Carlito’s Way: 30 Years Later
Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante in “Carlito’s Way’. Universal Pictures (1993).
Brian De Palma’s crime drama remains a masterpiece.
Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: David Koepp
Cast: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Luis Guzman, Penelope Ann Miller
A notorious criminal is released from prison and struggles to lead a straight life when his criminal defense attorney involves him in the murder of an Italian mob boss.
The beauty of Brian De Palma’s 1993 Carlito’s Way, is its ability to capture the futility and never-ending struggle that follows a former drug king pin. Played by Al Pacino, Carlito Brigante was a once-famous figure of the New York criminal underworld. After his attorney, David Kleinfeld, (portrayed by Sean Penn) gets Carlito exonerated of serious drug charges, Carlito is released back into a different world. The streets have changed hands from the old guard of respectable criminals to a younger breed of hyper violent ones.
De Palma highlights this incredible disparity in one of the most flagrant shootout scenes to ever grace a crime drama. When Carlito accompanies his cousin to a drug deal, he does so at his request. Carlito wants nothing to do with the drug world, but his cousin convinces him to go along. Carlito and his cousin find themselves face-to-face with Quisqueya, an up-and-coming drug dealer who is willing to kill anyone to move ahead in the game.
Carlito senses a pending ambush and distracts two of Quisqueya’s henchman with a billiard trick shot. In an iconic scene, Carlito sees the reflection of a knife wielding gangster move to cut his cousins throat. Carlito responds by smacking a cue ball into the face of one henchman and knocking the other out while taking his gun from him. Quisqueya and Carlito have an epic shootout and Carlito is the only one left standing but out of ammo.
Carlito finds himself in bathroom with no exits. Out of ammo and with two henchmen waking up in the room outside, Carlito has nothing left to defend himself with but his notoriety. Al Pacino absolutely nails this iconic scene, and De Palma and Screenwriter Koepp execute it brilliantly. Earlier in the scene, we can see that Carlito has the street smarts and awareness to recognize a set-up while possessing the ability to act on it.
Once his gun runs out of bullets and he’s cornered, Carlito then wields his infamy to great effect. He loudly racks his gun and makes it seem like he is ready for another shootout. Meanwhile, the two henchmen he knocked out are waking up to see their comrades dead on the floor and listening to Carlito egg them on.
“Oh, you’re not coming in? Ok. I’m coming out. You think you’re big time? Well, you’re gonna fucking die, big time! Here comes the pain!”
Carlito throws open the door expecting a hail of bullets to crash into him and instead finds only dead bodies on the ground. Carlito’s infamy instilled enough fear in the surviving gangsters to make them run for their lives and with an unloaded gun.
Carlito’s Way is filled to the brim with dynamic scenes that draw the viewer into the criminal underworld. Carlito leaves the bloodied ambush scene with a package of cash and sets his sights on securing a new profession, night club owner. The owner of a successful club, Saso, has gotten himself into hot water with some big time loan sharks and Carlito offers to pay off a fraction of this debt for a quarter of his night clubs profits. Saso is reluctant but Carlito conjures up visions of death and suffering by telling him that his debts have grown so large that Fat Anthony, a loan shark, will kill Saso unless he pays of a considerable amount immediately.
Carlito is nothing but street smarts, and his eye for human weakness gives him the leverage he needs in order to secure himself a position of legitimate power, albeit with money secured from a drug deal turned slaughter.
Crime dramas need to walk the line of action and theatrics. A director and writer need to create a movie where the flawed main character is obviously doomed but leaves the audience expecting him or her to survive. Carlito is not a reprehensible criminal, at least, not anymore. From the time Kleinfeld exonerates him, the audience wants Carlito to succeed in his new life and to maintain a semblance of honorability while doing it. Carlito’s character is what is most impressive to the audience, surviving a blood bath by using his infamy draws the viewer in like a whirlpool that can swallow the Titanic.
Watching Carlito take cash from a street deal gone wrong and use it to become a partner in a successful night club is impressive as it is admirable. Carlito uses everything he learned from the streets to rise above them but can’t escape the eyes of rising criminal figure Benny Blanco. Played by Jon “I Ruin Every Movie I’m In” Leguizamo, his role as Benny Blanco remains one of the few where he fits like a glove. Carlito disrespects Benny as he throws around cash and disrespect in his night club. The altercation even leads Carlito to throw Benny down a flight of stairs and have his men take him out back to kill him. Carlito abandons the idea at the last minute which will end up costing him his life in the end.
Carlito’s Way is an epic film that follows a notorious criminal figure as he struggles to survive in a world that has radically changed since his incarceration and release. De Palma delivers a masterful story, and screenwriter Koepp has crafted one of the fiercest operatic scripts to ever tackle the crime drama genre. Thirty years later, Carlito’s Way remains an enigmatic film that has no equals. Crime dramas of today pale in comparison and fail to capture the inescapable reality that no one can outrun their past.