Stylish and energetic, this gangster saga from Brian De Palma and David Koepp is solid both in characters and genre action. It’s a crime tragedy set in Spanish Harlem, with a fine perf from Al Pacino as a former kingpin trying to go straight. He’s sprung from a long prison term by Sean Penn’s mob mouthpiece, whose cocaine-fueled greed and hubris sends everything off the rails. Penelope Ann Miller is Carlito’s romantic dream and John Leguizamo the punk upstart blocking his path; we also get good input from Luis Guzmán and a young Viggo Mortenson.

Carlito’s Way
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
1993 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 144 min. / 4K Dual Format Limited Edition / Street Date September 26, 2023 / Available from Arrow Video / 59.95
Starring: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, John Leguizamo, Ingrid Rogers, Luis Guzmán, James Rebhorn, Joseph Siravo, Viggo Mortensen, Richard Foronjy, Jorge Porcel, Frank Minucci, Adrian Pasdar, Jaime Sánchez, Paul Mazursky, Jon Seda.
Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Art Director: Gregory Bolton
Costume Design: Aude Bronson-Howard
Film Editors: Kristina Boden, Bill Pankow
First Assistant Director: Chris Soldo
Original Music: Patrick Doyle
Screenplay by David Koepp from two novels by Edwin Torres
Produced by Martin Bregman, Michael S. Bregman, Willi Baer
Directed by Brian De Palma

The energetic, cinema-mad Brian De Palma was one of the most inspired of the film school heroes of the 1960s. Francis Coppola wowed us by slipping the bonds of UCLA to work for Roger Corman; he won a place as a writer of major feature films. Martin Scorsese came across as the ultimate film school professor, creating off-the-cuff home-turf movies but aspiring toward more formalistic, classical work. By contrast, for the early part of his career Brian De Palma was the ‘crazy film student,’ playing with Hitchcock tinkertoy cinema patterns, while indulging in bad-boy sex content guaranteed to get him typed as a naughty voyeur. But the brilliance was more than evident — Greetings and Hi, Mom! still seem liberating.

De Palma’s biggest splashes were made with his horror and sex thriller pix. Sisters is a marvelous homage to Alfred Hitchcock, but for the next ten years he drew critical flak for fixating on the work of the Master of Suspense, sometimes to the point of plagiarism. The Paul Schrader- written  Vertigo  riff  Obsession  is an emotional workout, but still works best as an impassioned Bernard Herrmann concert. De Palma’s pop thrillers then drifted toward slick exploitation. His remake of  Scarface  with Oliver Stone defined the drug-fueled obscene excess of the 1980s.

De Palma’s path as a commercial director turned out diverting entertainments (The Untouchables), occasional terrible misfires (The Bonfire of the Vanities) and the first instalment of a mighty franchise (Mission: Impossible). In the middle of these mainstream Hollywood efforts came Carlito’s Way, a solid crime story without a major gimmick, bolstered by a fine performance by Al Pacino. It’s not a follow-up to De Palma & Pacino’s Scarface, as it takes place in 1975, several years before the Mariel Boatlift.

De Palma turns away from narrative tricks and visual shorthand, going for a straight-on traditional narrative style that spends its energy supporting Al Pacino’s star performance … no film-student split screen gimmicks here. The action set pieces are extra-intense without undue embellishment. The old Brian also shows through with some elegant slow motion shots. The emphasis is now on character development. David Koepp’s screenplay gives the actors, especially Pacino, decent scenes to play.

Former drug racketeer Carlo ‘Carlito’ Brigante (Al Pacino) finds himself with a new lease on life — his attorney Dave Kleinfeld has leveraged a technicality to spring him prison only five years into a 30-year prison term. Carlito makes contact with his old bodyguard Pachanga (Luis Guzmán) but is determined to stay clear of the old drug trade. On his first day of freedom back in Spanish Harlem, he can see that there is no longer any organization to the racket or even a moment’s worth of security — the street operators are ‘cowboys’ that murder at the drop of a dime. Carlito witnesses the murder of his own cousin and barely escapes re-arrest after a gun battle.

