CARLITO'S WAY
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller. Screenplay: David Koepp. Director: Brian DePalma.
Brian DePalma needs a hit *really* badly. Since scoring big with THE UNTOUCHABLES in 1987, DePalma has seen CASUALTIES OF WAR, RAISING CAIN and particularly the disastrous BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES go down in flames. Consequently, it would be easy enough to consider CARLITO'S WAY a shrewd commercial choice for DePalma, reteaming with Al Pacino (SCARFACE) and returning to the gangland ground which has yielded his two greatest box office successes. It doesn't hurt any that he has latched on to a solid story and brought out dynamite performances from Pacino and Sean Penn. CARLITO'S WAY, while hampered by DePalma's characteristic excesses and stylistic cannibalism, is a truly tense and engrossing drama.
Carlito Brigante (Pacino) is a life-long criminal who finds himself unexpectedly given a second chance. In 1975, Carlito is released from prison after serving only five years of a thirty year sentence when his conviction is overturned on a technicality. He declares himself reformed, tired of life on the streets and determined to fulfill his simple dream of buying into a rental car business in the Bahamas. Among those who find this conversion hard to believe are David Kleinfeld (Penn), Carlito's crooked attorney and childhood friend, and bodyguard Pachanga (Luis Guzman). Carlito rediscovers old flame Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), and seems ready to retire in peace. Old ways die hard, though, and old associates pull Carlito step by step back into a life he can't seem to shake.
CARLITO'S WAY will probably make the strongest impression with the two outstanding set pieces which bracket the film. In the first, Carlito accompanies his young cousin on a drug buy which will have anyone with a pulse on the edge of their seat; the film closes with an equally thrilling chase through the New York subway and Grand Central Station. Both highlight DePalma's gift for choreographed mayhem, and these are not the only occasions when the stage blood flows freely. Yet for all the viscera, I found the character study even more compelling. Carlito Brigante has a lot of Michael Corleone in him, an aging gangster trying unsuccessfully to go legit. But where the culmination of the GODFATHER saga played like opera, there's more of an immediacy to CARLITO'S WAY, an ever-present sense of doom launched by the title sequence which sets the flashback story in motion. You sense that there's no way, after so many years, that Carlito can stay out of trouble. Indeed, he observes that his attempt at the straight life is more a function of time than a change of heart: "You don't get reformed; you just run out of wind." Pacino captures Carlito's dilemma with surprising subtlety and the cautious observation borne of years of experience watching every corner for an enemy. Sean Penn is even better, turning in his best performance to date as Kleinfeld. A Jew in the world of Puerto Rican and Italian wiseguys, Kleinfeld is an outsider with a huge chip on his shoulder. He could have been simply pathetic, a heavy drinker and cocaine addict playing tough with guys way out of his league, but Penn invests Kleinfeld with tremendous nervous energy and an overwhelming survival instinct. He shows a man moving steadily towards the brink, making the moment he goes over quite jolting.
As compelling as the narrative is, viewers may experience a profound sense of deja vu. DePalma continues to steal shamelessly from other directors, this time adding Scorsese to his repertoire with a point of view tracking shot and a Copacabana scene with more than passing resemblances to GOODFELLAS. He even recycles some of his own previous plagiarisms, like a 360 degree swing around a kiss (VERTIGO via BODY DOUBLE) and the climactic shootout which will strike many as far too reminiscent of the train station sequence from THE UNTOUCHABLES. From a story standpoint, there's an obligatory love story with a cliche'd long-suffering girlfriend character. Penelope Ann Miller is a good but limited actor who doesn't do anything new with the role, and eventually she becomes just a distraction, never integrated fully enough into the story.
Still, it's easier to be forgiving of superficial flaws when the backbone is so solid. The two principle characters held an iron grip on my attention, one all the cinematic thievery in the world couldn't break. CARLITO'S WAY plays like a tragic novel: deliberate, confident and powerful. Those willing to grant DePalma his tendencies towards the extreme should find themselves well- rewarded.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 wiseguys: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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