Now this scene, this is a thing of beauty. And I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, though I’m sure others are and have some smart things to say about it. It’s possible that he’s meant to be addressing the movie’s audience, casting doubt on any moral superiority they may be feeling about him. This was all before the anti-hero really took off the way it did in TV the last decade, and so Scarface belonged to a select genre of film that really delved deep into the psychology of the bad guy.
The movie is laying its cards on the table here a bit in this sense, but it’s also showing how pathetic and desperate Tony has become in his desire to cling to what little control he has left over himself and his life. The lines “You’re not good. You just know how to hide,” and “I always tell the truth, even when I lie” are absolute deserving classics. We’re called upon to deal with the ambiguity of the morality at play here, to wonder what it is that makes Tony the guy that he is, beyond good or evil. And we also get to see him make a fool out of himself in a very public way, in contrast to him blending into the background in public the way he did previously. But it’s lonely at the top.
Continue reading on the next page…