Everyone expects Carlito to re-enter the drug trade, but his goal is to take up an offer made by a friend in the Caribbean, renting cars to tourists. To earn buy-in money he manages a nightclub. The work is legit, but the club is frequented by drug gangsters like the reckless punk Benny Blanco (John Leguizamo). Carlito broke off his relationship with Gail (Penelope Ann Miller) when he went into prison ‘forever.’ He now makes a careful attempt to find her and rekindle the relationship. The former actress is now working as a stripper. She at first doesn’t know how to react to Carlito’s overtures.

If Carlito Brigante has an Achilles Heel, it is misplaced loyalty. Because he ‘owes’ Dave Kleinfeld, Carlito tolerates Dave’s coke-fueled reckless behavior. Against Gail’s protests, he commits himself to breaking the law to save Dave from the wrath of an incarcerated mobster Tony Taglialucci (Frank Minucci). Tony is convinced that Dave has stolen a million dollars of his money, and demands that the attorney spring him from prison. Carlito resolves to help Kleinfeld, putting all of his ‘going straight’ plans at risk.

Brian De Palma’s Scarface premiered as a controversial ‘event’ picture. Still standing in that film’s shadow, Carlito’s Way doesn’t break new ground. It holds its own as a solid gangland story, lavishly produced. Unlike the docu-real imagery of William Friedkin, De Palma developed a glossy high-key filmic style, as hyper-real as in certain Italian thrillers of the day. The vivid lighting and fluid camerawork in the real locations is as slick as filmmaking gets. The nightclub set is not so lavish that it crosses the line into outright fantasy. Carlito follows his girlfriend through a beautiful rain-soaked Greenwich Village — but it’s still wet and cold.

De Palma concentrates his technical mastery on his action scenes. The main chase-shootout sequence is a fluid race across Manhattan, through the subway system and into the multi-level interior of Grand Central Station. A few critics thought De Palma was repeating himself by staging a gun battle in a train station. The scene was originally planned to take place below the World Trade Center, but the February ’93 terror bombing canceled that arrangement.

The focus of Carlito’s Way is on character. Al Pacino succeeds in making Carlito an anti-Tony Montana, a reasonably sympathetic man despite his past of crime and killing. Carlito thought he’d die in prison, and despite the misgivings of the D.A. Norwalk (James Rebhorn) is serious about staying clear of trouble. Even Gail can tell that he’s sincere. Carlito isn’t tempted by his old associates, but he can’t avoid their influence. Neither his nightclub partner Saso (Jorge Porcel) nor his bodyguard Pachanga will stand by him when trouble calls. Pachanga defects because Carlito refuses to behave with his old ruthlessness.

The cast has a few standouts. Penelope Ann Miller convinces as an Anglo beauty who has turned to stripping. She isn’t condemned for her choice; even Carlito understands, after a few minutes to adjust. John Leguizamo’s shark-like punk Benny Blanco is also well-played; a major rift between Blanco and Carlito comes about when Blanco and Dave Kleinfeld clash over possession of a club girl, Steffie (Ingrid Rogers).

In for one scene is a young Viggo Mortenson, in fine form. He’s a former thug now in a wheelchair, who tries to entrap his old boss with a wiretap. We’re also happy to see Jaime Sánchez in a small role. The star of  The Pawnbroker  and  The Wild Bunch  had previously performed opposite Al Pacino in  Serpico.

The most notable addition to Carlito’s Way is Sean Penn’s duplicitous, coke-deranged mob lawyer Dave Kleinfeld. Instead of doing a star turn, Penn invests in a character transformation. He changes his appearance quite a bit, aging beyond his 32 years with a receding hairline and a frizzy hairstyle. It’s a startling change for Penn, from his usual confused and troubled young men.

