Latest / Citizen Frame / Carlito's Way
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:31Why, you ain't coming in?
- 0:34Okay, I'm coming out. Are you up against me now, motherfuckers?
- 0:41I'm gonna blow your fucking brains out.
- 0:46You think you're big time? You're gonna fucking die big time.
- 0:47Music.
- 0:57You ready?
- 1:02Here come the pain,
- 1:07hey everybody welcome back well blip blip blip hey everybody welcome back to
- 1:14another exciting episode of citizen frame we're continuing our mini retrospective
- 1:19of brian de palma el pacino martin bregman produced films gangster films specifically.
- 1:28After the success of Khalid, more of a cult success,
- 1:33modest success of Scarface, the team decided to get back together and do something
- 1:38a little more, not as batshit crazy. More grounded.
- 1:43More grounded. And this was Khalid goes way. I remember seeing this in the cinema. I fucking loved it.
- 1:48It is based on the book by Edwin Torres.
- 1:53The books are called After Hours and Carly Goes Away.
- 1:57And the script is written by my favorite
- 2:00screenwriter David Koepp who did this that's right
- 2:03Indiana Jones all of them so piss off I love Indiana
- 2:05Jones well besides Raiders I don't think he did Raiders
- 2:08a lot of Spielberg called Jurassic Park he did War of the Worlds but mainly
- 2:13he's directed two wonderful films called Stir of Echoes and Secret Window Stir
- 2:18of Echoes yeah on Secret Window I both really liked yeah so this guy I love
- 2:24to see his work I love to see his name on anything but he's in charge of writing this bad boy,
- 2:29and we got Pacino back and we also got you know some other guys back that's
- 2:35right Chi Chi he'll have a part Hector the Toads,
- 2:39Puerto Rican cousin pops up it's the same actor playing a role a very small
- 2:44role same as Chi Chi yeah we got we got a couple of them got a couple of them
- 2:48just more just more just more nod to the hatch really I think Yeah, I think so.
- 2:52And rather than really, you know. They're not fake phones.
- 2:56Yeah, I think it's just for fun to let people know, hey, it's the same team
- 2:58did Scarface. Yeah, exactly.
- 3:02So, yeah, this was a big hit. This was a hit. This was well-received, box office gold.
- 3:08So, it definitely found his footing, whereas Scarface took a while to find his footing.
- 3:14But the film is really about the opposite of...
- 3:17Of what Tony Montagna was trying to do. This is a man who is.
- 3:24He rose to fame, went to prison, found himself spiritually or whatever,
- 3:30and decided he could be living a good, clean life, and he's going to redeem
- 3:35himself, and he's going to take a different path this time.
- 3:39Yeah, he wants to open a second-hand car business or something like that.
- 3:43Yeah. Basically, he wants to go straight. He wants to go straight.
- 3:46And all his characters that he's met when he was a badass come into play and
- 3:53they become his downfall. Totally.
- 3:55Especially the one man he thinks he owes everything to is a character of Kleinfeld,
- 4:00played incredibly, by far his best performance ever, Sean Penn.
- 4:04Yeah. His loyalty to his friends and his past basically are his downfall.
- 4:10And his ego. A bit of that as well, yeah. And I think his ego is what kills
- 4:15him. Because of Benny Blacko.
- 4:18And what he does to his little buddy, Pechanga, played by the guy I always like
- 4:22to see, Luis Guzman. Yes.
- 4:24So let's just jump into it. We got, we got, she's a terrible actress.
- 4:30She should have stuck with a kindergarten cop. She actually,
- 4:33she almost destroys the film.
- 4:36Yeah, we'll get to it. Yeah. El Pacino as Carlito.
- 4:40I like that, Carlito. And this time he's out of Cuba, he's a Puerto Rican.
- 4:44Yep. You know, Big jump there, big lead.
- 4:49He's a man of many South American faces, let's just say, and he's Italian. Yeah.
- 4:56We got, always liked Sean Penn as Kleinfeld, John Luke Guzamo as Benny Blanco.
- 5:02Wonderful appearance by Viggo Mortensen, who plays Lolin. Luis Guzman as Pechanga.
- 5:07Then you got Steffi. You got James Reborn, who passed away not too long ago.
- 5:12Great character actor. He plays Norrock.
- 5:15The DA going after him. Then you got Sasso and Tony and Frankie.
- 5:20And that's it. That's our cast. The film starts off right away with just a wonderful
- 5:25sequence where he's almost like a child.
- 5:27And he's talking to the judge and he's just saying, thank you for this.
- 5:31But he's also giving him the finger at the same time. It's wonderfully written.
- 5:35There's an eagle there and he's giving the finger to the DA fucked up by illegally wiretapping.
- 5:42And so he gets away and the judge is like, God, dear God, why do you have to listen to this?
- 5:46And the whole opening scene, he's like,
- 5:50Yeah, he's a child with an ego giving the finger to the man.
