CARLITO’S WAY [1992]

Carlito's Way (1992)
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: David Koepp, Edwin Torres
Starring: Al Pacino, John Leguizamo, Penelope Ann Miller, Sean Penn

USA 

AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: 24TH SEPTEMBER, FROM ARROW VIDEO

RUNNING TIME: 144 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

Puerto Rican Carlito Brigante has done five years in the slammer, a very short period considering his notoriety as a murderous gangster, but his lawyer David Kleinfeld has worked very hard to get him released. He pledges to stay away from his former drug-dealing, violent ways, and actually means it. Hoping to raise enough money to get away from New York, Carlito takes on the job of running a nightclub, and renews his relationship with dancer Gail, but old associates, old instincts and the increasingly dubious machinations of Kleinfield begin to suck him back into a world of violence and mistrust…

Beginning a film with the end, or letting the audience what’s going to happen at the end, shouldn’t work unless it’s an experiment like Momento where the story is told backwards, a brainf*** like Twelve Monkeys or something like Pulp Fiction where, first time around, we don’t know that the first scene is chronologically the last. Yet films as different as Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard and Moulin Rouge say otherwise. Here we begin with Carlito being shot and then wheeled off on a bed while he muses on what seems to be happening, but first time around, it’s easy to forget this while watching the climax because we’re so caught up in the action, and when it seems like Carlito will make it, we either wonder how he’s going to end up the way we say him at the beginning [though the screenplay foreshadows this several times], or even think that the camera may actually have been lying; after all, you’d almost expect director Brian De Palma to do such a thing. His third or fourth gangster movie [I consider The Untouchables to be more a full-on action movie than a crime drama while even some De Palma fans probably try to forget the indeed almost forgotten though not that awful Wiseguys] sees the helmer, often considered to be far more interested in style than substance [though I don’t think that’s always true], stick to telling a compelling story that could have almost come from the ’30s or ’40s; in particular David Keopp’s script emphasises morality which censorship and general attitudes ensured was always prevalent back in the old days. Rather than seeming hackneyed [and let’s not forget that Scarface was a considerably moral film even though many obviously misunderstood it], this helps Carlito’s Way to have real tragic power as it tells its tale of a guy unable to escape the Film and also himself leisurely, not even with very much violence, but with a hell of a lot of good writing from a rarely better Keopp, in a film which is quite a profound look at the subject of Choice.

Pacino first heard about the character Carlito Brigante in a gym in New York City in 1973. He was working out for his movie Serpico when he met New York state supreme court Judge Edwin Torres who was writing the novels Carlito’s Way and After Hours. When they were completed Pacino read and liked them, especially the character of Carlito. In 1989, he faced a $6 million lawsuit from producer Elliott Kastner who claimed Pacino had gone back on an agreement to star in his version of a Carlito movie with Marlon Brando as criminal lawyer David Kleinfeld. The suit was eventually dropped and the project was abandoned. It was Mario Bregman whom Pacino eventually got to produce. Koepp’s screenplay was based more on the second novel After Hours, though of course that couldn’t be the title because of the existence of Martin Scorsese’s movie After Hours. John Mackenzie and Abel Ferrara were considered as director before an initially reluctant De Palma agreed to do it. It wasn’t the easiest of productions. The hospital scenes were written 25 to 30 times because the actors had trouble with the sequence, with Pacino even thinking that Carlito wouldn’t even go to the hospital. Penn demanded 30 takes of the shot of Kleinfeld asking Carlito to help him with Tony T’s escape and screamed at De Palma all day for moving on. The chase scene began filming in the winter, but was delayed till the summer because Pacino has injured his leg; Pacino’s black coat made the actor almost sweat to death when filming resumed. It was all worth it commercially, though reviews tended to be cool. Like some other De Palma films, though quicker than some, its reputation greatly improved. A prequel titled Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power, based on the first novel, was released direct-to-video in 2005. Shall I watch and review it?

