ary Review of The Untouchables

The Untouchables (1987)

Director Brian De Palma's finest, years before Mission to Mars!

[9 November 2000]

I reviewed The Untouchables about a year ago, but after watching it yesterday on television,I felt I had to do another review, because I perceived a narrative quality that I hadn't notice in the first time I saw it. The movie marked me, specially due some brutal action scenes (who can forget the gruesome moment in which the underrated Billy Drago blows away Sean Connery with a machine gun?), but The Untouchables isn't just about style.Well, the movie is undoubtly a stylish and violent thriller, but that's no surprise, since De Palma is known for his peculiar way of making films, it has masterful performances, and although some people say that Robert De Niro was terrible as Capone, in my opinion he did one hell of a job. His Capone is as menacing, cynic and tough as the Jimmy Conway of Goodfellas.Sean Connery was great too, Malone, his character, was the toughest one of "the crew" and his performance was terrific, controlled and true-to-life because when you watch the film, you are actually absorbed by the way De Palma develops Malone's relationship and friendship with Costner's character, and you realize that in the end, Costner's character isn't the same man he was, he took a lot of his old friend with him.In the end, you actually feel that you've known each one of those characters, and you fell sorry for the fate of some unfortunate members of the team and glad for the success of the others who survived.Brian De Palma is acclaimed for his technique in delivering complex takes and thrilling tension, but here he also managed to give space for the actors to give stand-out performances and he also knew how to tell a good story without letting his personal visual and technique abilities to get in the way of the plot, something he didn't achieved in Mission to Mars.