| The Untouchables | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Brian De Palma |
| Screenplay by | David Mamet |
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Art Linson |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Stephen H. Burum |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[1] |
| Box office | $106.2 million[2] |
The Untouchables is a 1987 Americancrime film directed byBrian De Palma, produced byArt Linson and written byDavid Mamet. It starsKevin Costner,Charles Martin Smith,Andy García,Robert De Niro andSean Connery. Set in 1930Chicago, the film followsEliot Ness (Costner) as he forms theUntouchables team to bringAl Capone (De Niro) to justice duringProhibition. It is the third film on which De Niro and De Palma collaborated, afterGreetings (De Niro's first lead in a feature role) andHi, Mom!.
The screenplay is loosely based on Ness's andOscar Fraley's 1957 bookThe Untouchables and the real-life events on which it is based, although most of its plot is fictionalized.[3][4] TheGrammy Award-winning score is composed byEnnio Morricone and features period music byDuke Ellington.[5]
The Untouchables premiered on June 2, 1987, in New York City, and went into general release on June 3, 1987, in the United States. The film grossed $106.2 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for fourAcademy Awards; Connery won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor,[6] as well as theGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.
In 1930, during Prohibition, the notorious gangland kingpin Al Capone supplies illegal liquor and controls most of Chicago.Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness has been tasked with halting Capone's activities, but his first attempt at a liquor raid fails due to corrupt policemen alerting Capone.
He encounters veteranIrish-American officer James Malone, who opposes the rampant corruption and offers to help Ness, suggesting that they find a man from the police academy who is not yet under Capone's influence and still believes in the idealistic aspects of law enforcement. They recruit Italian-American trainee George Stone (birth name Giuseppe Petri) for his superior marksmanship and integrity. Joined by accountant Oscar Wallace, and assigned to Ness fromWashington, D.C., they successfully raid a Capone liquor warehouse and start to gain positive publicity, with the press dubbing them "The Untouchables". During an organizational dinner team meeting, Capone kills the warehouse manager with abaseball bat to warn his other subordinates.
Discovering that Capone has not filed anincome tax return for four years, Wallace suggests trying to build atax evasion case against him, as Capone's network keeps him well insulated from his other crimes. A crookedalderman offers Ness a bribe to drop his investigation, but Ness refuses. After Capone's enforcerFrank Nitti threatens to kill Ness's wife, Ness immediately moves his wife and daughter to a safe house. In a subsequent raid on theCanadian border, Ness and his team intercept an incoming liquor shipment, killing several gangsters and capturing a Caponebookkeeper named George, whom they eventually persuade to testify against his employer. Back in Chicago, Nitti, dressed as a policeman, murders Wallace and George in the elevator of the police station and leaves a taunting message for Ness. Ness confronts Capone at theLexington Hotel after the murders, but Malone intervenes, urging Ness to focus on persuading thedistrict attorney not to dismiss the charges against Capone.
Realizing that police chief Mike Dorsett betrayed Wallace and George, Malone forces Dorsett to reveal where Capone's accountant Walter Payne is hiding. That evening, one of Capone's men breaks into Malone's apartment. Malone chases him with a shotgun, but Nitti ambushes him with aThompson submachine gun.
Shortly afterward, Ness and Stone arrive to find Malone mortally wounded. Before he dies, Malone shows them which train that Payne will take out of town. As the duo await Payne's arrival atUnion Station, Ness notices a young mother with two suitcases and her child in a carriage laboriously climbing the lobby steps. Ness ultimately decides to assist her, but the gangsters guarding Payne appear as Ness and the woman reach the top of the stairs, and a bloody shootout occurs. Although outnumbered, Ness and Stone manage to capture Payne alive and kill all his escorts, keeping both the mother and child unharmed.
When Payne testifies at Capone's trial, Ness observes that Capone appears strangely calm, and that Nitti is wearing a gun in the courtroom. Thebailiff removes Nitti and searches him, finding a note from Chicago MayorWilliam Hale Thompson that effectively permits him to carry the weapon. However, noticing that Nitti possesses amatchbook with Malone's address written inside, Ness realizes that Nitti killed Malone. Panicked, Nitti shoots the bailiff before fleeing to the courthouse roof, where Ness captures him. After Nitti insults the memory of Malone and gloats that he will escape conviction for the murder, an enraged Ness pushes him off the roof to his death, avenging Wallace and Malone.
Stone gives Ness a list, taken from Nitti's coat, which shows that the jurors in the trial are all on Capone's payroll. Ness secretly persuades the judge to switch Capone's jury with one hearing an unrelated divorce case. This prompts Capone's lawyer to enter a guilty plea, although an outraged Capone violently objects.
Capone is convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. On the day of his sentencing, Ness closes up his office, giving Malone'sSt. Jude medallion and callbox key to Stone as a farewell present. As Ness leaves the police station, a reporter asks him what he will do after the probable repeal of Prohibition, to which he replies, "I think I'll have a drink".