So the first thing in the slow-motion, black and white beginning that we see is a gunshot, then Carlito’s face as he’s shot, then even a shot from the back of the person who shoots him – though first time around it’s easy not to pick up on it. A woman is leaning over him, just like some of the hoods of old [you almost expect her to say something like “he was a bigshot”] before we assume his point of view on a stretcher, looking up at the ceiling with its long white light that’s somewhat heavenly. Then the camera goes upside down to show the face of Carlito. “Somebody’s taking me close to the ground. I  can sense but I can’t see. I’m not panicked. I been here before” begins the slightly gruff voiceover which will continue throughout the film, becoming a major feature which recalls the golden age of film noir, though its the extraordinary music scoring from Patrick Doyle that really makes the scene so effective, both hallucinatory and sad. “My Puerto Rican ass ain’t supposed to have made it this far”. “I ain’t ready to check out”, is said as Carlito and we focus on a generic poster for a Caribbean-style holiday, comprising the words ESCAPE TO PARADISE above a woman dancing to a three-piece band on a glorious sunset. Indeed we think that he may live as we flash back to a courtroom where Carlito’s prison sentence of 35 years is being debated even though he’s already served five. This is due to his lawyer David Kleinfeld who’s worked hard to get his friend off. The Judge is getting exasperated by “the incredible convergence of circumstances which you have explored to your client’s benefit”, but things like “illegal firetaps and tainted evidence” nonetheless are important, and Carlito, despite being “a repeated assassin and purveyor of narcotics”, is set free. He gives a bit speech about turning over a new leaf  even while he also mocks the process. Few probably believe the latter, but actually he’s not lying. He doesn’t want to go back to being a gangster.

However, when you’ve spent most of your life doing one thing, it’s not easy to change. Even if you may want to change, ghosts of all sorts will be around. Carlito celebrates his freedom by getting pissed with David while their two female companions for the night get bored and wonder if they’re more than just good friends. He tells David about his dream of the Bahamas. “Car rental guys don’t get killed that much”. The next day Carlito walks his old streets, and can’t help but run into old acquaintances even though things have changed. “Like those old western movies, only instead of tumbleweed of cow dung we get stripped car wrecks and dog shit”. God Keopp was on a high here; Carlito’s Way may not have lots of moments that have become iconic but it contains some lines which certainly deserve to be. His old boss is happy that Carlito hadn’t named him but doesn’t expect to be asked to give some of his recently gained wealth to Carlito. Then his young cousin Guajiro persuades him to accompany him to a drug deal held at a bar. De Palma brilliantly structures this suspenseful set piece as Carlito immediately smells a rat and decides to set up an elaborate pool shot to buy him some time and eventually defend himself; the two girls dancing, continuing the motive of dancing introduced at the beginning of the film, are a nice touch. Pacino is brilliant here, as Carlito has to check out the place and people without making it look obvious. Carlito escapes with his life, but already things have gone a different way from what he’d hoped. Still, surely becoming the co-owner of a nightclub should be okay, shouldn’t it? Actually no maybe not, considering the kind of clientele that it seems to attract, perhaps the worst being the hot-headed young Benny Blanco [From The Bronx]; their first quarrel being over Benny not paying and saying he’s owed money, their second over Benny wanting the club, their third over party girl Steffie who’s left him for David. The increasingly coked-up David is also becoming a problem. He asks Carlito to help him spring a mob boss from prison, what can go wrong?

A hell of a lot, actually. Carlito may once have been “the J. P. Morgan of the smack business”, but he worries about losing his edge, which might mean that he actually is, even though he seems to have already realised that “there ain’t no friends in this shit business”. The only bright thing in his life could be Gail, whom he dumped just before he went into prison but is determined to get back. He first sees a woman who looks like her dancing in the club. Then he observes her practising dancing through a window from a considerable distance in the rain while the opera music being danced to blares out as if he can hear it, a good example of De Palma’s knack of emotionally enhancing a scene with something which is really totally unrealistic. The scene when their relationship is rejuvenated – he wants to come in, she wants him to but is playing hard to get – is the sexiest couple of minutes in all of De Palma even though it’s un-explicit, and climaxes with his oft-employed device of the camera spinning round lovers. Also interesting is the conversation relating to Gail after telling Carlito that she’s performing in a musical. She’s actually dancing in a strip club, and Carlito is ashamed yet has no right to criticise what she does considering what he’s got up to. Despite the age difference Penelope Ann Miller and Pacino have the require chemistry, as well they might, since they became involved on set. Her “nice girl” character is extremely cliched, but is given intelligence, seeming to know Carlito and his world better than he does. It would probably be complained about today that the only other real female character is one who’s so we say rather “loose” with her “favours” but then that’s the environment that these people would inhabit.

