Scarface - 5

At almost three hours this film is much too long. The film uses Castro's opening of the border as a starting point to tell the story of Tony Montana, who is a Cuban criminal that makes it to Miami and gets involved in cocaine trafficking. As he climbs higher in the business he becomes so obsessed with making money and living "high" on the hog, he eventually looses all trust in his friend, who he suspects are trying to take over his cocaine empire. Despite being a classic, and Pacino doing a good job of playing the main character, I found the film sort of a waste of time. It seems there may have been a better way to get the point across than just showing all sorts of violence, often for no other reason than shock value. Additionally, the other characters are under developed. The story struggles to show whether the story is about Tony as a tragic hero, or whether the point is that in the end there is justice among criminals. My guess is that it is the former, which makes for a very sad story.