In May 1980, Fidel Castro opened the harbour at Mariel, Cuba, to let some of his people join their families in the United States.

Most of the 125,000 'marielitos' who streamed into Florida were honest, hard-working people, eager for a new life in the land of freedom. But not all...

Brian De Palma's blood-and-sun-drenched saga of a penniless but fiercely ambitious Cuban deportee's rise to the top of Miami's cocaine business, centres around Tony Montana (Al Pacino). His brilliant mind, backbone, and balls skyrocket him from a lowly dishwasher at a taco stand to drug runner, then onto king of his own white-powder empire.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays the abused and neglected cokeaddicted trophy wife to absolut perfection.

Her glamerous looks and cold deliberate personality, vanity and deep-rooted insecurity are portrayed in such a way that she is a sympathetic character with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever yet......... she steals the show in many scenes.

Pacino's pissed off attiude, razor sharp tongue, drug-crazed personality, bloodshot eyed performance gives this gangster movie a realistic and terrifying edge.

Controversially, Montana's eventual paranoia and incestuous desire for his little sister (Mastrantonio) help spiral his eventual downfall.

The film is brutally violent, overly dramatic, with incredible acting performances from surprisingly all the cast members and completely lacks any positive characters, yet is one of the most thrilling and watchable movies ever made.

Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, based on Howard Hawks's 1932 version, which was ostensibly about Al Capone and starred Paul Muni.

The music, the surreal visuals, the pace and the characterisations evoke the drug-fuelled decadence of early 1980s Miami. That scene in a motel room with a chainsaw is forever embedded in this films image and the minds of anyone who's ever seen this film.  

10 Stars