CARLITO'S WAY
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1996 Chuck Dowling
(1993) ****1/2 - C:Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Viggo Mortensen, Adrian Pasdar, Paul Mazursky.
Director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino team up for the first time since 1983's "Scarface" to tell us another gangster story. Pacino plays Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican street gangster who is released from jail after serving five years of a thirty year prison term on a technicality discovered by his sleazy, cocaine addicted lawyer friend (played excellently by Sean Penn). Once out, he soon realizes that the streets have drastically changed.
Offers keep coming to Carlito for him to return to his criminal activities, but he doesn't want anything to do with crime anymore. All he wants is to earn enough money to buy into a small business owned by a former cellmate of his down in the Bahamas. He finds that it's not so easy, however, as his past and his strict sense of loyalty to his friends keep getting him closer to a one way ticket straight back to jail. Pacino's role will immediately call to mind his performance in "The Godfather Part III" as Don Corleone, who kept trying to turn the family business legitimate, but his name and his code of honor kept him involved the crime world.
Carlito takes a legitimate job as the manager of a local night club, hoping to quickly earn the money he needs. It's there, ironically, where his biggest troubles begin. Benny Blanco (Leguizamo), a small time punk who thinks he going to be the next big boss of the city, is a loyal customer of the club and Carlito wants nothing to do with him. This rubs Benny the wrong way and after a couple confrontations, Carlito has his men rough Benny up and throw him out. Benny then sets out to kill Carlito.
To make situations worse, Carlito reunites with his lover (Miller) whom he left before heading off to jail and they rekindle their relationship. She however wants him to leave town with her as soon as possible and cannot understand his loyalties to the people Carlito is involved with.
"Carlito's Way" is a compelling film to watch and there's hardly a dull moment. The acting is top-notch from everyone in the cast, especially Pacino and Penn. It's a great looking film as well, and it has a good selection of 70s songs reflective of the time period in which the story takes place. Patrick Doyle's score music is also effective exactly when it needs to be.
The only flaw of the film is the very first scene. De Palma has Carlito tell the story in the overused film gimmick of flashbacks, so we see the final scene of the film first. This ruins any possibility of suspense during the film's final moments because we already know how everything is going to end.
"Carlito's Way" was filmed in the widescreen aspect of 2.35:1, and De Palma takes full advantage of the enormous amount of screen space that he has to fill. I recommend that if you do watch the film to try and watch it in its original letterboxed format.
-- Chuck Dowling Visit Chuck's Movie Reviews at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Over 1,500 movies rated and/or reviewed! Movie news, box office reports, film related links, and reader's polls and reviews.
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