The Untouchables 4K 1987

It's funny to think about it now, but back in 1984 de Palma was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for directing Scarface. For that cult masterpiece that has inspired dozens of imitations, borrowings and parodies.

In any case, 'Scarface' may have been a somewhat uneven film, but commercially it was a real hit. Keeping this in mind, the producers, even with the failure of the comedy 'Smart Guy' still allocated money to Brian for his new project, devoted to the confrontation between Elliot Ness and Al Capone. He was going to shoot it based on the book by the same Ness.

What did he end up with? From the historical point of view - a real fairy tale. In fact, there was no such bloody, violent showdown between Ness' group and Capone's men. In the event of a raid, Capone's orders were to have his men surrender to the police without too much fuss.

For sure, it was not without complications, but it did not go to such extremes as those shown in the film.

But it is 'Untouchables' and the film, not a documentary chronicle, to make the viewer huddled in the back of the couch to follow the events on the screen. And de Palma has succeeded. From the explosion at the beginning to the rooftop scene, you can't stop watching. Not only because of David Memet's absorbing script, but also, of course, thanks to such cogs as Sean Connery (who later won an Oscar for the role), who showed an indescribable performance in the famous scene in his apartment and Robert De Niro as Al Capone. He should be mentioned separately. Bob's performance was shocking. His 'baseball game' with the head of one of the underlings and his speech in court - are the two most striking scenes in the movie, not forgetting of course about the final skirmish at the station, something happens there, it seems that for the filming of this scene they sent John Woo from Hong Kong specially - so spectacular and beautiful.

The rest of the cast, represented by Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith and Andy Garcia (green Garcia is especially good then) did as well as they could. And Billy Drago, who later stooped to roles in three-bit horror movies as a bloodthirsty hitman, is devilishly charming.

De Palma, sometimes guilty of a bit of protracted action, worked flawlessly here. The action is precisely calibrated, the portions of the action are perfectly dosed and fantastically shot for its time.

Simply said, if you are looking for a movie that will make you dive into the atmosphere of Chicago during the 'Prohibition' times, this is it.