It’s surprising that, after the bar scene near the beginning, actual excitement is held off for most of the rest of the film, but the writing, the direction and the acting are able to make what are essentially lots of dialogue scenes totally riveting while the idea that nobody can be really trusted grows and grows ,and we often become divided as to both our emotional and our intellectual response. A good example is when an old pal [Viggo Mortensen in what’s basically a cameo but a great one] of Carlito’s, now wheelchair bound, turns up to ask Carlito to work with him; Carlito soon susses that something is very “off” with this guy, yet when we find out the truth, we should hate him but don’t. Tony Montana would have still shot the guy; Carlito’s furious but doesn’t want to kill, even though he already has. Things build and build until we get a climax in Grand Central Station which might be De Palma’s best ever action sequence even though some might say it’s going over old ground, but practice makes perfect. Doyle’s music, which is terrific throughout [does any film by De Palma, who loves his scores and usually upfront, have a bad or even average score?], is a textbook example of how to add to the excitement. While this is really a restrained effort from De Palma, who’s often happy to let his actors just talk while the camera just observes, we still get much virtuoso use of the camera, sometimes show-offy like the aerial pan over an invisible roof of the club’s bathroom to reveal sex going on in one of the cubicles, along with the employment of Dutch angles whenever things go bad for Carlito, but more often than not just graceful, like the pan which slowly introduces a party, revealing lots of little things going on even though they’re unimportant to the main action. The attention to detail is considerable, yet the focus on the main story is never lost even if you could say, with some justification, that the plot could have easily fit into an 80-minute B- movie from the ’40s without losing anything important.

Pacino, even though his accent wavers and his deep Scent Of A Woman voice often returns, has rarely been better; perhaps best are his scenes with an also superb John Leguizumo as the hugely arrogant Benny; we can see that Carlito is spooked by Benny because he reminds him of how he was back in the day. However the standout performance is the one by Penn, he’s simply stunning as the corrupt lawyer who becomes more and more crooked [and more and more and more coke addicted] while at the same time Carlito is trying to go the opposite way. The essential tragedy of Carlito is that he’s constantly making the wrong choices, yet he thinks that they’re the right ones and we can see how he might think that. He’s not just an honourable guy but a likeable one; it’s possible to see Carlito’s Way as a spiritual sequel to Scarface – Carlito even has two actors from that movie virtually rope him back into crime – but Tony, while a fascinating and hypnotic character, was hardly likeable. He’s great to watch as he bloodily and briefly achieves his dream, but we almost cheer when he’s finally wasted. However, we want Carlito so much to achieve his own dream of getting away, so it becomes desperately sad and almost painful that he’s unable to “lie low, keep out of trouble and off people’s minds” for more than a minute. Things are always transpiring to push him in the wrong direction yet it’s really his own nature that really does it. The final few minutes of Carlito’s Way, which bring in its second use of Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful” [does anyone who sees the film not think of it whenever they hear the song again?], are very moving, a perfect conclusion to De Palma’s most human and compassionate movie.

Rating:

Product Features

4K DUAL FORMAT LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring featuring two original artwork options
Seven double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and original production notes

DISC ONE: FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) presentation in High Dynamic Range
Original stereo, 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-X audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by Matt Zoller Seitz, author of The Wes Anderson Collection and The Soprano Sessions
Brand new audio commentary by Dr. Douglas Keesey, author of Brian De Palma’s Split-Screen: A Life in Film

DISC TWO: FEATURE AND EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
I don’t do UHD [yet] but was happy to settle for the Blu-ray. This is a spotless print that does superbly with a film which could have been tricky to get exactly pleasing because it employs a lot of colour saturation, sometimes bright, but mostly not. There’s also amazing depth of field [cinematographer Stephen H. Burum was at his very best here. Flesh tones are superb too.

Original stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Brand new audio commentary by Matt Zoller Seitz
I wasn’t too sure about this track at first as it has a somewhat uneasy start, but it soon develops into a masterly commentary which looks at most aspects of the film as well as providing some interesting observations such as the similarities between the western and the gangster movie. Seitz is especially good when examining the cinematography. He clearly loves the film, and De Palma, though points out the odd bit he thinks isn’t too good. I was interested to learn that many cast members improvised bits of dialogue as it was originally racially insulting, and that Pacino wanted to have a ponytail until Torres took him to a bar where local hoods expressed their opinion on such a thing. Seitz also reminds us how nocturnal scenes in films today are often hard to make out.

