Los attempts to make commercial cinema are often looked down on, as if it were a concession from its author that it should be classified as a minor work with respect to smaller and theoretically more personal works. Forgiven if they become deservedly iconic in a way that feels organic, but it’s an honor that comes at a dear price.
That is why so many different impressions are usually generated about the filmography of Brian De Palma, a director with a very marked personality and obsessions, being generous, peculiar, who has had a turbulent relationship with commercial cinema. But the grace is in how he could do tremendously risky works among films with audience ambitions that were truly exquisite. ‘The price of power’ or ‘Mission Impossible’ are deservedly iconic, although the best is ‘The Untouchables by Eliot Ness’.
Relentless and unstoppable police
A film already available to watch in streaming on SkyShowtime and which, like ‘Mission Impossible’, makes a film remake of a successful television series. Although he has ended up taking on a life of his own until he became one of the best movies of the eighties and a top of the police thriller. Kevin Costner leads an incredible cast that also includes Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, and Robert De Niro as Al Capone.
Capone is one of the targets to be hunted by an elite squad led by Eliot Ness, the idealistic federal agent played by Costner. At the height of Prohibition, Ness persecutes organized crime and the sale of alcohol, with the famous gangster at the heart of the whole conflict. Legal methods are not enough to incriminate him, so he will recruit the most ruthless agents to finish him off once and for all.
Part reality, but purely cinematographic invoice and spirit, erasing any ties from the mind in the same way as the television past of this project. De Palma brings out its most artisan facet, calming the carnal impulse of his eighties thrillers or the iconic rampage of ‘The price of power’. But that doesn’t mean he stops delivering a film full of characteristic signs, well used to make adult entertainment.
‘The Untouchables of Eliot Ness’: perfect adult thriller
‘The Untouchables of Eliot Ness’ fits perfectly into what we have previously commented on the thriller for parents, with a sobriety and forcefulness that has no qualms to appeal to the non-juvenile public. De Palma makes a film that fits into a varied ecosystem like that of the late eighties, but that is seasoned with purely classic details.
The movie is a delight from start to finish, practically perfect in everything she aspires to and in how she decides to execute it. Iconic sequences, such as a shootout on the steps of a government building where a baby carriage finds itself in the stickiest of predicaments, and memorable actors make this a terrific, sophisticated, violent movie with just enough pulpy flair to make it fun to watch. It is really complete.
In Espinof | The best intrigue and suspense movies of all time
2023-09-01 18:01:24
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