Five years of success helping mobsters have given Dave Kleinfeld a sneering sense of entitlement, and his drug habit has made him a criminal as well. Carlito tries to advise his old friend, to no avail — Dave has dug himself into a deep hole, and will do anything to sidestep Tony Taglialucci’s revenge. He knows the Taglialuccis will want him dead as soon as Tony is out. Carlito is indeed blinded by his sense of loyalty — that he for one minute thinks Dave can be relied upon, is a big mistake.

The New Wave of pulp-reflexive Quentin Tarantino movies had already arrived, but  Carlito’s Way freshens a very traditional gangster tale. It has more in common with ‘gangland tragedy’ noir classics like Budd Boetticher’s The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond,  Frank Tuttle’s  Suspense and especially Gordon Wiles’  The Gangster. Those mobsters fell for all the standard reasons. The reformed Carlo Brigante may be a swell guy trying to do the right thing, but those Mean Streets do drag a fellow down, one way or another.

The show doesn’t sweat the period details. Although we’re told that it’s 1975, the disco hits heard in the nightclub are from a couple of years later. We really aren’t aware of the exact year, anyway. The glamorous cinematography extends to the street scenes. Gail lives on a narrow little Greenwich Village lane that looks wonderful at night — we could imagine Gene Kelly dancing in the rain puddles holding an umbrella. The curve in the street makes it look like a studio set, but it’s apparently a real location, just like Grand Central Station and the subway.

The late ’80s- early 90’s brought more than just Quentin Tarantino to screen crime — we got cozy with John Woo’s Hong Kong pictures, Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Goodfellas, other traditional character pieces like Billy Bathgate and Bugsy plus more action-oriente shows. Carlito’s Way sees Brian De Palma doing solid work, if not breaking new ground.

Arrow Video’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray of Carlito’s Way is a stunningly good-looking disc. Spanish Harlem may not be as flashy as Tony Montana’s Miami Beach, but cameraman Stephen Burum shows the stylish flexibility he’d given to Coppola’s Rumble Fish and several De Palma films since Body Double.

This exact Limited Edition release contains a second disc with the show in standard Blu-ray, not just video extras.  I’ve tried to distill the wordy descriptions, but it remains a LOT of content. A 60-page color booklet has an essay by Barry Forshaw plus a wealth of production notes. Also included is a two-sided poster with Arrow’s handsome new commissioned artwork.

I recommend the deleted scenes, plus the piece with author Edwin Torres, who was a judge who met Al Pacino when consulting on an earlier film. Brian De Palma is also an excellent interview subject.

De Palma had been tamping down his stylistic excess of late, sublimating his wilder cinematic notions into ever-more complex action scenes. Carlito’s Way is haunted by a bookend scene repeated for the finale. Since we’re expecting a tragedy from the start, the film seems all the more traditional, functioning under the law of Noir Fate. But those slow-motion visions are truly impressive, especially against Patrick Doyle’s soundtrack music. Brian is definitely in control for this one.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Carlito’s Way 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-X audio
Supplements:
Disc One: 4K Ultra HD.
New audio commentary by Matt Zoller Seitz
New audio commentary by Dr. Douglas Keesey
Disc Two: Blu-Ray
Commentaries by Matt Zoller Seitz & Dr. Douglas Keesey
Interview featurette Carlito and the Judge with author Edwin Torres
Interview featuretteCutting Carlito’s Way with editors Bill Pankow and Kristina Boden
Video appreciation De Palma’s Way by film critic David Edelstein
Featurette All the Stitches in the World, a location comparison piece
Archival interview with Brian De Palma
Archival making-of featurette produced for the original DVD release
Original promotional featurette / Theatrical teaser and trailer / image gallery
Deleted Scenes
Plus
Fold-out poster; postcard lobby card reproductions
Illustrated booklet featuring with writing by Barry Forshaw and original production notes.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD disc + one Blu-ray in Keep case with book in card box
Reviewed: September 30, 2023
(7001carl)

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