Brand new audio commentary by Dr Douglas Keesey
Unfortunately this track stops nearly half way through and there’s nothing to let you know that it returns towards the end; I wonder why Arrow didn’t just have the film automatically fast forward. This is a shame, as Keese , who begins by saying in true commentary style to watch the film on its own first [surely wouldn’t everyone want to do that?], discusses some of the things that Seitz does but has a different, more authoritative approach, and tells us some new facts, like Miller being uncomfortable doing her striptease, something which actually works for her character, and that Gail was originally a teacher. Keesey does describe two sequences in full, which might seem redundant though one of these plays after he’s finished talking about it! Overall still a worthwhile track despite certain issues.

Carlito and the Judge, a brand new interview with Judge Edwin Torres, author of the novels Carlito’s Way and After Hours on which the screenplay for Carlito’s Way is based [16 mins]
I didn’t realise Torres was so involved with the movie; most authors seem to have [or are allowed] little input then moan about the movie when it comes out. Though never a gangster, he knew the streets, Carlito being a composite of four hoods which he names and describes. He also introduced Luis Guzman [Pachinko] to De Palma, and was approached by someone who called himself the Real Benny Blanco From The Bronx!

Cutting Carlito’s Way, a brand new interview with editors Bill Pankow and Kristina Boden [17 mins]
We don’t often see editors and get insight into their craft, so this featurette will be welcomed by many, despite the expected praising of De Palma. Carlito’s Way had dual editors because of a very short schedule; Pankow is more detailed, saying how he’d try to keep emotion, focusing on actors’s eyes, and cutting without seeing De Palma’s storyboards then looking at them afterwards. Boden goes more into how great De Palma was to work for; like Hitchcock, it seems that if you knew what you were doing you weren’t leant on.

De Palma on Carlito’s Way, an archival interview with director Brian De Palma [5 mins]
Though always seeming honest, De Palma never seems that comfortable about discussing his work, though he’s clearly proud of Carlito’s Way [as he should be]. Though this piece was on the old Universal DVD, I’d forgotten that the gangster in prison was a real crook. De Palma also says how he likes to immerse himself in a world, and “I’m not particularly interested in what the establishment thinks is good, because I don’t agree with them”. 

De Palma’s Way, a brand new appreciation by film critic David Edelstein [17 mins]
This featurette reminds us of how important it was that this film, coming after three De Palma critical and commercial flops, was a success, not to mention that Pacino “likes to cut loose, go all the way”. Edelstein, clearly a De Palma lover, also  looks at the film’s visual style and goes through the main actors.

All the Stitches in the World: The Locations of “Carlito’s Way”, a brand new look at the New York locations of Carlito’s Way and how they look today [3 mins]
I always enjoy location visits on these things. This one has a split-screen approach which works well.

The Making of “Carlito’s Way”, an archival documentary on the making of the film, produced for the original DVD release [34 mins]
Coming from the DVD, this is a pretty good ‘making of’, beginning with Torres, who personally knew three lawyers saying how the events he wrote about may seem fantastic, but he left out the really fantastic stuff. Bregman says that the initial screenplay was one of the worst he’d ever read, De Palma tells us that studio execs thought the poolroom scene to be too long but that he then added material after which it was thought to be shorter, but most interesting to me [I have the DVD but can’t remember everything] was De Palma accurately predicting what most of the critics would say!

Deleted Scenes [8 mins]
Also on the DVD, These are entire snippets of existing scenes that were taken out for pacing, but there are nice details which, as a big fan of the movie, I loved. So for example you get more of Carlito in David’s apartment, noticing how he’s changed, Carlito pretending to injure his shoulder so Gail will let him in, and perhaps best of all, Gail waiting for Carlito and witnessing a shooting.

Original promotional featurette [8 mins]
The usual fluff.

Theatrical teaser and trailer

Image gallery

“Scarface”s mature cousin, “Carlito’s Way” gets better with age and is probably the last great film of a filmmaker who was far more than just a super stylist. Arrow’s packed presentation is a must-buy even if you only want the standard Blu-ray. Highly Recommended!