Thursday, February 4, 2010

Engl. 339: Scarface (1932)

All right, let me just start by saying that Scarface was awesome, I can see why it's a classic, and Guino was my favorite character.
Now that that's out of the way, let's examine some of the thematic elements of the movie.
The use of the X in death scenes is a given, of course, but since it's already been mentioned I'll skip it.

Another thematic element that was particularly prevalent was the use of the staircase. The story is, of course, about Tony's rise to the top of the Chicago mob, and in the beginning of the film we see a lot of him standing at the bottom of staircases: the one in his house when he sends his sister up to her room with a wad of cash, and his mother follows. Not only does it portray Tony at the bottom of the stairs, before his rise through the ranks, it also has the effect of giving the mother the figurative and literal high ground as she tries to convince Cesca not to take dirty money. Later, we see him at the bottom of the stairs, flirting with Poppy. She is still higher than him and unattainable as he stands below her, looking up.
Immediately after this, Tony takes the initiative and sends Guino to kill the rival mob boss against his own boss's orders, and is visited by Poppy who must now climb the stairs to see him. Later, when he strikes his sister and she flees to her room, he is once again relegated to the low ground at the foot of the steps, as his mother tells Cesca that he hurts everybody.
After this, after he has his boss Lovo killed, he climbs the stairs once more, into Lovo's apartment, to claim what is now his. After he shoots Guino, he staggers down the stairs from Cesca's apartment.
And the final scene, of course, features him slowly descending, stair by stair, as he begs for his life, losing his pride, arrogance, and status with each step.

1 comment:

  1. These are good ideas about the use of space and staircases, Fawn, and the topic would make a good paper if you wanted to expand on it.

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