30 years later, ‘Scarface’ endures

Philadelphia Daily News

PHILADELPHIA

The movie year is 1983.

The Oscar contenders include “The Big Chill,” “Yentl,” “Silkwood.”

The winner is “Terms of Endearment.”

Across the country, all the good little boys and girls line up to see “Return of the Jedi,” with its furry Ewoks.

Then, in December, like a 20-ton hunk of crack plopped in the placid millpond of American movies, comes “Scarface.”

Chainsaw slaughter. Giant mounds of cocaine. Former pin-striped “Godfather” Al Pacino dropping f-bombs in a Cuban accent, spraying Miami with gunfire, getting high on his own supply, going out in a blaze of gory.

A typical review: “Wallows in excess and unpleasantness for nearly three hours.”

Maybe so, but nearly 30 years later, nobody’s rereleasing “Terms of Endearment” in hundreds of theaters nationwide, and nobody is looking for “Yentl” sneakers online.

“Scarface,” on the other hand, is more popular than ever.

There’s a one-day only theatrical reissue tonight (7:30 p.m. at Tinseltown in Boardman), yet another special edition Blu-ray coming next Tuesday, and a wealth of merchandise still selling online.

“Scarface” lives, and if it happens to live in infamy, that would please Tony Montana, played to the hilt by Pacino.

Young actor Steven Bauer (Manny in the movie) said the cast and crew weathered the bad reviews, and took much satisfaction from the fact that “Scarface” did well at the box office.

Still, it was many years before Bauer realized that “Scarface” had carved a special niche for itself in American culture.

“I was watching TV one night and I heard Chris Berman announcing a home run, and he uses Tony’s line, ‘Say hello to my little friend.’ And I say, ‘Holy s*** he’s seen ‘Scarface.’”