- 5:55It just seems like that's what he's doing. I actually have a little bit of issues with this scene.
- 6:01I get that it's obviously fiction, but there's no way that I think that an actual
- 6:06judge in a court would allow him to have this speech.
- 6:09It's a minor thing, but I think he could possibly even be done for contempt of court.
- 6:15But yes, there's a bit of ego there and a bit of childishness.
- 6:20Yeah which which is funny because once he leaves
- 6:23the courtroom he's sensible he's sensible yes
- 6:26i know to a degree but it's
- 6:30ballsy because before we get the courtroom exit we see his death i see this
- 6:36is another thing i think it i mean i'm not it still works but the whole narrating
- 6:41from beyond the grave type thing i think would have been and even for dramatic
- 6:46purposes i would have preferred,
- 6:49personal reasons i would have preferred not to know that he dies and gets shot
- 6:55from the very start for the narration he's dying when he's narrating so he only does it that one time,
- 7:01he's he's kind of reflecting as he's dying yes but back on his life it's it's
- 7:06a ballsy move to show us that he's going to die yes i think it was a mistake yeah i agree you.
- 7:17We talked about with Scarface where De Palma didn't do De Palma-esque stuff.
- 7:22You know, it was three big tears.
- 7:24This one, he's got them massively.
- 7:27He's got the boat scene. He's got the incredible scene with his cousin coming up.
- 7:31And then we got the finale, which is brilliant. The subway chase sequence. Superb. It's superb.
- 7:39And we'll get into it further. But for that whole intense moment,
- 7:43as he's getting to the train, he's about to go.
- 7:45We already know what's going to happen You kind of pull the rug underneath us by doing that Exactly,
- 7:50and I do think it hurts it somewhat It does It doesn't kill it,
- 7:54but it certainly is a letdown It would have been even more intense,
- 7:59the finale If we didn't know from the very start, from the outset That Carlito's
- 8:05going to get shot and killed here, basically,
- 8:08Oh, spoiler alert, if anyone hasn't seen it. Well, you find out at the very start anyway.
- 8:13So, you know, that's sort of what we're saying. That's true.
- 8:16That's true. That's true. Yeah, I don't get the mentality for that.
- 8:22No, I think it hurts it somewhat, but it still is a great film and works very,
- 8:27especially the finale, which is fantastic.
- 8:30But it would have been even better without that. The narration's fine.
- 8:34The narration itself, I think, works very well. but the fact that you know that
- 8:38he's sort of narrating as he's dying, it's a big spoiler they give away for their own film.
- 8:45I think what they were trying to do was oh does he die?
- 8:49I'm like yeah come on this isn't an M. Night film.
- 8:54I mean he's going to die, there's no twist coming here.
- 8:58Yeah and again it's rise and fall of a gangster so you're pretty much no good
- 9:02indeed anyway that he's probably going to die.
- 9:04And they also They also show it's Benny doing it. Yeah, I know that there.
- 9:08Although you don't see his face.
- 9:10Oh, you know that's Sean Lucuzamo. I mean, clear as day. You can see his side
- 9:14face. On rewatch, you do catch it, definitely.
- 9:17Yeah, you catch it. The big twist is Bochanga is involved.
- 9:21That's the big one. Yeah. Okay, so we're in 1975.
- 9:25This is where this takes place in the 70s here. In New York.
- 9:29So, yeah, he wants to get clean, do his own thing. You meet all these different,
- 9:32you got Pachanga and Chi-Chi and Wilberto. We meet all these three.
- 9:37Pachanga is going to be pretty much his right-hand man, which is played by Louis
- 9:40Guzman. Yep. And then we meet his little cousin.
- 9:43It's a nice blend of meeting all these little characters, and it's quickly done.
- 9:50It sets things up well. To let them know, I'm done. I'm not going to do it.
- 9:54You talk to Wilberto, who's pretty much a mob man.
- 9:57He tells him, I'm out. and they actually leave him alone.
- 10:01If you notice the guy, because Roberto is the man he went to prison for and didn't say anything.
- 10:07That's right. So, Roberto has respect for him. He's not going to try to take him out.
- 10:11And quite frankly, everyone respects this man so much, he was ready to go. He'd be fine.
- 10:17But it's his lawyer that will be his downfall.
- 10:20And a couple of other mistakes. Also the fact that he needs this money to get away.
- 10:25And, you know, so it's like the whole sort of one final job you know sort of
- 10:31thing and also again loyalty to friends and family even at the start with his
- 10:36younger cousin bit of greed there well it's not so much greed because he does
- 10:40need the money because he just wants to start afresh with this sort of legit business.
- 10:45Well he doesn't know about the money yet we'll jump into that he benefits from
- 10:48what happens to his cousin but the whole thing is he wants to earn $75,000 so
- 10:54he's going to help run this bar that Sasso is running into the ground because he was gambling issues.
