It’s considered one of director Brian De Palma’s best films, launched the career of the young Kevin Costner, brought Sean Connery his only Oscar... and it is 25 years old this month.
It is as strong emotionally as it is visually, and most importantly, it is highly entertaining- Paula Fleri-Soler
Strange but true, The Untouchables was released in the US on June 5, 1987, and it remains as fresh, stylish and slick as ever.
The film is based on the popular 1953 television series of the same name, the latter in turn based on the memoirs of Eliot Ness, the real-life federal agent responsible for the enforcement of prohibition in Chicago.
De Palma has admitted that he was not a fan of the series and wanted to bring his own take on the life of Ness and his team’s efforts to bring down legendary gangster Al Capone.
He therefore assembled a strong cast led by a relatively unknown Kevin Costner, a superb writer in the form of acclaimed playwright David Mamet, and stunning production design overseen by visual consultant Patrizia von Brandenstein.
The film was for the most part shot in Chicago itself, von Brandenstein’s team effortlessly removing 60 years of modernisation to present the city as it was in the 1930s.
Giorgio Armani, no less, was hired to design the impeccably tailored suits and debonair hats worn by the protagonists.
It looks absolutely lovely, yet the superb locations never distract the viewer from the unfolding story, they simply do their job as the perfect backdrop. All this is underscored by prolific composer Ennio Morricone’s pulsating music.
De Palma is known for his visual style and cinematic flair and The Untouchables does not disappoint.
There are almost too many significant cinematic moments; from little ones like Charles Martin Smith’s Agent Wallace sneaking a sip of bootleg whisky from a truck; or Connery’s Malone using a dead body as a prop; to scenes that are more epic in scope.
There’s the open-air raid of an illegal shipment of booze on the US-Canadian border which gives the movie a Western feel in the middle of the city-set story, and, of course, that train station set-piece – De Palma’s homage to the baby-carriage-plunging-down-the-steps scene in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film Battleship Potemkin.
The film is not merely an exercise in style, however. It is as strong emotionally as it is visually, and most importantly, it is highly entertaining.
De Palma’s direction seamlessly balances the intimate character moments with stark and brutal violence as he propels the story forward. Mamet brings his typical street-smart and edgy dialogue to the script, which falls easily off the tongues of the film’s protagonists, an eclectic mix of veterans and new faces. The chemistry between the four heroes is tangible, providing an integral ingredient to the story.
The four characters do not know each other at the beginning of the film, but bound together by a common cause, they become the ‘incorruptibles’, the untouchables. At the end of their mission, having come through both triumph and tragedy, their bond is even stronger.
De Palma cast Costner on the recommendation of colleagues Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan. “He’s a very straightforward, honest guy and I was quite affected by his sincerity, which is, of course, essential to the part of Ness,” said the director of his leading man.
It was a role that would propel the then 32-year-old, incredibly fresh-faced actor to international stardom.
Another relatively new kid on the block, Andy Garcia, was the perfect choice for the hothead police recruit and sharpshooter par excellence George Stone, while character actor Charles Martin Smith injected warmth and humour into nebbish accountant Oscar Wallace, a man more used to adding figures than shooting guns, yet who takes to the role like a duck to water.
Sean Connery brought experience and gravitas to veteran beat cop Malone, the man who would cajole Ness out of his comfort zone and get him to do the unimaginable to get to his quarry.
Their nemesis was brought to life in a tour-de-force performance by Robert de Niro. He plays Capone as large, brash, loud and arrogant – succeeding all the while in projecting more than a hint of the charisma that made him the media darling he clearly was in his day.
It is a gangster story with complex characters, yet The Untouchables remains a simple good-vs-evil parable, with four heroes to root for and an antagonist who is dangerous. Therein lies its genius and the film is no less powerful for it.
“Here endeth the lesson.”