In terms of action, this long scene featuring Tony’s first job for Frank Lopez is really captivating, and pretty crazy. It’s set up as a routine drug deal for Tony to administer but I’m sure we’re meant to expect something to go wrong. The tension is drawn out with the help of some very long takes, laying out the exterior environment and the interior apartment space the deal is set to go down in.
So there’s two awesome things going on in this little sequence. Well, more than two but two main things that I enjoyed the hell out of. First, it’s just set up so nicely, with little surprises like the Colombian we don’t expect to pull out the huge gun pulling out the huge gun, and then the big surprise of this sadistic dude going at Tony and company with a chainsaw.
The deal with the Colombians going down in this way of course harkens back to Tony’s earlier line that he doesn’t trust Colombians in general. So we’re not meant to be surprised, as he is unsurprised by the outcome. But then the second awesome thing about this scene is just how calm Tony is throughout the ordeal. He’s being threatened with a chainsaw, after seeing his buddy get his parts sawn off, and he barely blinks. He acts like he’s completely in control, even though it takes his other partners storming the apartment to save him. So as the earlier scene showed that Tony carries his bravado with him no matter what authority figures he’s up against, this one shows that he’s just not afraid of anything or anyone. If the movie drags later on it’s because it’s hard for it to keep up the excitement of these early scenes.
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