- 10:59Yeah. Do you see the name of the bar? The El Pericio? Yeah, like in Scarface,
- 11:03another reference. Scarface, that is the diner.
- 11:05Yes, that's right. That he first worked at in, I think that was called the El Pericio.
- 11:10Yeah, the Burger Van, basically. Burger Van, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Nice little nod there.
- 11:15But yeah, so this, again, going back to like a broken record,
- 11:18De Palma has these sequences and this is one of them.
- 11:21And the whole setup, he just knows how to build tension.
- 11:28The tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife and just the dialogue the
- 11:33guy in the toilet but we don't see it but he does our boy sees it Carlito I'm
- 11:39going to say Carlito the whole time,
- 11:41and he sees it so he's setting up the pool and he needs to set up this pool
- 11:46shot just so he can see in the guy's glasses from behind what's happening at
- 11:51the same time you got the other guy counting the money with his cousin oh look
- 11:54down there for a beer Now,
- 11:56what De Palma does so well, you know that cousin is being set up.
- 12:01Oh, no, put your hand down further.
- 12:03He's not trying to pull smoke and mirrors there with you. He's letting you know
- 12:07this kid's fucked. Yeah, and he is.
- 12:10Oh, what a horrible way to go. But-
- 12:13You find out that Roberto's going to get it, the old boss of our boy Carlito,
- 12:19and they're going to take his money and drugs.
- 12:22That's right, yeah. And they cut the cousin's throat, but he ends up going batshit crazy, Carlito.
- 12:29And it's a great scene because it's a scene where we needed something to see what he once was.
- 12:35Yeah. And this is the scene that does that. It sets him up as like a proper
- 12:40badass, but he's a badass who's trying to reform you know but.
- 12:45You take the character serious in terms of he's
- 12:48not a pussy you know he's not a pussy essentially he's so
- 12:50calm and collect where Tony Mantegna would have
- 12:53went bad bastard crazy and started knifing everybody exactly Tony
- 12:56was a hothead whereas Carlito is
- 13:00more calculating and he's clever and
- 13:03smart and thinks things out you know yeah like
- 13:06setting up the pool shot yes and then he
- 13:09runs into the bathroom he's out of guns about a
- 13:12bullets but he says here come the pain here come the
- 13:15pain famous line and he runs out everyone's gone that's right yeah yeah i did
- 13:21the police sirens come as is a trope for basically all films when a shootout
- 13:26happens you know but he gets away he gets the money exactly and that's where
- 13:31he's able to put that's where he tells Matt Kleinfeld,
- 13:35I don't want to be the manager. I'm a partner.
- 13:38I'll put $25,000 in. And that's where he gets that money to be able to get himself
- 13:42closer to where he wants to go. Yes.
- 13:45Yeah. It's bittersweet. It's a bittersweet issue is what just happened. Yeah.
- 13:49But the homogenous violence, it's almost like operatic. I mean, it's brutal.
- 13:56But at the same time, it's beautifully executed, pardon the pun.
- 14:01Yeah. when he shoots that fucker in the cheek and the guy just sits there and
- 14:04pauses for a second as he's sitting there realising he's been shot in the face,
- 14:08it's fucking hell yeah, with the Palmas sort of, certainly Scarface and Carlito's
- 14:14way, there is an operatic sort of element to them, including the violence,
- 14:18you know, and the general storyline,
- 14:20including the romantic interests,
- 14:22you know, which again, I have an issue with here and this one as well.
- 14:27But you know, with Penelope, but yeah And we'll get to that Very soon I'm sure,
- 14:32Seeing where he first meets Benny Yes When he goes to this new Establishment Club Yeah.
- 14:40He treats him pretty disrespectfully. Now, you don't like Benny right off.
- 14:43He's a little amateur punk.
- 14:45And he tells him that, actually, in the further conversation he has down the road.
- 14:51But this is where I think he has his downfall. He pays a lot of respect to the
- 14:55people he worked with, but he doesn't respect people that are up and coming.
- 14:59I know that. And actually, a lot of that is mentioned in dialogue from Carlito,
- 15:05where he's basically old school. and he says things like, you know,
- 15:09the streets have changed since I've been, even in the narration,
- 15:12he says the streets have changed since I've been in prison.
- 15:14There's no loyalty anymore. These kids are just punks.
- 15:17He basically has an issue with the younger generation.
- 15:20So he knows. But that's his downfall. I see, yeah, it is.
- 15:24He needed to be more reserved. Yeah. Like he is with the people he respects.
- 15:29Mm-hmm. If he did that, he wouldn't be in the situation he gets himself into.
- 15:35And I would also say, he's actually a bit delusional, because don't think that
- 15:41back in the day, the good old days of, I don't know, 50s, 60s gangsterism, there was much loyalty.
- 15:47It was still dog-eat-dog, you know? So there is that sort of misplaced nostalgia
- 15:52by him, and like you say, it's his downfall.
