OK, so maybe the plan was to watch only Best Picture winners for a while. But then Andy Garcia in Godfather, Part III happened, which can only, inexorably lead to one conclusion: WATCH THE UNTOUCHABLES.
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| Welcome to Chicago. |
While The Untouchables did take home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Sean Connery), it was not a best picture nominee. Be that as it may, The Untouchables is a classic of the gangster film genre, made all the better for having actual protagonists - Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and his gang of "untouchable" super-cops. Sure, Robert DeNiro chews his share of scenery as Al Capone - and to great effect. But this is the rare modern gangster film with the gumshoes and cheap suits as the stars and not just cannon fodder.
Directed by that underrated auteur Brian DePalma, The Untouchables tells the story of how Eliot Ness handcrafted a delicious amber lager on the shores of Lake Erie. Actually, no, it's about the Treasury Department's full throttle push to take down infamous Chicago ganglord Capone. Ness assembles a crack team: a streetwise Irish beat cop (Connery); a nebbishy accountant (Charles Martin Smith); and a hotheaded rookie (Garcia). Together, they declare all-out war on Capone and see plenty of casualties along the way, all rendered in thrilling and anxiety-producing detail with DePalma's steady hand behind the camera.
Many of the set pieces in this film are so iconic, you may know them already, even if you've never seen it.
Fantastic direction and crackling performances asides, my favorite thing about this film might be the part they couldn't make up. Ultimately, what got Capone? Failure to pay taxes. That's the thing about criminals. No matter how powerful and rich they become, they tend to get caught because they're not smart enough to tend to the little things.
FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER
NEXT UP: THE DA VINCI CODE
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