The Greatest Crime Thriller Of All Time Is Leaving Amazon

For those who haven’t seen Scarface, or those just desperately in need of a rewatch, the news that the crime epic is leaving Amazon may be quite upsetting.

The film is a cultural staple within the mob movie genre, second only to outings like the first two Godfather films and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Al Pacino leads the cast of Scarface as the eponymous gangster, Tony Montana, who emigrates to Miami from his home country of Cuba with nothing but a dollar, a dream, and a Machiavellian capacity for murder.

1983’s Scarface is a reimagining of a 1932 film of the same name, which is in turn based on a 1930 novel. The novel and original movie focus on the rise of organized crime within the United States caused by the government’s prohibition of alcohol.

But the Al Pacino version flips the themes and concepts of the tale on its head by centralizing a Cuban immigrant who becomes involved with the cocaine trade, much to the chagrin of the U.S. government’s war on drugs.

The result is a powerfully poignant film with some exceptional characters and oddly prescient storytelling, along with a few one-liners like “say hello to my little friend!” that still wow crowds to this day.

Personally, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a film buff over the age of 30 who wouldn’t put Scarface in their top 5 gangster movies of all time. Though the film was critically panned upon release due to its foul language, excessive violence, and abrasive presentation, modern critics and audiences have come around to seeing Scarface as a landmark classic.

Today, the film touts a solid 79 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s better characterized by its 93 percent general audience score.

Scarface has been homaged, parodied, and referenced in numerous film and television productions in the last several decades, most notably by projects such as The Simpsons, South Park, and The Sopranos.

Al Pacino is joined in the cast by Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Paul Shenar, F. Murray Abraham, The Sopranos‘ Robert Loggia, and Breaking Bad‘s Steven Bauer.

While each of these performers does an excellent job bringing the material to life on the big screen, Scarface is really taken to the next level by its impeccable original score, composed by Giorgio Moroder.

Those looking to stream Scarface would be well advised to do so quickly, as the film will be departing Amazon Prime Video as of October 1. Maybe the beloved crime classic will return to streaming soon on another service, though it’s possible that the film is just being removed because we need services like Amazon, so we can point our fingers and say “that’s the bad guy.

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