Tony Camote's Scarface: The Shame Of The Nation

Scarface: The Shame of the Nation
The rise from an ordinary middle class gangster to a notorious and high class ruler, “Scarface” is a story of a man who gets his dream and desired status in the gang world through multiple phases of killing and torturing others. It’s a story of Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) and his rise and fall as a gangster, a story of violence that ends in self-destruction. “Scarface” not only portrays the ruthless achievement of a gangster but also gives the reason behind their achievement. A moral statement glares in the screen “THE GOVERNMENT IS YOUR GOVERNMET. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?” at the very beginning of the movie. After going through the movie and trying to relate everything in it, this statement indeed
turns out to be the most significant part, together with the famous “X” motif. One of the boldest, raw and violent movies of all time, the story of “Scarface” blames the audience for the existence of gangsters and their mob activities.
Three rounds of bullets are fired on an old-fashioned and obnoxious gangster named “Big Louie” in the early morning scene as dawn approaches. Tony Camonte has just killed his boss “Big Louie” because he plans to join another notorious and rival gangster “Johnny Lovo”. A waiter cleaning the mess from the last night party witnesses the killing of “Big Louie” but quietly leaves the scene without doing anything. A common man, who suppresses his voice against violence and injustice, is the reason behind the increasing gang activities according to the movie. Another scene shows the arrest of Tony Camonte and Guino Rinaldo (Tony’s right-hand man) in a local barbershop. The barber himself helps Tony in hiding the gun before police enters the saloon, which is another example of people helping gangsters. As police takes Rinaldo and Camonte for the investigation of Big Louie’s murder, general public surrounds the scene. Once again, both Rinaldo and Camonte have build up their notorious status among the public as they pass through the crowd to get into the car.
Tony Camonte is a man with huge ambitions. He wants to rule the gangster world and the only way to achieve that is by killing whomever that falls in his way. Tony’s motto, “Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it” leads him to achieve the ultimate fate that he was seeking for. He is the man who loves an extravagant lifestyle, as most of the time he is seen bragging about his riches to others, especially Poppy. Poppy is a slim, flat-chested blond with curly hair whom Tony finds to be attractive with. At one point Tony sees “THE WORLD IS YOURS” sign blinking at him and the world for him, at this point, is the possession of Poppy and being on top.
Currently Lovo’s girlfriend, Poppy dislikes Tony at first but eventually ends up liking him.
Now that she finds Tony attractive, she wants to be closer with him and wants to spend more time with him. Her concern for Tony is reflected in a scene where, after seeing him for a long time, she says, “Where have you been? On vacation?”. Despite being attracted to Poppy, there is barely any romantic scene in between Tony and her. Instead Tony is much more interested in his sister “Cesca”. Although the movie doesn’t show any incestuous relation between him and his sister, his feeling towards her is reflected in his conservative and protective nature for his sister from other men. He goes mad when he sees Cesca with other men. This nature causes him to kill his most faithful and close friend “Rinaldo”, the man whom Tony trusted so much that he had told his intentions of killing everyone to get to the top in a short car ride at the beginning of the movie. But even after his brother killed her husband, Cesca still goes back to Tony saying, “You are me and I am you”, which pretty much shows that she too had that feeling for her brother. As far as the relationship with his mother is concerned, his mother knows that Tony is in the wrong way and that he uses other for his benefits. Throughout the movie, his mother is seen disregarding him for his acts referring him as “bad” and “no
good”.
As Tony works in expanding the booze business, many of his rivals, including innocent civilians, are killed.
Tony shows no mercy, as he knows why and what he is doing it. In one scene, Tony and Poppy are about to have lunch when suddenly, the North-side gang attacks them. The machine guns are fired through the glasses of the restaurant as Tony and Poppy hides behind a wooden wall. The bullets hit innocent people rather than the gangsters, but Tony doesn’t care for others. He leaves the scene with a happy face, as he gets a new machine gun, which he believes will ease his work. His way of dealing with booze buying customers is also very ruthless. As he gets the new machine gun, he starts killing the North-side gang by riding inside a car and shooting through the window. In this process a lot of simple civilians losses their life and in a particular scene, a barrel of beer gets knocked out into a woman’s room and a large crying voice of her is heard. All in all, he shows no mercy for anyone. The public is shown to be the cause behind the rise of gangster and public themselves are also shown to be the ones to
suffer.
For me the most interesting aspect of the movie was the “X” motif, which signals murder is imminent and also the pre-murder whistling of Comante. The movie’s credits in the beginning features the “X” symbol in the background. Not only that, “X” symbol takes varied forms like shadows, wooden-cross beams, Tony’s facial scar, number in the door, score in the bowling game, etc. In all cases, whenever an “X” appears, a murder happens. In addition to murders, the “X” motif covey a very important message too. We usually associate X sign with “the end”, or “closed/no way out”. The message that the movie is giving out is, once someone gets into the crime world, there is no escape. His or her lifestyle is bounded with such circumstance that even if they try to get off it, there is no way. The only way, the only escape, is death. Regarding the whistling of Tony, it seems like Tony enjoys killing others. People usually whistle when they are in good mood or when they are trying to have fun. As per Tony, he whistles before killing someone. So, he definitely enjoys killing.
“Scarface” is a story of a man, whose intentions of getting bigger and bigger ultimately kills him. The notorious rise and a humiliating fall, Howard Hawk’s “Scarface” delivers complete show of exceptional acting and delivers an important message to the public, “YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE”.