Larger than life Brian DePalma’s coke saturated epic “Scarface” makes its third appearance on DVD. What’s different about this edition will be important to fans as the two previous editions of the film on DVD suffered from a dreadful 5.1 mix that lacked punch. The reissued 2003 release was supposed to use a digitally remastered mix that appeared when the film was re-released to theaters. Unfortunately due to either an oversight or incompetence the version released utilized a thin sounding original mix from 1983. This edition corrects that situation including the balls-to-the-walls remaster in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 5.1 DTS that will cause the foundation of a home to shake if played loud enough. ***

DePalma and screenwriter Oliver Stone reformatted and translated Howard Hawks’ classic 1932 film starring Paul Muni into a modern tale befitting the “Miami Vice” era. For those unfamiliar with the film DePalma chronicles the rise of Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer)a pair of Cuban petty hoods who quickly rises in the drug world by pulling heists, carrying out hits and doing everything to insure that they will be smiled upon by the gods of crime. When Tony befriends drug kingpin Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) he quickly finds a foothold in Lopez’s organization rising to become his right hand man. Tony sets his sights not only on the throne of crime but also on the mistress of crime as well; Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer in a marvelous performance overshadowed by the showier roles) a woman who has captivates Tony. Like a Greek tragedy “Scarface” then chronicles the fall of Tony who increasingly suffers from bouts of paranoia, anger and irrational behavior as the drugs he does business with does their business to him undermining his acute but savage business orientated mind.

Image & Sound:

Not only is the sound a marked improvement here but the image quality for this re-release is slightly better than the previous edition as well. Colors look better here with sharper image quality and a very clean transfer for DVD. Overall this edition has the edge for one simple reason the remastered soundtrack. The DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks sound marvelous having all the punch and impact that the previous edition lacked. Dialogue, music and sound effects all sound much cleaner and clearer in this edition. ---

The best features from the previous edition of “Scarface” have been ported over to this one and placed on the second disc. Missing is the poor “Origins of a Hip-Hop Classic” featurette but everything else from the previous second disc is included here as well. We get deleted scenes (although they are presented in non-anamorphic), “The World of Tony Montana”, “The Rebirth”, “Acting”, “Creating” and “The TV Version” highlighting the difference between the broadcast version and theatrical version. What would have made this edition an improvement over the previous version would to be a commentary track from either DePalma or Stone about the making of the film.

Final Words: