Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the All Eighties Movies Podcast, the
podcast where we talked about the blockbusters, the flops, and
everything in between from one of the precious decades from movies,
the nineteen eighties. Your host Bill Banton long be on
his journey revisiting eighties movies. Is my co host Jason Maatsik.
Speaker 2: Hello, Jason, you want to know how to get capone?
They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends
one of yours to the hospital, You send one of
his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's
how you get capone.
Speaker 1: That's right. Listeners, we're discussing with spoils of plenty. The
nineteen eighty seven gangster drama The Untouchables. It was produced
by Art Linson and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The movie
stars Kevin Gostner, Andy Garcia, Robert de Niro, and Sean Connery.
Directed by Brian de Palma, this movie is rated R
with a running time of one hour and fifty nine minutes.
It was based on the nineteen fifty seven autobiographical memoir
by Elliot Ness of the same name, and later became
a television series which ran from nineteen fifty nine to
nineteen sixty three. The movie was nominated for four Oscars,
winning one. Nominees were for Best Art Direction, Set Direction,
Best Costume Design, and Best Music Original Score. The win
was for Best Actor in the Supporting role Sean Connery.
So what is this movie about? What's on the box?
If you grew up in the nineteen eighties and went
to your local video store to read this movie, you
would find this description on the back of the VHS box.
It is What's on the box? Take it away, Jason.
Speaker 2: The critics and public agree. Brian De Palma's The Untouchables
is a must see masterpiece, a glorious, fierce, larger than
life depiction of the mob warlord who ruled Prohibition era
Chicago and the law enforcement who vowed to bring him down.
This classic confrontation between good and evil stars Kevin Costner
as federal agent Elliot Ness, Robert de Niro as gangland
kingpin al Capone, and Sean Connery as Malone, the cop
who teaches Ness how to beat the mob, shoot fast,
and shoot first, The Untouchables.
Speaker 1: The Untouchables. Wow, that was a quick uh.
Speaker 2: I'm used to these long ones, I know, short and
sweet you tried to take a sip and whatever you're
drinking over there, and you just didn't even have time.
Speaker 1: To do that. Wow, all right, The Untouchables. So that
was what's on the box, Jason. You remember the first
time you saw The Untouchables.
Speaker 2: I don't, Man, my memory has just been terrible for
like the last ten movies I feel like we've covered.
But I probably did see this in the theater. I
had to have a US But I honestly don't remember
the first time. But I can safely say I've seen
it at least a dozen times, maybe more ever since.
I always adored this film and one little memory I
just wanted to share, and you can help me a
little bit with this bill band. In college, of course,
we befriended Marwan Abdurzak, who's been on this very podcast
with us, and he worked for that company. Was it
called Tinsley? Is that correct?
Speaker 1: Yep? Tinsley Advertising, right.
Speaker 2: And they helped promote was it Paramount or.
Speaker 1: Which, Yeah, it was Paramount, Okay.
Speaker 2: So he would give us these promotional like packets that
were like, you know, promoting films coming out, the current films.
But he also had gotten his hands on promotional packets
for slightly older films, and he gave me one from
The Untouchables and it contains the photo the quote unquote
the photo from the movie with the group of the
Untouchables sitting around the table. Man, I don't know why
I don't have that framed and up on my wall
right now. Just talking about this movie right now makes
me want to do that. So I just wanted to
share that I absolutely love that photo.
Speaker 1: Oh that is funny that you mentioned that, because that
used to be a thing I would do, and I
don't know how you were not in one of these photos.
I would say, hey, let's do an Untouchables photo. I'd
literally say that, and we would sitting around a table
and Poe was like, we're Touchables. Absolutely, it's iconic. Man. Yeah,
we did one for my wedding and sorry you were
not there, but yeah, we did one in the bar
and everybody's got the cigars and we're all standing along
the bar and it's like the Untouchables. Everybody just makes
a straight face. Yep, And that's what it is. And
I have like two or three versions of that with
different friends. But I was thinking about this on the
drive to work today. I was like, how do I
not have one with you? Pat, Chris, Marjuan, I mean
we'd get together. Next time we all get together, we're
gonna have to do it.
Speaker 2: Untouchables felt absolutely, Yeah, absolutely, Maybe one of our birthday
get together is will do it at the Island?
Speaker 1: Sounds good? Yeah. So the first time I saw this
was in the movie theater with three of my friends.
I remember Daniel Day was one of them. I can't
remember the other two. Sorry, sorry guys, So you just
had the good memory, but I can't remember the other
two people. I was to see this movie, and man,
as soon as it started, I was certainly hooked into
that one. So definitely rememberable first time seeing that movie.
I think it was opening week. There you go. Heck yeah, man, yeah,
my first time was in the movie theater. Very good.
All right, so let's talk about the movie. What are
our impressions of The Untouchables? Jason, what you got?
Speaker 2: Well, Bill Bant, this is what I gotta say. This
movie's sexy all around. It's got big stars and Connery, Cossner,
de Niro. We get introduced to Andy Garcia in this.
It's capone, It's Chicago gangsters. It's Chicago in nineteen thirties
Prohibition era. It's elliot Ness as a badass forming a
special cadre or task force of officers to take down
the big Bat. I mean, come on, what's not to
like here? Even before watching this again, I was like
I could see the whole movie in my mind, from
beginning to end. How many scenes in this film are iconic.
When I think of the Untouchables, I'm flooded with every
single scene. I mentioned Garcia's intro we get capone with
the bat, all Connery's quotes. There's some really emotional moments
that are just a real bummer in this film, and
a lot of I'm just thinking, there's a lot of
smaller scenes that are just really memorable. Not to mention
these big set pieces obviously, like the Canadian Mounties and
the Untouchables charging the bridge on horseback, But I'm just
going to save the rest for our favorite scenes segment.
But needless to say, this is just one of the
more memorable movies overall. And speaking of favorites, this is
one of my favorite scores by Ennio Morricone. I owned
this soundtrack on cassette, played it to death. I know
it forward and backward, and also not to mention I'm
a Chicago guy, of course, and this is one of
the great Chicago movies. But for me, this movie completely
holds up today. It's a banger from start to finish.
I look forward to every scene. I watched it twice
for this recording, and it was just as enjoyable on
the second viewing. I mean, right from the start, the music,
the Dunna Dunn, It's effing classic. What a great title
card in the beginning, and then you see a credit,
did you I didn't know the wardrobe was by Giorgio
ARMANI fancy yep. So some thoughts right off the top.
And when the movie starts, I mean, anytime a bad
guy is getting a shave is always great tension.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I was just thinking about the recent rebooted Roadhouse where
it happens again. It's been done in a million movies.
It's a great overhead shot at compone aka de Niro,
because you're always afraid, like if the bad guy gets
cut by the razor, he's just going to take out
the barber. But of course he exercises restraint in this,
so it's just a great start to the movie and
then it just keeps rolling from there. I got a
lot more to say, but I'm gonna let you jump
in here.
Speaker 1: Man. This is definitely one of those movies from the
eighties that they can release now. I don't think there's
much that they need to change. Hmm. Yeah. I think
the only other movie we've covered so far where I
could say that was probably Raiders of the Lost Arc
and Boz Them, probably because it's a period piece, sure,
but sure it looks makes sense, fantastic. It still looks
fantastic to me today. It still feels like it was
nineteen thirty. Cogo and the costumes and just all that stuff.
I just I love that and the cast, the four
actors that they put together to form the Untouchables, love them,
love them. I had no idea who any Garcia was,
but right away I thought he was great. Charles Martin
Smith is Oscar Wallace, a little comic relief in there. Yep.
It was just fun watching him do his thing. Of course,
Sean Connery, James Bond watch him in a different role,
and he was just in charge of every scene that
he was in. And Kevin Constner and I know a
lot of people complained about Kevin Costner as being too vanilla,
but I was like, that's who he's supposed to be.
That's what I liked about him, and everyone just kind
of played off him, and I really liked it. So
just the casting of those four was just great, and
then Robert de Niro would come in and do his thing,
pop in throughout. Yeah, the music is awesome. Think about this.
When I was watching the movie, I was like, did
he only compose maybe like twenty minutes and then they
just replayed that over and over, which I didn't care
because the music's awesome and it's all over the place.
It gets your heart pumping, and it makes your eyes
well in moments. It's a really, really good score. I
think it's an underrated score from the eighties. I don't
think we talked about this one enough, and the fact
that it was based on a book that was based
on a television series definitely one of the better adaptions
that we don't talk about, like, oh, you know movies.
I mean, technically it's adapted from a book, but this one,
from beginning to end, it's a good one. It really
should be mentioned as one of the better films of
the eighties.
