My double Bills # 7 Original Gangsters
The Untouchables has an extraordinary line up of Italian & Italian American talent; Brian DePalma uses the best of his gifts as a director, Robert DeNiro steals the film as Capone,Georgio Armani recreates the styles of the era with panache and Ennio Morricone delivers a sensational soundtrack.
Millers Crossing is as densely plotted as The Maltese Falcon and has a number of stand out sequences and performances.
Both of these movies have large amounts of style but capture the golden age of Gangster movies such as The Roaring Twenties and The public Enemy but without shying away from the inherent violence of the times, and there are echoes of Cagney and Raft.
The stand out sequence in The Untouchables is DePalma's homage to Battleship Potemkin
and in Millers Crossing the symphony of machine gun and Oh Danny Boy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thXTjcMnEdY
Old fashioned yet contemporary gangster movies almost just like they used to make
Absolutely adore MILLER'S CROSSING and loathe THE UNTOUCHABLES for many reasons but most of all for that "Potemkin" rip-off/homage that DePalma should have resisted at all cost.
ReplyDeleteFair point Weaverman to be be fair DePalma is prone to homage-slash-showing off
ReplyDelete...still like it though