Empire top 301: #230
IMDb top 250: -
Rating 6/10
Director: Brian De Palma
Writers: David Mamet
Starring: Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith & Patricia Clarkson
“You just fulfilled the first rule of law enforcement:
make sure when your shift is over you go home alive. Here endeth the lesson.”
*****SPOILERS*****
Set in Chicago during 1930’s prohibition Al Capone
(De Niro) has the city and the police force under his control running an illegal
alcohol operation, offering bribes to officials and using extreme violence
against anyone who gets in his way. Treasury Official Eliot Ness (Costner) has
been summoned to Chicago in an attempt to stop Capone and put him away. Eliot
puts together a team, enlisting Irish-American Officer Jim Malone (Connery),
Police Academy trainee George Stone (Garcia) and Accountant Oscar Wallace
(Smith) in his mission to bring Capone’s rule of Chicago to an end.
Whilst I did mostly enjoy The Untouchables, I did
have some serious issues with it. Firstly the music was a complete distraction
and really silly at times; every single emotional moment was ruined by awful
Lifetime Special, incidental music; and then there was the obnoxious swing
music kicking in every now and then, with trumpets and horns bellowing out that
really didn’t fit the tone of the film; and then during the raid on the liquor
shipment in Canada it’s music that wouldn’t be out of place in a Wild West
movie, it just didn’t work for me. Secondly, why would you hire an actor of De
Niro’s calibre to play a really interesting and juicy role and then criminally
underuse him. Capone was probably the most interest character in this story and
yet he gets hardly any screen time. Lastly, the whole scene where Malone is
shot with enough bullets to bring down an elephant, yet still manages to crawl
all the way from his front door to his living room and then still hang on until
Ness arrives so he can give him a piece of crucial information is absolutely
ridiculous.
The Untouchables isn’t a complete dud, it does have
some good things going for it. The subject matter is very interesting and once
the film had finished I was eager to know more about that time period and the
people involved. The writing is good, although some scenes are a little cringey;
“eskimo nose, butterfly kiss” – No!! Gorgio Armani’s costumes are gorgeous and
the sets & locations look spot on. Brian De Palma’s direction is pretty
good and the final shoot out scene is done really well, it’s filled with plenty
of tension and killings.
Kevin Costner is Kevin Costner again, not bad but
not great either. Robert De Niro is good but he really doesn’t have enough to
do, it’s such a massive shame as I think the character of Capone is very
interesting and with the right material De Niro could have done something
special with it. Charles Martin Smith is a hoot, he has a great scene during
the raid on the borders of Canada which made me laugh out loud.
This is Sean Connery’s Academy Award winning
performance; in my opinion this is not an Oscar winning performance, it may be Connery’s
best work but it’s not award worthy. However, Malone is a great character and
Connery does give a good performance.
The Untouchables is a good film but it could’ve
have been great.
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