- 15:54What I liked about this film too, it got rid of the cliche where this guy wanted
- 15:59out. Yes. Right. He wants out, leave me alone.
- 16:03And usually in the mob cliche, it's you never get out. You get out when we say you get out, right?
- 16:08Yeah. They didn't do that. They didn't Hollywood that up. They kind of kept
- 16:11it. You know what? You've done your service to us. You didn't snitch on us. You're free to go.
- 16:16Yeah. Or another sort of cliche is where he has to pay to get out of the mob.
- 16:21Oh, he's not mafia anyway. Puerto Rican but yes,
- 16:26there would be sort of certain sort of gangster type gangs who would make people
- 16:31like him pay to get out but no they're sort of loyal to him in that respect
- 16:35where he did his time and he didn't snitch on it.
- 16:38And, you notice they never told you what he did? Yes, that's right. Yeah.
- 16:46I thought he was a hitman. I thought that was really good, actually,
- 16:49because it's left open to interpretation, because I think if you had it told what he did,
- 16:56it might have maybe taken away from the character or the audience sympathies
- 17:00for the character in terms of, like, say he was a killer or whatever.
- 17:04Like we discussed with, actually, strangely, the Shawshank Redemption,
- 17:08whenever you know about some of the
- 17:10crimes that some of the more likable prisoners did it sort of, you know,
- 17:16Cain detailed them more in his novella but they sort of hold back with Red what
- 17:21he did in the film so you have more sympathy for him so they sort of do that here with Carlito,
- 17:27yeah we meet Gail yeah,
- 17:33she's annoying as fuck she's not, nothing is I liked her like the relic,
- 17:38and kindergarten cop kindergarten cop she's that's her but come on this she's
- 17:44bad in this you needed somebody else that had you almost needed you needed a
- 17:48Michelle Pfeiffer in this yes yes the character herself.
- 17:54Isn't very realistic I don't think in terms of would she really be like this
- 18:00big ballet dancer although she's actually a stripper you know I don't know why
- 18:04I just didn't buy the character there.
- 18:06Well, I know, but it kind of works then because she isn't a ballet dancer.
- 18:10Well, she is. She teaches here and there, but she's mainly a stripper.
- 18:13Yeah. She gives him false information, obviously.
- 18:16Yeah. But I don't like her.
- 18:19I just, she's just kind of there. And if you had, if you took Elvira's personality
- 18:26and you put it into her, that would make more sense.
- 18:30Elvira has a sort of typical Scarface and almost larger than life personality
- 18:37and she's quite catty and she sort of gives Tony Montana a lot of shit back.
- 18:44Here, this character just becomes a bit of a fucking killjoy.
- 18:50Anytime these two are together, I hate it.
- 18:53And I have to say as well the whole, you are so beautiful to me.
- 19:01It's just like, fuck me. here we
- 19:04go it really ruins i get it becomes
- 19:07melodramatic and soup opera-esque you
- 19:10know and it sort of kills and not
- 19:14completely because this is a great film but it's in
- 19:17terms of it sort of kills this sort of drama
- 19:20the intensity of the drama and carlito's sort
- 19:24of journey whenever you're having you know you are
- 19:27so beautiful and she's there with her fucking resting bitch
- 19:30face you know constantly and it's just
- 19:33uh it's you know it does
- 19:37work in a way but not for me personally you needed her you needed her at the
- 19:42end um to go with him but you didn't need her in the whole film like you have
- 19:47her i mean there's scenes that are just dragged out like you could have cut
- 19:49yeah and you could have an up-and-coming actress have her play the part and
- 19:54then maybe you have a scene where.
- 19:56When he goes to Norwalk and Norwalk asks him, snitch on your buddies and we'll
- 20:03let you walk, he won't do it.
- 20:05And so he's in the cab with her. He runs out, gives her the tickets. This is our plan.
- 20:10You can just have the first scene when they met, maybe another scene quick for
- 20:14lunch or biscuits or something. I don't give a fuck.
- 20:16And then the taxi scene.
- 20:18That way he wants her back.
- 20:22Small little scene here and there.
- 20:23We're good to go. We'll see you on the train. I'll be there at 1130.
- 20:26Yeah right gail should have
- 20:29been stripped down pardon the pun because he's a stripper but she
- 20:33should have been stripped down or removed completely because
- 20:37or and i hate saying it you needed a better actress who could sell this yeah
- 20:41i mean yeah i think the character as well is just the way she presents herself
- 20:48is a bit too classy to be number one a stripper and also a gangster's mall.
- 20:53That's the problem. That's the problem. You're right there.
- 20:56She thinks she's classy but she's not.
- 21:01She's trying to be someone she's not. And that's her problem.
- 21:07I didn't buy the actor herself as a gangster's mall and a stripper.
- 21:14I didn't believe her as a ballet dancer ex-mom girlfriend stripper.
