{"id":1259,"date":"2024-07-23T21:09:30","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T21:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2024-11-19T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T21:15:51","slug":"the-untouchables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/23\/the-untouchables\/","title":{"rendered":"The Untouchables"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Untouchables<\/strong> (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian De Palma\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Mamet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ennio Morricone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 3, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, Richard Bradford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia Clarkson, Del Close, Vito D\u2019Ambrosio, Steven Goldstein, Don Harvey, Robert Swan, Clifton James (uncredited).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $76.2M (US)\/$106.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Brian De Palma\u2019s The Untouchables<\/strong> is the exception to the rule that popular TV shows don\u2019t make good movies. Actually, there have been a few good ones, but this is the very best of them. It\u2019s grand entertainment all the way through, from first frame to last.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The original series, which starred Robert Stack as US Treasury agent Eliot Ness, ran from 1959-63. It followed Ness and his team of incorruptible agents- aka \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d- as they attempted to stem the flow of illegal booze into Chicago during Prohibition. Kevin Costner (No Way Out) takes over Stack\u2019s role in the 1987 film. His Agent Ness is sent to Chicago to take down Al Capone (De Niro, Taxi Driver), a powerful mob boss who has nearly the entire city under his control. He\u2019s the most feared crime figure of the time with his penchant for brutal violence. He thinks he\u2019s untouchable, but he\u2019s headed for a big downfall.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ness\u2019 first day on the job is marked by failure when a warehouse thought to contain a large quantity of Canadian whiskey comes up empty. Humiliated and wallowing in self-pity, he has a chance meeting with a tough Irish-American beat cop, Jimmy Malone (Connery, the original James Bond), who offers up a few words of wisdom before going on his way. He later agrees to join Ness in his crusade against Capone. It turns out he\u2019s as fed up with crime and corruption as Ness. He\u2019s one of the few honest cops on the force. It\u2019s his idea to recruit a cadet from the academy, ace marksman George Stone (Garcia, The Godfather Part III), to join them. In his words, \u201cIf you\u2019re afraid of getting a rotten apple, don\u2019t go to the barrel. Get it off the tree.\u201d The team is rounded out by Oscar Wallace (Smith, American Graffiti), a Treasury accountant who discovers they can get the original Teflon Don on income tax evasion. Together, the Untouchables wage war on Capone and his bootlegging operation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m tempted to describe The Untouchables<\/strong> as a work of art. Everything about it is so artful. Even when the violence gets ugly, it\u2019s still beautiful. It\u2019s the combined work of several artists: visual consultant Patrizia von Brandenstein (Ragtime), cinematographer Stephen H. Burum (The Outsiders), costume designer Marilyn Vance-Straker (The Rocketeer), art director William A. Elliott (Silverado) and set decorator Hal Gausman (Mary Poppins). All of these components come together in complete visual harmony. The cherry on top is the wonderful score by Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). It\u2019s then served up by the sure-handed De Palma (Scarface) working from a tight script by David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross). Such a collection of behind-the-camera talent; such an incredible film. And I haven\u2019t even gotten to the performances yet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Connery, who won Best Supporting Actor for his part, is the real stand-out. He brings his character to full life even when he\u2019s just talking. The scene where he explains \u201cthe Chicago way\u201d of justice to Ness in a church is probably his character\u2019s defining moment. Mamet\u2019s dialogue sounds even greater when Connery says it- e.g. \u201cThey pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.\u201d In his first starring role, Costner acquits himself nicely as Ness, a straight-arrow T-Man determined to get Capone by all legal means- i.e. \u201canything within the law\u201d. Of course, that\u2019s NOT how things work in Chicago. We get to see inside his personal life off the job. At home, he has a pregnant wife (Clarkson, The Dead Pool) and young daughter.\u00a0 There will come a point when the dangers of his job hit too close to home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0De Niro, who put on 30 lbs for the role, is perfect as Capone. Granted, his scenes seem detached from the rest of the movie, but he\u2019s no less a looming presence for it. He gives us a clear idea of Capone\u2019s propensity for sudden violence in scenes like the one in which he bashes an underling\u2019s head in with a bat after delivering a monologue about baseball and teamwork. In smaller but no less important roles, Garcia and Smith are terrific. I\u2019d also like to praise character actor Billy Drago (Invasion USA) as Capone\u2019s chief enforcer Frank Nitti. This is the performance of his career. It\u2019s also the one that first brought him to my attention. His climactic fight with Ness on the roof of the courthouse building is awesome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d be remiss in my duties if I didn\u2019t discuss a couple of key scenes in The Untouchables<\/strong>. In a movie of pure greatness, they stand out. The first is the joint American-Canadian operation to intercept a shipment of illegal booze at the border. One of Capone\u2019s guys (Sullivan, Slap Shot) is taken alive, but refuses to talk. No problem. Malone steps outside the cabin and pretends to interrogate a dead gangster before shooting him in the face. The frightened fellow agrees to tell them everything he knows. Hey, whatever works. The other, the most iconic scene in the movie, is the shootout on the stairs at Union Station. As bullets fly, a baby carriage with a baby inside rolls down the steps directly in the line of fire. For those that don\u2019t know, this scene is a homage to the 1926 Russian-made silent film Battleship Potemkin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not only is The Untouchables<\/strong> the best of the TV-to-film adaptations, it\u2019s also one of De Palma\u2019s best films. I\u2019d even dare to say it\u2019s one of the best gangster films of the latter 20th<\/sup> century. I\u2019ll take it another step further and say it\u2019s pure movie magic. It gets everything right even if it takes liberties with the story (it\u2019s based on historical fact). So what, it makes for a great movie!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Untouchables (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 119 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian De Palma\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Mamet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ennio Morricone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 3, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, Richard Bradford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-these-are-some-classic-flicks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/The-Untouchables-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8900,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/8900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}