After viewing Al Pacino’s performance in Scarface, I'm not surprised that so many people show little respect for human life today. We have to wonder why talented actors and producers create such violent trash. Are they feeding the appetite for violence simply for the money? I ask this question because I can find no hint of social merit in Scarface.

The movie begins with Tony Montana (Al Pacino) arriving in the U.S. as one of 125,000 Cuban refugees during the 1980 Mariel boatlift arrangement. This is the time when Castro gave Cubans the choice of leaving their country for the States or remaining in Cuba. Most of the refugees had legitimate claims for permanent resident status in the United States. However, Castro took advantage of the deal to clean out his prisons and insane asylums. He sent these individuals along with the legitimate emigrants to America.

The U.S. government did not want criminals to obtain legitimate refugee status, so immigration officers subjected each new arrival from Cuba to serious questioning. Backgrounds were checked and most of the criminals wound up at a makeshift holding facility in Miami.

Among these criminals are Montana and friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer). Both want to stay in the U.S. but need permanent refugee status to do so. Ribera thinks he has the answer to this dilemma when Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) calls on him and Montana to exterminate an enemy with strong ties to Castro. Their target is also a captive at the holding center. When immigration officers and guards are attacked one evening, Montana is given the opportunity he needs to fatally knife the man in question without being detected. As a token of gratitude, Lopez uses his connections to get Montana and Manny their green cards. 

Graphic violence abounds in Scarface. In one sickening scene, Montana's friend Angel (Pepe Serna) is attached from a hook to a bathroom ceiling by his captors. We see his face as he's hacked to death with a chainsaw while his blood completely coats the room. I almost lost my dinner at this gruesome sight. And I gasped at another horrific scene in which Omar's (F. Murray Abraham) neck is snapped like a twig when he's hung from the bottom of a helicopter for being a snitch.

Although Pacino has delivered some brilliant performances over the years, his work in Scarface is not one of them. He's neither fluid nor natural here, and his over-the-top acting makes Montana seem more like a cartoon character than a sinister gangster.

Directed by Brian De Palma from Oliver Stone’s screenplay, Scarface emerges as a dull movie filled with too many scenes of brutal torture and other acts of extreme violence. Is this entertainment? Not to me.

(Released by Universal Studios and rated "R" by MPAA.)