Speaker 2: To me, I think a thousand percent. My friend, I
was thinking the very same thing. I was just like,
how is this not higher up on my all time
eighties movies list? After watching it again? Now, I mean,
it certainly is. And just going back to the actors
here again, Andy Garcias, we just keep mentioning. You know,
he had done did some TV work and he had
a supporting role in eight Million Ways to Die with
Jeff Bridges and Rosanna are kept playing a cocaine dealer
with it this heavy Spanish accent. It's funny if you
look up a little bit of his role in that
from YouTube or whatnot, or in the trailer for that.
But for me, I always considered this to be his
breakout role. Most I think feel it's Godfather Part three
Joey Sasa, But no, I think it's this. This is
when I really I mean, he just commands when he's
on screen. And so, yeah, Connery, you know what, we
can talk about his accent.
Speaker 1: It's not Irish. Does it matter? I don't know.
Speaker 2: We talked about him in our Highlander episode as well,
with the same issue. But he gets the Academy Award.
I love him in this playing the mentor, the quote
unquote tutor, the do gooder that ended up on the
beat for years because he didn't succumb to the corruption.
There's little things about his character. I love how he
he also commands. I mean, obviously Connory has such a presence,
but the little ticks he has with his character, which
is so just drawn, where you know he kind of
softly punches people in the arm or something like that,
and you know how the first time elliot Ness goes
to his apartment he approaches the door with a sowd
off shotgun.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: There's just a lot of little, well detailed things with
his character.
Speaker 1: Costner.
Speaker 2: I thought for a moment after my first watch, I
was like, was he totally right for this? But then
when I watched it again, I mean, no question, he
looks fantastic and I think he has some real genuine
moments in this. I've always thought he was a solid actor.
Still do he plays the levels in this? And one
thing that stood out to me Bill bann on this
rewatch was the portrayal of his morality. It's a real
through line as to how he's tested throughout. I mean
we're really watching and watching him, watching and learning from
Malone how to do the things that need to be
done to take down to Capone, and it means having
to cross a line, and he has a real difficulty
with that, and we see how in the end does
what it takes, obviously, but he's really having a battle
with his own moral conscience. It was interesting as an
adult to kind of watch that a little bit closer.
Charles Martin Smith, as you said, he's fun man, He's
just playing fun in this and it just makes it
all the more tough. You well, I'll see for later.
I just love the fact how he's really pushing the
whole tax evasion thing throughout, like really trying to beaten
Elliott Mess over the head with it, and Elliott finally
kind of pays attention to him. But it's really kind
of funny. De Niro is always intimidating to me. I
mean that scene, it's another iconic scene. I mean, what's
more intimidating than de Niro's Capone walking around the table
with the baseball bat And you know what's going to
happen if you've seen the movie. But it's just like,
would you DeNiro walking behind you with a baseball bat?
Kind of swinging around or tapping in his hand, whatever
it might be. Uh no, thanks, cast is great. The
direction Brian to Palman, I just wanted to talk about
that for a second. This is our second film we're
covering from him, first being blow out right, yeah, correct,
and then he's directing this in between wise guys, and
then Casualties of War comes after this. He definitely brings
his unique style to this without question. It's the camera angles,
it's the techniques, it's all the POV shots, the pacing,
the building of tension. I love that split diopter shot.
And the one we'll call out here right now is
in you know where the opening quote comes from, of course,
is the church scene between Malone and Ness where both
the characters in the background and the foreground are in
sharp focus, and that's the split diopter. It's a really
cool effect and it works well, especially in that scene,
So just calling that out. The writing by David Mammott
obviously also a famous playwright, maybe most known for the
play and film of Glengary Glenn Ross. I'm not sure
if that would be his number one like claim to fame,
but I felt his writing and his style gave this
movie a real theatrical aspect, and I mean it feels
at times like it's written for the theater, with characters
coming in and out of rooms on Q, the musicality
of Connery's delivery and moving around talking to different characters
at times. A lot of the dialogue could be considered
just you know, maybe on the service tough guy talk,
whether it's the good guys or the bad guys. But
the characters are again specifically drawn and really really entertaining.
I actually really like the writing a lot. How'd you
feel about both the direction and the writing? Brian de
Palma just doing his Brian Obama thing.
Speaker 1: It's with the cool camera angles and all that stuff
that you mentioned. If you didn't know this is directed
by him and you knew his work, you would know.
After ten minutes, I'm like, was this directed by Brian Palma? Oh? Yeah,
it seems like him. And then what's the other part? Sorry?
Oh yeah, just if you want the writing, yeah Mamott, Yeah, yeah,
the writing. I mean, there's certainly a ton of liberties
with the story on how they captured Compone. I mean
it was through tax evasion, but it's exciting though. It's
an exciting story. Everybody gets Time to Shine, with which
I like, Yeah, I mean there's memorable dialogue that here
we are almost forty years later and I'm still quoting
this stuff.
