The Untouchables (1987)

[Movie 271 / Day 287]

During the Prohibition Era in the USA in the 1920s, gangster Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) ruled Chicago with an iron fist and became rich, mainly from the proceeds of illegal alcohol (making an estimated £100 million per year!) . He had hundreds of city officials in his employ, all being paid to turn a blind eye while he, quite openly, broke the law. In 1929, Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) was chosen to head the team tasked with putting Capone behind bars. Because so many of Chicago’s law enforcement agents were in Capone’s pocket, Ness hand-picked a team of reliable men who, once they’d resisted bribery attempts, earned the nickname The Untouchables. In the movie, those reliable men are Jim Malone (Sean Connery), Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) and George Stone (Andy Garcia).

They attempt to bring down Capone by busting as many of his liquor distribution depots as they can. They cost Capone so much money and cause so much hassle, that he strikes back at them, endangering Ness’s family and assassinating more than one of his team. Eventually however, they manage to arrest Capone after they subpoena his book-keeper – they finally catch him at Union Station during one of the most infamous, coolest shoot-outs ever put on film. It really is the stand-out scene in the movie for me, everything from the building of tension as Costner’s Ness watches a mother struggling up the staircase, knowing full well that she might be in mortal danger very soon, to the end as Garcia’s Stone slides across the floor on his knees, catching the pram (which is bouncing down the stairs in the midst of a full shoot-out by this point) with his legs and simultaneously shooting a bad guy hiding behind a pillar. It’s epic.

After all this excitement comes the court case, which although very different in tone to what has come before, is nonetheless full of tension as we learn that Capone has bribed the entire jury and Ness has to convince the judge to switch them out.

Directed by Brian De Palma, written by David Mamet, the movie is magnificent, containing excellent performances from all of the main actors – especially Robert DeNiro, whose version of Capone is one of the best roles he’s ever delivered (although Sean Connery was nominated for, and won, the Best Supporting Actor Oscar). The opening scene is so well judged it sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The camera looks down at Capone sitting in a barber’s chair, surrounded by various henchmen and a couple of reporters waiting to interview him. He’s clearly making them wait as he has a hot towel wrapped around his face prior to being shaved. Once the camera moves down to Capone’s lathered face, one reporter is asking him a question on his rumoured violence. At that exact moment, the barber nicks his face. The barber looks terrified as DeNiro gives him a murderous look, before replacing it with a smile and answering the reporters question (“You can get further with a kind word and a gun, than you can with just a kind word”). The scene leaves us in no doubt that Capone is a violent man and very used to getting his own way, and that the barber would be in serious trouble if the reporters weren’t there.

Helping to set the tone throughout the movie is a startlingly good score by Ennio Morricone – like so many other aspects of the movie, it’s incredibly well judged. In fact, there was only one scene that felt like it let the movie down, and that was really a result of 1980s special effects – namely the scene near the end where Ness is incensed enough to throw Capone’s main henchman Nitti from a rooftop. The green screen as Nitti falls is horribly obvious. To be fair though, HD can be very, very harsh on special effects!

Overall, THE UNTOUCHABLES is a brilliant movie; as far as gangster movies go, it’s not far behind GOODFELLAS. Highly recommended.

My Rating:
[ IMDB rating: 8.0 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 119 mins ]