Untouchable as a movie, not as a DVD. (The Untouchables (DVD))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	The Untouchables (DVD)
Date:	29/04/03 (870 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good acting, Great music, Excellent story

Disadvantages: Lack of DVD extras

I don't know why I was drawn to The Untouchables all those years ago - I wasn't a particularly big fan of De Palma, De Niro or Costner. In fact, as far as I was concerned, the only big draw was the presence of Sean Connery. However, one viewing was enough and I can safely say that this now ranks as one of my all time favourite films.

Story:
In 1931, prohibition is in place making the sale or consumption of alcohol illegal. Of course, some people are willing to make money at any means, and Al Capone has Chicago in his iron grip. Using bullying tactics, his goons are forcing innocent people to buy and sell his liquor or face the consequences.

Enter Eliot Ness, a Treasury officer who has been given the job of shutting down Capone's operation and bringing him to justice. Ness is initially unable to make any progress with early investigations proving unsuccessful. Also on board is accountant Oscar Wallace and he provides the first real solution for getting Capone, namely by Income Tax evasion.
A chance meeting with the world wise Irish cop, Malone (Sean Connery) leads Ness to ask him to join his outfit to provide some much needed experience to the investigation. After turning the job down initially, Malone agrees to help Ness, but informs him as they shake hands that he has made a blood oath.

Jim Malone: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Eliot Ness: Anything and everything in my power.
Jim Malone: And THEN what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way because they're not gonna give up the fight until one of you is dead.
Eliot Ness: How do you do it then?
Jim Malone: You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send on of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that
9;s how you get Capone! Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?
Eliot Ness: I have sworn to capture this man with all legal powers at my disposal and I will do so.
Jim Malone: Well the Lord hates a coward. Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness?
Eliot Ness: Yes. [shakes Malone's hand]
Jim Malone: Good, cause you just took one.

This is Malone's place within the group - to use his years of experience to help Ness get closer to Capone. By using street knowledge, they are effectively thinking outside the box, and it's this that gets them further towards their goal.

Malone's words of wisdom take them to the police academy where they plan to take a trainee under secondment so that they can be sure of his honesty, and after a little humour, George Stone (Andy Garcia) is the final recruit in the quartet that will become known as The Untouchables.

From this point in, the film really gets going. Raids are made Capone's secret booze stores and obviously this gets him riled up. Interrupting a deal which goes down on the American / Canadian border suddenly drops a vital piece of information into the lap of the Untouchables in the shape of Capone's coded ledger which could, if decoded, give Ness and his men all the evidence they need to convict Capone. If you want to know what happens after this is, you'll have to watch!

Other elements.
The acting is generally of a high standard with both Costner and De Niro putting in super performances. Connery does his usual Connery schtick, and speaks in his Scottish accent despite being cast as an Irishman, but this does nothing to detract from his role at all, and it's quite easy to get behind the likeable characters. I think that Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace steals the show, though.

A word about the soundtrack, which was done by Ennio Morricone. I thought this was a super piece of work with music which ranged betw
een quiet, mournful pieces with only one or two instruments during the reflective scenes and huge, soaring orchestral pieces during the exciting scenes.

The film can be a bit bloody at times, but there are only one or two scenes which are like that. There are some memorable scenes as well: the Canadian border attack is excellent with Oscar Wallace showing what he's made of in a gun battle. The railway station scene is a masterly exercise in tension building and the bit with the pram (reminiscent of The Battleship Potemkin) is near genius.

Both the visuals and sound are crisp and clear, as you would expect from a DVD.

Cast:

Kevin Costner - Eliot Ness
Sean Connery - Jim Malone
Charles Martin Smith - Agent Oscar Wallace
Andy Garcia - Agent George Stone / Giuseppe Petri
Robert De Niro - Al Capone
Richard Bradford - Police Chief Mike Dorsett
Billy Drago - Frank Nitti
Patricia Clarkson - Catherine Ness
Steven Goldstein - Scoop
Robert Swan - Mountie Captain

Directed by: Brian De Palma
Running Time: 115 minutes
Certificate: 15

DVD Features (Region 2):
Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English for the hearing impaired, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Dolby Digital Surround Sound and 5.1

Overall:
The lack of extras in a film so good is almost a crime in itself. At the very least, a Director's Commentary would have added significantly to the DVD, and with the set and costumes being faithfully recreated for the prohibition era, I'm surprised there aren't some behind the scenes documentaries on offer. For example, did you know that Giorgio Armani did the costume work?
Film: * * * * *
DVD: *

Summary: