PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENT - AN ART LINSON PRODUCTION - A BRIAN DE PALMA FILM
THE UNTOUCHABLES - KEVIN COSTNER - CHARLES MARTIN SMITH - ANDY GARCIA
ROBERT DE NIRO as AL CAPONE and SEAN CONNERY as MALONE
Music by ENNIO MORRICONE Visual Consultant PATRIZIA VON BRANDENSTEIN Edited by JERRY GREENBERG
Art Director WILLIAM A. ELLIOTT Director of Photography STEPHEN H. BURUM, A.S.C.
Written by DAVID MAMET Produced by ART LINSON Directed by BRIAN DE PALMA
A PARAMOUNT PICTURE

Released in 1987 by Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Telling the true story of 1930s Prohibition Chicago and the famous and well documented and previously dramatised Untouchables team of law enforcement officers, Brian De Palma's film is a lavish piece of modern film making . Although the plot does not tend to get in the way of the well filmed set pieces. The action is well done and there are some truly memorable moments. It's certainly a far cry from his previous Prohibition caper 'Bugsy Malone'

It's nice to go away from a film with memories of exact scenes and this film has a number of them. Ask anyone who's seen it about the pram on the steps of the railway station and they'll be able to tell you in detail. The plot is a shallow affair dealing with only the basics of the Untouchables 'legend' but what is there certainly kept me hooked. True, the film starts off a little slow but builds up the pace and tension throughout with the action getting more lavish and articulately depicted as we go.

Kevin Costner is, in my opinion, perfect as Elliot Ness although Robert Stack wasn't too bad himself. His serious, straight faced approach to the part gives that sense of a quiet, often confidant man with a need to get things done (something which Cosner plays regularly - eg. Wyatt Earp, Robin Hood, Field of Dreams, The Bodyguard, Dances with Wolves etc...). Robert De Niro is disappointingly hamming the part of Al Capone up somewhat chronically though. This gives Capone a sort of pantomime villian quality making you want to boo and hiss at the screen whenever he appears. The show is stolen by the solid acting and powerful screen prescence of Sean Connery as Irish Never-Promoted infallable street-cop Malone. Despite having a very dodgy Irish Accent he won an Oscar in 1989 for Best Supporting Actor proving that despite vocal innaccuracies, the guy sure as hell can act.

With some of the most over the top violent endings of characters/extras I've ever seen in a mainstream movie, The Untouchables is a fine watch. A few gripes with Al Capone seeming to be in a different town to everone else in the movie (but then again, in real life I doubt if he ventured out on 'jobs') and the visuals certainly taking precedence over the plot. I can readily recommend this as July's Classic Movie of the Month.

Rob / Coagulus