Ned Tanen spent years trying to obtain the rights toEliot Ness's life story while working as an executive atUniversal Pictures in the 1970s and the 1980s. After becoming head of motion picture productions atParamount Pictures, which owned the film and television rights to Ness's memoirThe Untouchables, Tanen immediately hiredArt Linson to begin producing a film adaptation. Linson was not interested in adapting theABCtelevision series based on Ness's book, and sought to create a more "serious, authentic" depiction of Ness's career in Chicago. Linson hired playwrightDavid Mamet to compose an original script for the film. Most of Mamet's screenplay was used, but director Brian De Palma slightly rewrote some scenes during production in order to incorporate new locations. For instance, the scene paying homage to thePotemkin Stairs fromBattleship Potemkin (1925) was moved from a hospital toChicago Union Station.[3] A month after the film was released, De Palma downplayed his own role on the script:
Being a writer myself, I don't like to take credit for things I didn't do. I didn't develop this script. David [Mamet] used some of my ideas and he didn't use some of them. I looked upon it more clinically, as a piece of material that has to be shaped, with certain scenes here or there. But as for the moral dimension, that's more or less the conception of the script, and I just implemented it with my skills – which are well developed. It's good to walk in somebody else's shoes for a while. You get out of your own obsessions; you are in the service of somebody else's vision, and that's a great discipline for a director.[7]
The character of the IRS agent Oscar Wallace was partially based onFrank J. Wilson, the IRS criminal investigator who spent years keeping tabs on Capone's financial dealings before laying charges.[8] Unlike Wallace, Wilson was not killed during the investigation, and was later involved in theLindbergh kidnapping case.
Linson and De Palma wanted to have a more tender portrayal of Ness thanRobert Stack's "tough" portrayal from the 1950s television series, seeking to portray him as a "vulnerable family man". De Palma initially wantedDon Johnson to portray Eliot Ness.Mickey Rourke,Jeff Bridges,William Hurt,Harrison Ford, andMichael Douglas also turned down the role.[9][10][4] A 1985 issue ofVariety announced the casting ofJack Nicholson as Ness, but he was ultimately replaced byKevin Costner.[3] In preparing for his role as Eliot Ness, Kevin Costner met with former FBI agent and Untouchable Al "Wallpaper" Wolff at his home inLincolnwood for historical context and to learn about Ness's mannerisms.[11]
Robert De Niro was De Palma's first choice to play Al Capone, but it was uncertain if he could appear in the film because of his appearance in the Broadway playCuba and his Teddy Bear. He also wanted to gain about 30 pounds (14 kg) to play Capone; according to De Palma, De Niro was "very concerned about the shape of his face for the part."[1] De Palma met withBob Hoskins to discuss the role in case De Niro could not appear. When De Niro took the part, De Palma mailed Hoskins a check for £20,000 with a "Thank You" note, which prompted Hoskins to call up De Palma and ask him if there were any more films he didn't want him to be in.[12][13]Gene Hackman andMarlon Brando were also considered as options in case both De Niro and Hoskins proved unable to perform the role.[4] De Niro's research for the role of Al Capone included reading about him and watching historical footage.[14] He had one extra scene written for his character, and contacted Capone's original tailors to have identical suits and silk underwear made for him. He was paid $2 million for the role.[3][4]
Patricia Clarkson was cast to play Ness' wife, Catherine, in her debut film role.[3]
A youngJohn Barrowman appears uncredited as a street person.
Principal photography began on August 18, 1986, inChicago,Illinois, where Ness's story begins with him recruiting his Untouchables team with the intent of taking down Capone.[3]
Filming locations included theRookery Building (Ness's police headquarters),[15]LaSalle Street,[15] theDuSable Bridge,Chicago Cultural Center (the operahouse, the courthouse lobby, and the rooftop chase),[15] theBlackstone Hotel (the mob banquet),[15]Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica (the church),[15] andChicago Union Station (the railway shootout). TheLexington Hotel, Capone's residence, had been closed since 1980, so the location was portrayed through three locations in the film: the exterior and lower lobby was filmed atRoosevelt University, while Capone's suite was the upper foyer of theChicago Theatre.[15] AWest Side warehouse served as asoundstage.[15]
In August 1986, Paramount Pictures contacted Garry Wunderwald of theMontana Film Commissioner's Office to find a 1930s-period bridge to imply aborder crossing between the United States and Canada. Wunderwald suggested theHardy Bridge, which crosses theMissouri River near the small town ofCascade, southwest ofGreat Falls.