- 21:19I think it's badly you've written in terms of character of all these characters
- 21:26all these characters are so well written this one is terrible yeah.
- 21:33And also I have to say the performance of her is irritating it's not that it's
- 21:38a bad performance it's just an irritating performance for me stick to fucking
- 21:43kindergarten cop you know,
- 21:46with big arny yeah.
- 21:50This is a danger with stuff like this with the melodramatic stuff at the end
- 21:55sort of with the scenes with her sort of edges into made for TV territory,
- 22:02well it's the problem I have with it and your eyes are so beautiful perfect
- 22:07is where I roll my eyes yes and Carlito's way you don't roll your eyes it's
- 22:13not that type of film in Scarface in Scarface I never rolled my eyes no so do
- 22:18not give it to me for Caligo's Way.
- 22:20It is very damaging to the film. I'm going to say that.
- 22:24It's still a great film. Yeah. It's getting a massive fucking pass.
- 22:27It's in my top four Pacinos of all time.
- 22:31So, and if anyone wants to know what my top four are, they're Ascent of a Woman.
- 22:36Log Day Afternoon, and Justice for All, and Caligo's Way.
- 22:40Heat would be up there as well for me. Ah, Heat would be up there.
- 22:44Yeah, I got to see that one. That's another one. Yeah.
- 22:45And Donnie Brasco. Ah, man, he's got more than I thought.
- 22:48Yeah, there's quite a lot to sort of, but no, regarding this,
- 22:53it's sort of, in many ways, it feels like 90s shoehorned in sort of romantic interest.
- 23:01We had it with Tombstone. Remember we discussed the scene at the end,
- 23:04the Christmas scene at the end of Tombstone?
- 23:06It has that sort of feel about it, which it takes away from it in terms of,
- 23:11it does feel like a studio note and just feels a little too melodramatic.
- 23:16And what am I watching here I'm caught It distracts from the main story That
- 23:23you're really caught up in And it's really gripping actually,
- 23:27We jump into, again, the way he treats Benny. Yeah.
- 23:33Kleinfeld's fucking Stephanie, which is, at the time, Benny's girlfriend.
- 23:39He sends back the champagne.
- 23:42These are all things he shouldn't be doing. If he wants to keep it straight
- 23:46ahead, he's being a dick.
- 23:48And this, again, ego. This is his part of his ego. Yes.
- 23:52Where he refuses to deal with the younger turf, I guess, the younger gangs,
- 23:58which he does make clear why.
- 24:00But at the end of the day, he's playing it so smooth and cool. He needs to play.
- 24:05You're not God here. He needs to keep the head down. And even Pajanga and I
- 24:11think Chi-Chi was in the scene.
- 24:13Chi-Chi. I can't remember the character they gave him. Chi-Chi.
- 24:18And they say, we need to kill him. Yep. We need to kill him. And he refuses to do it.
- 24:25So I got confused because here's a guy who's doing everything right.
- 24:31He wants to get a clean up, but he's treating some of these characters like
- 24:36dog shit that can come back and bite him in the ass real fast.
- 24:40But yet, I don't know, there's a lot of... From a logical point of view,
- 24:45it's a very stupid decision not to kill Benny, right?
- 24:48But also, I mean, it even stays in the narration.
- 24:51You know um during this scene he
- 24:55says it's basically he puts it down to the older
- 24:58me would have killed him straight away but i'm trying to change i'm
- 25:00trying to move on but looking at it logically it's
- 25:04an extremely stupid decision oh it's stupid decisions
- 25:07all around the way he treats benny instead of
- 25:10keeping the head down but also that's that's it but also not killing him well
- 25:14you wouldn't have to be put in that situation if you just shook the guy's fucking
- 25:17hand and bought him a free drink exactly exactly that's it but yeah so there's
- 25:22basically two stupid decisions here the way he treats benny and also the fact
- 25:25that he doesn't kill him and,
- 25:28it's all led up to this dumb fuck klinefeld which leads us up to he stole a million dollars from,
- 25:36tagliocci yeah he's got to get
- 25:38him he's got to get him out of prison with his son frankie and now he's.
- 25:45Pacino, Calito, to help him get this guy out of the water after he escapes from prison.
- 25:49And he even says in the film, I owe you, I'll do it.
- 25:53I'm right or wrong. I can't change that. You know, I will I owe you. Yeah. And I will do it.
- 25:58It's a nice scene where he finally lets his guard down and say,
- 26:01hey, I owe you. Let's get this done.
- 26:04You saved my life from prison. Blah, blah, whatever.
- 26:07Sean Penn is absolutely fantastic. But at the end we were talking on the previous
- 26:11podcast about, you know, the humanizing of Tony Montana, which didn't work.
- 26:14But here, there's a scene, after he comes out of the prison,
- 26:18after, you know, he's basically forced into doing this prison escape for Tony
- 26:22T, where Sean Penn, his character, Dave, realizes that he is fucked, and he's in way too deep.
