Synopsis
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With corruption and greed sweeping across Chicago, as they are stuck in the midst of the prohibition gloom, not even the police seem adverse to a bribe at all, especially when the man pulling most of the strings is the ruthless gangster Al Capone (Robert de Niro). Desperate to bring law and order back to the streets of the city, a crack force of agents above corruption, labelled "The Untouchables", is banded together under the guidance of federal agent Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner). Along with old time cop Jim Malone (Sean Connery), new recruit George Stone (Andy Garcia) and nerdy accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) they set about cleaning up the streets and in particular the underground dealings of Al Capone.

Despite their best attempts, Capone always seems to be one step ahead of them as Ness's straight laced tactics fail to make any impact. Forced to play Capone at his own Ruthless games, Ness and his men take the battle to him using his own ruthless tactics to try and capture him.


Opinion
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I have always had a penchant for gangster movies, especially those that are based in era's past rather than in a modern setting, so it is no surprise that I am particularly fond of Brian De Palma's exceptional masterpiece "The Untouchables". With the story based on the attempt to bring one of America's most notorious gangsters to rights, the film is a mixture of truth and fiction which blends together to create one of the most engrossing films to have been made in the last century, yes "The Untouchables" first hit our big screens way back in 1987. That is not to say that this masterpiece has its problems, most notably a couple of unimaginative performances, but as a whole the film rises above these and delivers on nearly every level. This makes it all the more surprising that the only Oscar it won was for Sean Connery's performance as best supporting actor.

* The Story

As already mentioned, the story is based on a mixture of fact and fiction, set in the prohibition era when the notorious gangster, Al Capone was at his deadliest controlling not only the criminal activities in Chicago but also numerous police men and political figures. The emphasis of the film is the battle between the newly formed "The Untouchables" and the notorious gangster as they attempt to bring him to justice by any means possible. All of this is fine and for the majority of the film the story does remain the focal point as we watch Ness learn that the only way he will capture his prize is to become as ruthless as the gangster himself. But at times the film does seem to stray from conveying the story and begins to dwell on the magnificent work which went into the set and costume design, which to be honest is a pleasure to watch and the realism of it all helps to make the film very engrossing, but it does spoil the film when for the nth time we are left to marvel at the scenery rather than keeping the story moving along.

With the film focussing firmly on the ruthless criminal activities of Al Capone it is no surprise that the film does not shy away from demonstrating this with a couple of major scenes featuring brutal violence. The first of these memorable scenes sees Capone taking out his anger on one of his henchmen during a board meeting where he goes to work on his head with a baseball bat. This is one of the earliest scenes in the movie and really sets up not only the character of Capone but also the way in which the film would progress. The second of the memorable scenes features Elliot Ness interrogating one of Capone's henchmen and in attempt to move matters along, George Malone blows the head off of another henchman who was already dead, but makes it look like he was alive. Although there is a strong emphasis on the violence, most of it is not shown in front of the camera with the results of it being displayed, which is one of the reasons why "The Untouchables" managed to be awarded a 15 certificate instead of an 18.

There are other elements to the story, including Ness's fear for his wife and child as he takes on the deadly gangster and the teacher pupil relationships between Malone and Ness as the grizzled old policeman teaches the federal agent how to beat Capone as well as his own morals on being an honest policeman. All of these add to make the film work really well on all levels.

For anyone who is not aware of the fate of Al Capone, the way in which the film comes to a climax has a nice twist but for those who are fully aware of Capone's outcome it plays out in quite a predictable but satisfactory manner.

* Characters and Cast

To be honest this is where the film is let down and it is through some satisfactory but ultimately plain performances. In the lead you have Kevin Costner as the crime busting federal agent, and all round good guy, Elliot Ness. As is quite often the case, Costner puts in a very solid and reasonably convincing performance but doesn't quite manage to shine as the star of the film. His characterisation is very good and equally matches that of hiss fellow performers. Also making a less than starry performance but still an adequate one is Andy Garcia as George Stone, the young agent plucked from a list of new recruits. At times Garcia's performance looked more like a rabbit stuck in the middle of the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, but this may be due to this being one of his first major film roles and his inexperience does show.

Undoubtedly the star of the film is Sean Connery as the grizzled old beat cop, Jim Malone. Connery rightly won an Oscar for his performance and with out his performance this film would be left some what lack lustre. Not only is his portrayal of a grizzled old street cop convincing it is also enjoyable making it a pivotal reason why "The Untouchables" is one of the best gangster films out there. Also making a very good performance is Charles Martin Smith as the slightly timid and nerdy federal agent Oscar Wallace, whose main role is as an accountant. For those of you unaware of the Capone story you maybe wondering why an accountant is part of this elite crime force, but this character is very pivotal in the story.

