Scarface

After two difficult years in the making, SCARFACE appeared in late 1983, marking De Palma's entry into territory he hadn't previously explored -- the American gangster film. It was also a first for him in another sense; here he was part of a collaborative team on a picture designed to showcase its star, in this case Al Pacino. In a situation typical of the often divisive nature of the director's work, many people would come to …

…begins (and admiring his blunt humor and honesty as a character), embraced him as nothing less than a hero. Even more than CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL and PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE before it, the film's acceptance spilled past the borders of De Palma's usual fan base, and within a few years it was solidly entrenched in popular culture. In some ways it has stayed an anomaly among his works, but certainly not a forgotten one.