- 26:29He vomits, so he does. You see him vomiting, really, you know.
- 26:34But after that, he's a total, you know, a total asshole.
- 26:38Like, he's... That's what's great about his performance, he was nominated for the Oscar for this and.
- 26:47His emotions are so up and down because he's cooked off his head and he's a
- 26:51nut job anyway and he looks he looks like Napoleon Dynamite's dad,
- 26:59in the 70s here's the problem he's a coward and he's using his friendship with
- 27:06Carlito as his shield and he's totally addicted to coke as well he's basically like,
- 27:14in many ways he's the Tony Montana of this film but like a shit sort of,
- 27:20receipting her line curly herd lawyer version of him.
- 27:26And then once Kleinfeld fucks over Calito again by killing Frank and his father Yes,
- 27:35Right there, Carlito goes, we're dead Yeah, yeah It's over No,
- 27:39he just says, we're dead There's a brilliant couple of lines of dialogue where
- 27:43Carlito says to him Here he goes, oh,
- 27:46you have crossed the line You're no longer a lawyer, Dave You're no longer a
- 27:50lawyer You're a gangster.
- 27:52And it's just perfect sort of
- 27:55dialogue for that scene and also for the two characters well
- 27:58mainly for the Sean Payne character so it is he's crossed a line and they're
- 28:03all fucked now they're all snookered yeah one of small moments of intensity
- 28:09set one of the big scenes that we'll talk about the hospital scene that whole
- 28:13sequence coming up is incredible it's a master class but.
- 28:17But it's a scene where small little tension moment where Kleinfeld's in his
- 28:22office, he gets a phone call, oh, you can come down to the parking lot,
- 28:25there's something wrong with your car, blah, blah, blah. He's such a stupid bastard as well.
- 28:28Yeah. But you hear the music escalating further, and the elevator's getting
- 28:34a little crowded, and you see this guy get up from the chair, he's got a newspaper.
- 28:38Yes. He's obviously there to assassinate him, and obviously he stabs him in
- 28:43the, it was like a maybe two-minute, three-minute shot, but so fucking good. Yeah.
- 28:48And it was just to get him into the hospital. and then we get the big finale,
- 28:52which we're about to talk about, which I think is just a masterclass in filmmaking and intensity.
- 28:59This is De Palma at his best.
- 29:02I agree. De Palma did a scene, and he said he deliberately took this from one of his best movies.
- 29:08It's called The Untouchables. The Untouchables, yes. The author's one,
- 29:10yep. Yeah, there's a train sequence in there. Yep.
- 29:14That is so intense. I know it well, yeah. And-
- 29:17And that's what he was doing here. But he wanted to get you to the train sequence.
- 29:23But in order to do that, we had to get him out of the hospital.
- 29:26Oh, it's so good. All learned. It's a masterclass of tension and editing and everything.
- 29:33It just works so beautifully well, including, obviously, then we'll get right
- 29:37up to the very end with the shootout and stuff.
- 29:41And I love it. You know what's very intense as well?
- 29:44The whenever the mob guys go to the nightclub and
- 29:48they're trying to suss out if carlito definitely was
- 29:51there you know and you've got tony t's other son um you know who's basically
- 29:57completely fucking you know sort of out for revenge you know fueled with complete
- 30:03rage really well played and um there's a big heavy guy and then there's the
- 30:07other one with the very uh 1970s mobster moustache,
- 30:12but this is a really intense where they're trying to suss him out and he says
- 30:15well yeah I mean that whole scene when you're talking about the son the big
- 30:19bodybuilder guy yeah he knows Tony's involved because when he's going to the
- 30:25hospital to kill he knows he's done,
- 30:28and then he sees Carlito there that's right before he goes takes the hit and
- 30:33Carlito sees him he even says there's no way that's a cop you can tell yeah
- 30:37that face doesn't fit that uniform him?
- 30:40That whole sequence when he's talking to the counselor, again,
- 30:43the counselor's unforgiving. He's a prick, doesn't care.
- 30:47But what we don't see is that he's removing the bullets.
- 30:50That's right. And when he goes in to assassinate him and he's narrating him,
- 30:55he obviously gets shot in the head.
- 30:57The last words he says, Puccino's adios counselor.
- 31:03Yeah. As he throws away the bullets in the basket. And then he goes to the bar.
- 31:07He's got to get to the bar and there's a little hidden room.
- 31:10He's got to leave, get the money, get to the, underneath this little trap door
- 31:12in the bar, go to the subway, subway to the train station.
- 31:16This whole sequence is just wonderful. Yeah. Absolutely wonderful. Yeah. I can't.
- 31:22And then you got, and he's got little jokes in there. Yeah. You got this big
- 31:27fat goon, this big fat bastard. He's out of breath.
- 31:30Yeah. They're all, they're all running through this train station.
