The World Is Yours: The Story of ‘Scarface’

This raucous study from film critic Kenny (Made Men) examines the making and enduring cultural significance of Brian De Palma’s 1983 film, Scarface. Kenny describes how Al Pacino, impressed after watching Howard Hawks’s 1932 mobster flick of the same name, approached producer Marty Bregman about shooting a remake. Tracing the twists and turns of the film’s production, Kenny discusses how director Sidney Lumet left the project after being disappointed with screenwriter Oliver Stone’s script, and how De Palma marshalled the testimony of a narcotics officer and five psychiatrists when successfully appealing the MPAA to reduce the film’s initial X rating to an R. Extensive interviews with cast and crew offer a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the making of the film; costar Steven Bauer, for instance, remembers Stone on multiple occasions storming around the set after finding out scenes had been cut from his script. The trivia amuses (it was Lumet who had the initial idea to swap in the cocaine trade for the 1932 original’s bootlegging), and Kenny provides a discerning inquiry into Scarface’s legacy, crediting the film’s fatalism and extravagance with making it a touchstone in hip-hop music and offering a neutral survey of criticism that the movie glorifies violence. Readers will be spellbound. Agent: Joseph Veltre, Gersh Agency. (May)