THE UNTOUCHABLES
US, 1987, 119 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Costner, Robert de Niro, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia.
Directed by Brian de Palma.
The Untouchables is about Eliot Ness and Al Capone. Eliot Ness is famous from books and the papers of the '30s as well as the television series with Robert Stack. (In later years there has been a bit of demythologising, that J. Edgar Hoover and Ness were self-promoters - a telemovie, The Revenge of Al Capone, with Keith Carradine highlights this theme.) Al Capone has been the subject of many films, both fact and fiction: Paul Muni as Scarface, Rod Steiger as Al Capone, Ben Gazzara as Capone. Here Eliot Ness is portrayed effectively by Kevin Costner (No Way Out, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves) and Robert de Niro has a cameo tour de force performance as Capone.
The strength of the film, besides the stars, is in Sean Connery in his Oscar-winning performance as Sergeant Malone. There is a good supporting cast, including Charles Martin Smith and Andy Garcia as the other two Untouchables.
The screenplay was written by David Mamet (The Verdict, and his plays Glengarry, Glenross as well as House of Games and Things Change). The musical score is by Ennio Morricone and direction is by Brian de Palma, an expert in Hitchcock style horror films as well as his gangster epic with Al Pacino, Scarface.
The Untouchables re-creates Chicago in the '30s, the gang wars, the power of Capone, the determination of Ness and his followers. There is a special tour de force sequence in a railway station with a baby and a pram on a staircase - a tribute to, as well as imitation of, Eisenstein's famous staircase scene in The Battleship Potemkin. This sequence has its own power. An absorbing gangster film.
1. The Chicago of Al Capone, the local police, politicians, federal police, the treasury and the FBI? The facts of the period, the role of the media, audience consciousness shaped by the gangster films?
2. The popularity of gangster films, their moralising style in the '30s, their warnings? Changes, the focus on the gangsters, on the police? The more explicit violence? The perspective of the '80s? The work of Brian de Palma?
3. Panavision photography, the re-creation of the '30s, the city of Chicago, the police and the precincts, hotels, the law courts, the stakeouts? The action sequences on the Canadian border? The picturing of violence, the special effects? The significance of the station and staircase sequence? Authentic and stylised?
4. The quality of the screenplay, David Mamet's theatre experience? Dialogue, action? The parallel with the television series?
5. The initial information about 1930, Prohibition and its consequences, gangsters, the Treasury and the federal police, Al Capone, his being a businessman, his philosophy of life, the brutality, protection? The irony of his arrest over tax returns? Eliot Ness and the achievement of the G-men?
6. The portrait of Al Capone and the perspective on him in the '30s, later? Robert de Niro's strength and presence, jovial and brutal style, relentless? His press conferences, loud? The shaving sequence and the blood, his stating he was a businessman? The banquet and his philosophy of baseball, his brutal bashing of his gangster? The question about taxes, his discussions with the press? His weeping at the opera and the intercutting with Malone's death? His behaviour in the court, his arrogance, buying people, the clash with Ness on the hotel steps? In the court? His going to prison? Prohibition breeding this type of brutal businessman and gangster?
7. The situation with Prohibition, bootlegging, the smuggling? Protection of the hotels and shops, payments? The refusal - and the little girl with the explosion, the reaction of the press, the work of the police?
8. Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness: in himself, presence, an ordinary Treasury official, his relationship with his family, the sequences with his wife and children? Having to move them from Chicago for protection? His press conferences, the questions, the uprightness of himself and his men? His contacts, the raid and the irony of finding the umbrellas? Capone laughing at him, the press laughing? His walking home, the bridge, the encounter with Malone, Malone as an efficient policeman? His visiting him, the proposal that he work for him? The plans, going to the recruits with their shooting, interviewing George Stone, the Italian background, hiring him? The refusal of the bribe by the official? Wallace and his information, the tax registers, his plan of action, giving the information to Ness? Their forming a squad of gangbusters? The meal together, the photo? their building up their plans?
9. The tip-off, going to the border, horseback chase, the captain of the police, the raid, the shootouts and the deaths? The capture of the bookkeeper? Malone's brutality in shooting the dead man and pretending that he was alive as a warning for the bookkeeper to confess? The local police and their disapproval of these methods?
10. Going to the courts, the hopes, Wallace and his being with the keeper, their being shot by Nitti? The collapse of the case? Ness's human reactions?
11. Sean Connery's portrait of Malone: the Irish background, strong character, on the beat, honest, his meeting with Ness, the visit, his participation in the raid, shooting the dead man to intimidate the bookkeeper? His philosophy of Capone's men with the knife, the law having a gun? His discussion with the police chief and getting the information from him? The brutality of his death, his crawling along the floor, giving the message about the bookkeeper?
12. The station sequence: Ness and Stone keeping vigil, the woman and the pram, the tribute to Eisenstein, the slow motion with the pram going down the stairs, the shooting? The threats to the bookkeeper, the hostage, Stone killing the assassin?
13. The court sequence, the prosecution, Capone and his arrogance, Ness and his threat to the judge, the witness of the bookkeeper, Capone losing the case?
14. Nitti in the court, Ness wanting him out, not being able to hold him, Malone's address on the matchbox, the chase through the building, the chase through the building, the roof, the violence, Ness resisting shooting him, Nitti and his taunting, Ness pushing him off the roof?
15. Ness's summary of himself, what he had done, upholding the law, his brutality? His having a drink after prohibition?
16. The period of prohibition in itself, American history, society, the law, police, the consequences of prohibition?