- 31:32I'm getting out of breath just watching them. and then he finally comes out he finally shows up like,
- 31:3930 minutes later, he can't play catch-up. But he's the one who catches Carlito.
- 31:43On the escalator? He's the one that sees him? Yeah, he goes,
- 31:46I found him. The one guy who did nothing to help.
- 31:49Finally shows up and goes, found him. There he is. Yeah. The bloodbath starts going.
- 31:54But this whole sequence of him hiding and going down the escalator and he's
- 31:59pointing the gun up as he's lying on the escalator floor.
- 32:03Even though I had seen this before and knew how it was going to play out,
- 32:08I mean, it even tells us right at the very start how it's going to play out, Carlito getting shot.
- 32:13But even though I'd seen the film before, I still found it totally gripping
- 32:19and extremely intense and really exciting.
- 32:22Well, we talked about that with Shawshank. Even though we know the ending,
- 32:26we know Shawshank, they're going to get together at the beach and I'll be besties, blah, blah.
- 32:30But every time you watch it, you're still intense because you don't know if
- 32:32they're going to make it. Are they going to see his friend? Well,
- 32:35we know he is. And that's great.
- 32:37And maybe that's what DePombe was doing. Yeah. It's good. He was. Yeah.
- 32:43I mean, that's how good he is. He's given us the ending already,
- 32:46which we should be all upset about.
- 32:48But this thing is so intense. Maybe we're like, oh, maybe that beginning wasn't
- 32:51cheap. Maybe that didn't really happen.
- 32:53I think whenever I first watched it, the one that, you know, he's going to get shot.
- 32:58I think around this time, you know, this scene, this finale,
- 33:03I was thinking, well, who's going to be the one who's going to shoot him?
- 33:05Or what's going to happen? Or will he get shot and will he survive?
- 33:08You know, that type of thing. So it does work then, you know, in that way.
- 33:13Just maybe not in the way I would have preferred it, but who the fuck am I?
- 33:17It's not made for me, you know?
- 33:19So, yeah, I mean, even though we know that, the fact that this works so well,
- 33:24even though we know Carlito's going to get killed, it makes it even better.
- 33:28And then even after all that, he does get taken down.
- 33:35Then we find out Bochanga is the one who set him up. Yeah. And that's the big
- 33:39shocker right there. And he goes, and Bochanga actually makes a good point.
- 33:42He goes, what was I supposed to do when you leave? I know.
- 33:45And he's like, he was so blinded. Yeah.
- 33:49Yeah. He was like, well, he was so blinded by getting him and Gail out of there.
- 33:53And in a way, the one guy who had his back this whole time was Bochanga.
- 33:58And his real friend was the one he portrayed. His real friend.
- 34:01And he was going to leave. Yes. And just leave him hanging. After you caused all this ruckus.
- 34:06And so he had no choice. Yeah. Again.
- 34:10His ego, his tunnel vision is what killed Carlito at the end of the day.
- 34:15Yeah, that's his downfall.
- 34:17It's sort of a hubris.
- 34:20Again, there's the whole sort of Shakespearean. You're a big word.
- 34:23Well, it's a whole sort of Shakespearean thing.
- 34:25The whole sort of, I'm not trying to get all artsy-fartsy, but the whole sort
- 34:28of hubris, his downfall, the whole keen layer thing.
- 34:32There's a great exchange, actually, where after Benny's killed Carlito,
- 34:37where he turns to Carlito's best mate, and you know
- 34:39he's saying you know i had to think of my own future carlito and
- 34:43he says um he says come on he says to benny come on
- 34:46let's go and benny proving that he's a real fucking snake he goes now you can
- 34:50stay here and then shoot him dead you know so he does i think the only one that
- 34:55survived here is actually benny and obviously gail sadly you know no doesn't
- 35:03so doesn't social make it?
- 35:06Yes, I think he does. Yes, you're right. Yeah, he does. Yeah,
- 35:09but he's a dick. No, but yeah. But yeah.
- 35:13Yeah, he won't last with his gambling debts. Exactly. Exactly.
- 35:17Yeah. He'll be pumped off by the bomb anyway for his gambling debts.
- 35:21He's as good as Tom. This is far superior than Scarface, but I'm going to say this.
- 35:28I think they're two different films. I was just going to say that.
- 35:31I think one is almost like a fantasy.
- 35:37Cocaine-fueled fantasy. Yeah, told through the eyes of some truth,
- 35:43some half-truths of real life, fictional, non-fiction, whatever.
- 35:46All these clusters of characters, and it's just this colorful fantasy of violence.
- 35:51Yeah. And that's what Scarface is.
- 35:53And with this one, it's more grounded
- 35:55and real-based. They're two very different films in terms of tone.
