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ACF#14: Carlito’s Way
New podcast, new interlocutor, and a new departure — defending gangster films as middlebrow! My friend John Presnall, from storm-beaten Houston, and I are also defending Brian De Palma from a conservative point of view and we’re introducing lawlessness studies as a way to get at the desire to free oneself, to be self-made, and to chase the American Dream. Carlito’s Way is the most self-reflective gangster film, one of the last memorable roles of Al Pacino and, get this, we’re arguing this is a superior movie to Scarface. We’re nothing if not fearless and we hope you’ll listen to and share our discussion wherever you can. Help me spread the gospel of Middlebrow, Ricochet! Hashtag as far as the eye can see!
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My high school English teacher, Fr. Michael Dibble, adored piquant writing of the film critic Pauline Kael and made us read most of a book of her reviews. She loved Brian de Palma. Thank you for making me think of Fr. Dibble this evening. He was a great teacher.
I’ll listen to the podcast later — looking forward.
My pleasure! What serendipity! There’s an unexpected association, Pauline Kael & a Fr.! Tell me more, when you’ve time.
Meanwhile, enjoy the podcast-
I have a brief moment to tell you a story he told us students, that as a young archdiocesan priest, he was invited to Timothy Leary’s house in Millbrook for dinner. There were bead curtains and bowls of various pills lying about for anyone to have. Fr. Dibble described himself as very young, very curious, and very prudish at the same time. Great storyteller. I knew him in the late 80s, more than 20 years after this dinner. He also loves Flannery O’Connor and that guy who ate the plums. Carlos Williams. Never could like him. Tee hee.
I was ruminating today on Ben Hecht and my favorite gangster film Underworld (1927) the best of Europe and America shooting up Chicago in silent speakeasies! All thanks to watching Gone with the Wind before Amazon makes it go away.
Hecht was quite a writer! I don’t know that movie. I’ll have to look it up. I think his earliest story I’ve seen is The frontpage, after dialogue was introduced. That story was originally filmed in ’30, I think, starring Adolphe Menjou. Then Howard Hawks did it as His girl friday in ’40. As late as ’76, or so, Billy Wilder did it again, as a Jack Lemmon-Walter Mathau comedy.
Wow! The man had good taste & strange adventure. Well, it was a strange time. & America is big enough for O’Connor & Leary, strange as that is…
It was done again later with Burt Reynolds and, I think, Kathleen Turner.
Edit: Switching Channels. Actually a decent version.
I must have missed that, but I can believe it–sounds like early 80s…
Carlito is not from the Bronx. He is from East Harlem. Which means Central Park is quite close.
Calling it an orgy is a bit of a stretch. It was one couple on a chaise lounge. (I watched it last night, btw, in prep.)
Carlito’s downfall is not the Italians; he dealt with them in the train station. The remaining members of that crew might wish revenge, but with the remaining son of Tony T dead, the motivation is going to be less. And with him leaving town, particularly with the train to Miami and then the plane from there, there is a decent chance he leaves it behind.
His downfall is going straight. He’s killed by Benny Blanco from the Bronx, his location on the train platform betrayed by Pachanga. So why does Pachanga betray him? Because Pachanga joined up expecting to be a lieutenant in a heroin business with 100 sellers, like in the old days. Instead, he gets a crappy job as a bouncer in the club. If Carlito had gone back to his life of crime intentionally, but with the same $75k plan to leave, he would have escaped.
All the parts of the movie where he plays the bad guy work out for him. Whether the drug deal setup, where he kills them and walks away with $30k, or taking out Dave with the bullet trick, or nailing the four Italians; even breaking down the door. These things all work for him.
The loss of respect for not killing Benny Blanco from the Bronx, Pachanga’s betrayal, all the things that actually brings him down, stem from going straight.
Well, let’s submit the evidence to a candid world. Everyone can make up his mind:
That’s at best a maybe.
Pachanga is not an ambitious lieutenant. Everything in his characterization is servile, his loyalty & his treachery alike. It’s not any kind of ruthless ambition that leads him on, as is plentifully obvious in the concluding shootout…
So this is partly a necessity of the story. The director wants you to get a good look at just how impressive Carlito is in action, to contrast with his erotic vulnerability. The Way & The Dream are both real, both get great portrayals. But as with any serious work, the center is the central thing, & that’s about his erotic tragedy.
Now, abut Carlito. The point is that you cannot put together the powers needed to get out of the game with the intention of getting out of the game. Your heart cannot be both in the game & elsewhere. You die an ugly death, either way.
That’s at best a maybe.
Pachanga is not an ambitious lieutenant. Everything in his characterization is servile, his loyalty & his treachery alike. It’s not any kind of ruthless ambition that leads him on, as is plentifully obvious in the concluding shootout…
So this is partly a necessity of the story. The director wants you to get a good look at just how impressive Carlito is in action, to contrast with his erotic vulnerability. The Way & The Dream are both real, both get great portrayals. But as with any serious work, the center is the central thing, & that’s about his erotic tragedy.
Now, Carlito cannot put together the powers needed to get out of the game with the intention of getting out of the game. Your heart cannot be both in the game & elsewhere. You die an ugly death, either way.
He’s not ambitious in terms of wanting to take over, but he is ambitious in terms of wanting to be a well compensated follower. When he doesn’t get that from Carlito, he looks elsewhere.
He’s a lot like Tessio from The Godfather.
Not so. De Plama shows you that twice. First, they come out of the bar, look around and are ready to give up the chase until Tony T’s son spots him running up the street. Again, in the train station the other guys are ready to give up looking, until the son berates them that he’s hiding upstairs.
The rest of the Italians are never going to be as motivated as Tony T junior.
Sure, I can agree with that. I just think you misjudge the man as an operator. He beats Benny Blanco from the Bronx within inches of his life. Is not allowed to kill. Now he’s got powerful reasons to deal with him…
Yeah, Carlito himself says he should have killed BBftB (in the voiceover). But once again, not doing so stems from his desire to go straight. So my point stands, without that Pachanga wouldn’t have betrayed him and BBftB would have been dead anyway. Remember that Pachanga bought the story that he and Gail were just going out of town for a couple of days. Carlito simply wouldn’t have returned.
It’s a pool party in the 70’s. Other than different music and a lot less money, I went to parties like that. Trust me there was no Roman orgy. (The closest it came was me and my girlfriend in the steam room. And when someone started into the room, they backed out and left, they didn’t come on in and join the fun.)
Judge, you’ve come to the point of: “Call that an orgy, why lemme tell ya!”
What can I say: Please regale us with stories, whether Roman or American!
I’m just saying, it wasn’t as unusual as you seem to think.
I don’t think it’s really unusual. You may have missed the times I talked about the Seventies on Ricochet the last couple of years–it’s always in terms of, the decade America wants to forget, i.e. for moral reasons.
By the way, John & I are doing Taxi driver next, to address “times of political insanity” issues.
About the orgy, it’s important for its placement in the plot & what it reveals about the Jewish lawyer. If you want to change the name for the event, I’ll live with that.
Great point about the lazy mobsters. I’m not sure that decides the matter. The murders might put an end to things–the antagonists are dead; or worse, since more people are involved now.