of his movies from the ten-year period between 1983 and 1993: "Scarface" (1983, starring Al Pacino), "Wise Guys" (1986, starring Danny De Vito, Joe Piscopo and Harvey Keitel), "Carlito's Way" (1993, again starring Pacino) ... and "The Untouchables" (1987), featuring an all-star cast including Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith. Among these, "The Untouchables" stands out as the only movie not primarily told from the gangster's but from the lawmen's perspective - but what it does share with all of De Palma's works is an almost voyeuristic appeal to its audience's visual senses; going far beyond the lavish display of film blood it is most often cited for.

Less fact-based than cinematic grand opera par excellence, the movie takes as its premise the end of the career of Chicago's ganglord of ganglords, Al "Scarface" Capone, who (after a few half-hearted attempts to prosecute him for murder had failed due to the unavailability of witnesses) pled guilty, in 1931, to evading federal income tax, and was sentenced to an 11-year prison term and a $50,000 fine. Capone's downfall was brought about by a group of initially 50 but later only nine Treasury Agents, formed in 1929 (not in 1930, as suggested here) with the express purpose of breaking up his operations, and headed by Eliot Ness, whose 1957 book "The Untouchables" posthumously gave new rise to his fame - Ness died of a heart attack without ever having witnessed the full extent of his book's success - and inspired, inter alia, the like-named 1959 television series starring Robert Stack and Brian De Palma's 1987 movie.

Scripted by Pulitzer Prize winner and Chicago native David Mamet ("Glengarry Glen Ross"), "The Untouchables" is not so much a study in character development as based on a western's classic "good versus evil" setup; although that doesn't mean that its protagonists are two-dimensional in any way. On the contrary: Robert De Niro imbues his Capone with a ruthlessness and glib charm very likely matching those of the real "Scarface," who was known for his little hesitation to commit murder and other acts of violence as much as he cultivated a reputation as a savvy businessman and benefactor of the poor, for example by running several soup kitchens. (And yes, all of De Niro's mannerisms are on full display, too; but rarely have they fitted a role as well as here.) Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness may be a little too assertive - Robert Stack once commented, after several conversations with Ness's nearest and dearest, that the real-life Treasury Agent had been described to him as "rather soft-spoken, but very effective and brave" - but mildness is certainly not the principle trait written into the larger-than-life role of the man who "got" Al Capone, and Costner *is* an effective lead; although he is matched (not entirely sidelined, but darn near outplayed) by Sean Connery, who deservedly won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a National Board of Review Award as the crotchety old-timer Malone who has seen it all, somehow managed to stay both clean and alive, and now lets Ness talk him into becoming his tutor in all things Chicago Gangland. Andy Garcia, in his break-through role, is instantly likable as George Stone, the smart, fast kid from the South Side who doesn't take kindly to put-downs of his origin but can nail a human target with one hand while lying down and holding a baby stroller with the other hand. Charles Martin Smith finally brings humanity and subtle humor to the character probably closest to the real-life "Untouchables," accountant Oscar Wallace, who first has the idea to charge Capone for income tax evasion. Strong performances by Billy Drago as Capone's right-hand man Frank Nitti (who of course was not really thrown off a rooftop by Ness), Richard Bradford as Police Chief Mike Dorsett, Patricia Clarkson as Ness's wife, Jack Kehoe as Capone's bookkeeper Walter Payne and others round out an altogether impressive cast.

Unmistakeably scored by Ennio Morricone (whose style often, and certainly here, doesn't even take a full bar to recognize; and who with an ASCAP Award, a Grammy and a BAFTA Award was the movie's other major winner besides Connery), "The Untouchables" lives off its splendid cinematography, production design - costumes courtesy of Giorgio Armani - and the exquisite timing of its sharp-edged dialogue and editing: Not only is screenwriter Mamet known to have his actors practice their lines according to a metronome; the editing of some of the movie's most memorable scenes has the distinct feeling of a carefully choreographed, veritable ballet. This is particularly true for Malone's death, pointedly set against the aria "Vesti la Giubba" from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci" ("The Clowns"), which is based on a real-life murder and which Capone attends while his lieutenants waylay Malone in his own apartment; and the famous shoot-out in Chicago's Union Station, which turns into a deadly dance of bullets, blood and a baby stroller, shot almost entirely in slow motion.

Paradoxically, the one plot element this movie is most often criticized for - the jury switch at Capone's trial - is one of the few facts that actually did take place (although Capone's attorney would have had to be given the right to conduct a new voir dire). But ultimately, it doesn't even really matter how much of the plot is fact-based and how much fiction: Even if "The Untouchables" doesn't quite reach the mythical status of the "Godfather" trilogy - particularly its Parts 1 and 2 - as the mob movie to end all mob movies, it is one of only a handful other films that at least come close to the proportions of Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece.

Also recommended:
The Untouchables
Eliot Ness and the Untouchables: The Historical Reality and the Film and Television Depictions
Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone
Scarface
Carlito's Way
Wise Guys
GoodFellas
Casino (Widescreen 10th Anniversary Edition)
Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition)
The Godfather DVD Collection (The Godfather/ The Godfather - Part II/ The Godfather - Part III)