- 36:00Yes, obviously, they're both about the rise and fall of a gangster played by
- 36:03Al Pacino with Chi Chi and the gang throw it in but essentially in terms of
- 36:08tone and that's obviously intentional from De Palma in terms of tone they are
- 36:12very different films so you can't really compare them,
- 36:15well there you go now it's time for Halloween month and a half oh yes yeah alright
- 36:23we've got Baba we've got Frucci.
- 36:29Frucci what's Frucci Lucho Frucci Yeah.
- 36:32Arzento. So we're going to hit the Italians. Yep. We got Carpenter.
- 36:36We got Scott Derrickson coming back.
- 36:39I can't remember what else we got. Well, we got some stuff coming your way for
- 36:43Halloween month and a half.
- 36:45You were talking about Ed Wood as well? Are we doing Ed Wood?
- 36:49There was talk of it. We'll see. I'm sure we'll do it at some point.
- 36:52I don't think it's on the list. No, it's not.
- 36:54We'll probably do it at some point. Halloween month. But it's not Halloween
- 36:58month. It's Halloween month and a half. So we've got a wiggle room there.
- 37:02It's going to be Halloween two months and then Christmas. Yeah,
- 37:06well, as previous years, you know, it usually ends up Halloween two months and
- 37:11then just straight into fucking Christmas and Hallmark and Silent Night, Deadly Night.
- 37:16Yeah, so we got that Halloween month and a half and then we got Christmas and then the new Scream.
- 37:23That's right. That's January, I think. February. February.
- 37:29We'll probably do a small horror retrospective before we get to it.
- 37:32Final Destinations? Whatever happened to those? Anyways.
- 37:37Oh, we'll get to them. Oh, yeah. They're soon.
- 37:42The plan's been done.
- 37:47All right. We'll wrap this one up. Tired. Going to go watch United play.
- 37:53That'll make you more tired because they're terrible.
- 37:55Well, actually, there's signs of life there.
- 37:58Signs of life. And then NFL weekend. And NFL, as you all know,
- 38:04over here, but not over in the States.
- 38:06NFL starts over here now. It's in Ireland. So the Vikings are playing the Steelers.
- 38:11Okay. So we get our NFL game at 2 o'clock in the afternoon instead of 6 o'clock at night.
- 38:16Yeah. It used to be, it was like in the middle of the night,
- 38:19they used to show American football games back in the 80s. Well,
- 38:21American football game's wrong at 6 p.m., which is because there's a five-hour difference. Yeah.
- 38:26So the game's kickoff is 1 o'clock over the air. It's 6 o'clock p.m. our time.
- 38:31But because they're playing the next month in London and in Ireland, it's our time.
- 38:36Okay. So we get those games now early at 2 o'clock.
- 38:39Right. Okay. And then we play that, and then we turn on the game to the U.S.
- 38:44Games that we want to see.
- 38:46So a lot of NFL coming my way. Right.
- 38:49Go Bucs. Yeah. I haven't a clue. I'm not even going to comment because I haven't
- 38:54a clue about American football.
- 38:55You know, it just feels a bit like futuristic rugby to me.
- 38:59But... It's not... It's not... It's a lot rougher sport. Yeah,
- 39:03well, I'm not into rugby, you know, either.
- 39:06There you go. They're both good sports. Yeah.
- 39:10That's all I have. We're done. Give us a shout at citizenprime underscore podcast
- 39:14on Instagram and, of course, Facebook.
- 39:16Give us a shout for all you listeners down there all over the world.
- 39:19I can't believe all those downloads we've been getting.
- 39:21Thank you, and give us a shout, or the finger, whatever you want. I don't care.
- 39:27As long as you're listening, we don't care. Yeah, tell us to go fuck ourselves. I'm fine with that.
- 39:31Tell Trevor to go fuck himself. I do it all the time. So feel free to join in. It does too. Yeah.
- 39:38Do you know what's happened these last two podcasts? What? We haven't really fought.
- 39:44Yeah, that upset me a bit. Yeah. We'll have to rectify that over Halloween.
- 39:48Yeah. No Doctor Who. Oh, yeah. And no fucking Neighbours.
- 39:52To be fair, it's pretty hard. Oh, I was about to say, oh, wait a minute. I was about to say that.
- 39:57I was about to say, you've never said to be fair today.
- 40:02And what's the last thing you fucking say on the podcast? Yeah, to be fair.
- 40:06Well, to be fair, it is extremely difficult to make a connection with Doctor
- 40:11Who and Scarface as much as I would love to.
- 40:15In the other sense, you would have found a fucking way. But when you think about
- 40:19it, there's not many Italians in Doctor Who.
- 40:22No, no, definitely not. It's usually English. It's going to be English.
- 40:26Yeah. I would like to see a cooked up Dalek or something, but yeah.
- 40:29But that's just me. Yeah. Yeah. Probably make it more aggressive.
- 40:35Useless bastards.
- 40:39All right. I'm going to wrap this one up, guys. Take care of yourselves. We'll chat soon.
- 40:46Music.