Of course you cannot leave out the character of Al Capone who is magnificently played by Hollywood legend Robert de Niro. De Niro may not put in one of his finest performances as the ruthless crime boss, but it is still one which eclipses nearly all of the performances from the other actors in the movie, except for that of Connery. Not only is De Niro's characterisation absolutely brilliant but his presence fills the screen every time he appears.

* Direction

Although the film does have a couple of minor weaknesses, it is very hard to find any real major fault with how Brian De Palma has directed "The Untouchables" and so it does deserve all the praise bestowed upon it by numerous film critics. As a rule, De Palma has kept the film moving along at a very good pace, apart from the few minor dalliances with the scenery and costumes, you find yourself being drawn into the film as although it is not overly quick it doesn't give you huge amounts of time to deal with what you have seen. One of his major triumphs is to make "The Untouchables" a gangster movie with a much wider appeal than those such as "Scarface" and "The Godfather". He has achieved this by making the film not just about the brutality of the violence but also by making it a very worthy period drama.


DVD - Bonus Features and quality
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* Bonus Features

The Script, The Cast - This is basically a making of feature which has all the bog standard interviews with cast and crew, whilst looking at how the main players in the film came to be involved and how they went about making it. To be honest, this is not the best ever making of feature I have ever seen but it does provide some insight into the difficulties they had in making the film, most notably the landing of Robert De Niro for the role of Al Capone.

Production Notes - This again is more of a making of feature as we hear from the major players contribution to the film and although is slightly more informative than "The Script, The Cast" it is still moderately lack lustre compared to many other making off features. In hindsight, it may have been a better idea to edit these first two features together into one which although would not have given anymore information, would have done away with some of the repetiveness.

Reinventing the Genre - This is a feature which looks at how they tried to make a gangster movie which did not try to imitate the other gangster movies which had gone before, most notably "The Godfather". Although this is quite good, as we listen to why they chose to do things in a certain way, it does feel quite rough in its presentation and does seem to jump from one thing to another with no real flow.

The Classic - This is basically a bout of mutual back slapping from all the major people involved in the movie where they semi-discuss why the film was so successful but in reality it comes across as more self congratulary.

Original Feature - This was a short making of feature which came out alongside the film, what is quite surprising is that it appears on the Special Edition release of film but never appeared on the original DVD release. To be honest it doesn't really shed anymore light on how the film was made but is a nice bit of padding for anyone who is a collector of all things to do with the film.

Trailer - You get the trailer for the film which in my mind is a bit pointless seeing you have more than likely just watched the film and so why would you want to watch the trailer.

* Picture Quality

Although the picture quality has definitely been enhanced and does on the whole appear very crisp, there is numerous occasions when you get both graininess and speckles appearing which is more to do with the transfer from the original print rather than the actual DVD quality.

* Sound Quality

As often the case with modern transfers of old films, the sound quality is solid but lacks the use of all the sound channels that modern films capitalize on. But in general the sound is of a very good quality with the dialogue being very clear and the beautiful sound track by Ennio Morricone really does add some grandeur to the movie.


Summary
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For a film which is now nearly 20 years old "The Untouchables" is still as enjoyable as the first time I watched it all those years ago. Yes it does have a few flaws and it is by no means as good as say "The Godfather" when you compare it against other gangster movies, but what it does do is to make the gangster genre more appealing to a wider audience with it's decent plot, some good performances and exceptional costume and set design. Whether or not this is Brian De Palma's best movie is debatable as his earlier outings with "Scarface" and "Carrie" are equally as good if not better. This is the sort of film which appeal to a wide range of viewers, you of course have the fans of gangster movies, but as a period drama it is excellent and as an interpretation of a true story it is very enjoyable.

Although the DVD is a Special Collectors Edition, and a vast improvement on it's earlier release, the special features are not up to the standard of what I would class a Special Edition and to be really honest, are disappointing compared to the features that you can find on many of today's normal DVD releases. I doubt the extra features are enough to warrant paying the extra pounds for the movie unless you can pick it up for around the £7 mark.


Trivia
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It has been announced that they plan to make "The Untouchables: Capone Rising" which looks at the arrival of Al Capone in Chicago and his rise to being the notorious crime boss. Current proposed release is 2008 and other than Brian De Palma taking the directional reigns again there is little else information.


Price & Availability
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Tesco.com: £16.24


Technical Details
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Certificate: 15
Duration: 119 mins
Year of Release: 1987
Genre: Crime, Drama, Gangster

DVD Release: 2004
Subtitles: English , Spanish, Closed-captioned
Audio: English, French
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1/16x9

Director(s): Brian De Palma
Writer(s): David Mamet

Cast: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Richard Bradford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia Clarkson, Vito D'Ambrosio, Peter Aylward, Don Harvey


© Christianfilm October 2006