Scarface – Blu-ray, bullet count, f-bomb tally

Call it what you will, a film from the early 80s, or a documentary and style guide for drug barons ever since 1983, Scarface is to be released for the first time on Blu-ray tomorrow.

The Scarface Blu-ray edition of course includes the film in high definition, with a 7.1 soundtrack, all housed in a “limited edition metal slipcase packaging”. Want more? How about 90 minutes of new bonus material produced for the Blu-ray release, plus there’s an additional disc in the package, a Digital Copy disc, containing a copy of the film that you can copy onto a computer or portable media player.

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It’s a violent world the characters live in, as you’d expect from Cuban criminals making it big in the Miami drug scene. The film is violent, but it’s for me there’s a comedy in the violence, it is so over the top. Does that say something my taste in films? Perhaps. But watch scenes such as the silent-movie-like acting of the white-suited Cuban politician murdered early in the film, or the facial tic-riddled first scene for F. Murray Abraham’s character. See the dour Detective Munch from ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ appearing as a club comedian (not a stretch really, as he was originally a stand-up comedian). And of course there’s the Tony Montana meltdown in the last 30 minutes, which is more than a little comedic. Again, that could just be me.

Scarface has become something of a cult film over the years. Al Pacino is magnetic in the lead role, though I think his performance is a little uneven, at its strongest in the middle section of the film. Other actors appearing – early in their careers – include Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Steven Bauer.

Scarface – Blu-ray bonus content

Bonus content on the Blur-ray edition of Scarface includes:

• The Scarface Phenomenon: A new documentary, covering the controversy generated by the film at its release, and its influence since that release.
• The World of Tony Montana: Crime experts outline the world that real drug lords inhabit.
• The Rebirth: Brian de Palma, Martin Bergman, Al Pacino and Oliver Stone discuss the inspiration for the film, and the evolution of the script.
• The Acting: A look at how the film was cast, and at the methods of director Brian de Palma’s in extracting performances from the actors.
• The Creating: A documentary looking at the casting of Scarface, production design, production problems, and the problems the filmmakers had in trying to have the film rated “R” in the USA.
• Scarface Scoreboard: I think is my favourite little feature. This pop up keeps a count of how many times the word ‘Fuck’ is said, and how many bullets are fired. The f-bomb work is solid, generously sprinkled throughout the film. But the bullet count… quite low for most of the film, but watch it FLY in the last 10 minutes!