FromOctober 6–20, the bridge was closed to traffic to film the shootout sequence. 25 local residents were cast to ride horseback asRoyal Canadian Mounted Police during the scene. The crew then built cabins and summer homes along the river, and 600 trees were brought in fromLincoln andKalispell areas, and planted in a day and a half. Several 1920s and 1930s-era vehicles were rented from ranchers fromConrad and Great Falls. Actual filming took approximately 10 days, but the production staff reserved the bridge for enough time to allow for production delays. Hundreds were allowed to watch filming from a nearby field.[16]
The railway station shoot-out is a homage to theOdessa Steps montage inSergei Eisenstein's famous 1925 silent movieBattleship Potemkin, and it was parodied in the 1994 movieNaked Gun33+1⁄3: The Final Insult as adream sequence.[17][18]
While the film is based on historic events, most of the film is fictionalized or inaccurate.[19] The raid at theCanada–United States border never happened,[19] and neither did the courthouse or railway station shootouts.[20] Ness did not kill Nitti, who died in 1943, 12 years after the Capone trial, by suicide (the day before Nitti himself was scheduled to be in court).[20][21] In reality, Ness's unit had very little to do with Capone's final tax evasion conviction, which was orchestrated by U.S. AttorneyGeorge E. Q. Johnson and IRS AgentFrank J. Wilson (who inspired the character of Oscar Wallace, but was never part of the Untouchables).[20][19][22][23]
The scene where Al Capone beats a lieutenant to death with a baseball bat is based on an urban legend, albeit one that historians doubt actually happened: after discovering thatJohn Scalise, Albert Anselmi, andJoseph Guinta were planning to betray him, Capone reportedly invited the trio to a dinner party and beat them to death.[24][25][26]
In the film, Ness's wife is called Catherine and they have a young daughter.[3] In real life, Ness's wife at the time was named Edna and the couple had no children, though Ness would later adopt a son, Robert.[3][27]
The Untouchables opened on June 3, 1987, in 1,012 theatres where it grossed $10,023,094 on its opening weekend and ranked the sixth-highest opening weekend of 1987. It went on to make $76.2 million inNorth America.[28] According to producer Art Linson, the polls conducted for the film showed that approximately 50% of the audience were women. "Ordinarily, a violent film attracts predominantly men, but this is also touching, about redemption and relationships and because of that the audience tends to forgive the excesses when it comes to violence".[29]
The Untouchables received positive reviews from film critics. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on reviews from 75 critics, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Slick on the surface but loaded with artful touches, Brian DePalma's classical gangster thriller is a sharp look at period Chicago crime, featuring excellent performances from a top-notch cast."[30] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[31] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[32]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times gave the film a positive review, calling it "a smashing work" and saying it was "vulgar, violent, funny and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful".[33]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times praised the film for its action sequences and locations, but disapproved of David Mamet's script and Brian De Palma's direction. Ebert singled out the film's depiction of Al Capone as arrogant and childish, to the point of misbehaving in public and in court, as the biggest disappointment of the film, while giving praise to Sean Connery's work.[34]Hal Hinson, in his review forThe Washington Post, also criticized De Palma's direction, saying "somehow we're put off here by the spectacular stuff he throws up onto the screen. De Palma's storytelling instincts have given way completely to his interest in film as a visual medium. His only real concern is his own style."[35]
The New Yorker'sPauline Kael wrote that it was "not a great movie; it's too banal, too morally comfortable. The great gangster pictures don't make good and evil mutually exclusive, the way they are here [...] But it's a great audience movie—a wonderful potboiler."[36]Richard Schickel ofTime wrote, "Mamet's elegantly efficient script does not waste a word, and De Palma does not waste a shot. The result is a densely layered work moving with confident, compulsive energy".[37]Time ranked it as one of the best films of 1987.[38] Adrian Turner ofRadio Times awarded it a full five stars, writing that "David Mamet's dialogue crackles, Ennio Morricone's music soars and the production design sparkles. Yet for many the main attraction of this modern classic is Sean Connery's Oscar-winning turn as the veteran Irish cop who shows Ness the ropes."[39]
Despite receiving theAcademy Award forBest Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance, Connery was voted first place in a 2003Empire poll for worst film accent because his Scottish accent was still very noticeable.[40]
Aside-scrolling video game,The Untouchables, was released byOcean Software in 1989 on multiple platforms. The game plays out some of the more significant parts of the film. Set in Chicago, the primary goal of the game is to take downAl Capone's henchmen and eventually detain Capone.
It was reported on July 2, 2004, thatAntoine Fuqua would direct anUntouchables spinoff titledThe Untouchables: Mother's Day,[46] which was later changed toCapone Rising.[47] The film's script, which was written byBrian Koppelman andDavid Levien, with later revisions byDavid Rabe, focused on the rise of Chicago mob kingpin Capone in the years before the encounter with Ness and his lawmen. In June of the following year, original directorBrian De Palma replaced Fuqua on the film.[48][49] According to De Palma, the film went into development several times withNicolas Cage,Gerard Butler andBenicio del Toro all attached to play Capone at different stages.[50]