Speaker 2: Heck, yeah that Actually I was going to ask in
our additional Questions segment, but I'll just ask it to
you now. You may have just answered it was Did
that bother you at all? That this is basically a
revised or alternate history of events because it is mostly
fictional outside characters' names and a couple of things in
the film. I didn't realize how much of it was
fictional until doing a little more research for this pod.
But I can tell you right up front doesn't bother
me the least.
Speaker 1: This. Yeah, I think for me, it's it's like a
case by case basism depending on what the movie is,
because I don't think they're hiding anything and they're more
just dramatizing, So that doesn't bother me. If they wrote
stuff that like hide something about the characters so they
it's going to put them in a bad light, that's
when it kind of bothers me. But when it's just
dramatizings to sit there to have a good time, I'm
not going here for history. Lesson. I'm going here to
be entertained. I'm not under that falsehood that this is
a history lesson. All I know is there was a
group that went after Compone and then got them on
tax evasion. That's all I need to know.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, just a couple thoughts, final few thoughts. This
made me really think about the Prohibition era, and I'll
save that for later. It's kind of fascinating to me. Also,
just a couple other things that stood out to me,
just the pacing this film, the way that certain scenes
are juxtaposed, in particular the scenes with elliot Ness versus
al Capone. When you see al Capone doing something extremely
violent and then it right very next scene it's elliot
Ness with Patricia Clark, his wife in some very very
like peaceful, serene scene, and it, you know, puts him
in the really like this kind of heroic let you
where you see he's just you know, trying to do
what's right and protect his family, et cetera. So I
like when they put those scenes back to back between
caponea and elliot Ness and just going back to that,
Like this movie just comes right out of the gate
with bangers of scenes and another scene. The scene just
I know, because we're not going to talk about it
too much later, it's just the scene with the little
girl getting blown up is absolutely brutal and seared into
my mind forever.
Speaker 1: My son walked into that scene and he was like, Dad,
does that Does that girl just blow up? I'm like, yep.
It's like, oh my god, what are you watching? Podcast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's also it's always in my head. I can
hear her, hey, miss Missta, wait wait, I forgot your briefcase.
And then the way it's shot and the iconic just
you can see the building in your mind's eye and
under the under.
Speaker 1: The train tracks.
Speaker 2: It's just but that's I'm just mentioning that scene because
it's one of one hundred in this that are amazing.
So I had an absolute blast watching this Again, I'm
glad we're talking about it.
Speaker 1: Speaking of this movie is very violent. It was definitely
violent for that time for sure. Now it seems somewhat tame.
But yeah, there's a lot of blood in this movie.
For sure. We'll be talking about most of those scenes.
But I remember being in the theater going geez, blood,
blood and more blood, blood on windows, blood and elevators,
blood on tables. Yeah, this is a very very violent movie. Yep,
great point. And I do like this is a classic
good guys first band guys. You have the Untouchables, then
you have Copone's crew, and everyone's like everyone else is
like in a gray era. You really know where the
cops stand and all this. You don't you know even
the citizens, because hey, they want to have their drinks,
so they're gonna do what they can to get their
hands on liquor. So I found that very interesting too.
You definitely have a core group of good and a
core group of bad, and everyone else is really in
the middle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not complicated. It's very easy to understand, and
it's very easy to root for the good guys and
against the bad guys. Good guys when you got Kevin Costner,
who's basically the Knight in Shining Armor and just always
trying to do the right thing. And then you got
Copone on the other side, which is the extreme opposite,
so lying through his teeth, having a lot of people
get smashed over that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, let's move on to favorite scenes. What are
some of your favorite scenes from the Untouchables? And I
think Jason, you're starting us off, Yeah, I got a
couple right off the bat for no pun intended.
Speaker 2: We'll start with Garcia's or should I say Giuseppe's intro.
This is our introduction to Andy Garcia in the film,
his character George Stone, which is an alias, and we
find out, of course his real name is Giuseppe Petrie.
But always love this, always look forward to it because
Andy Garcia, a young, sharp looking, wide eyed Andy Garcia
is all ready commanding. He's just got the gravitas and
he makes you want to see what he's going to
do next. And the fact that in the scene he
actually matches Connery's energy and they obviously recruit him to
be a member of the Untouchables because that shooting range
scene is just one of the first things that pop
into mind my mind because it was the first time
I recognized Garcia and his total presence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love this scene too because the way it ends,
where Connery's character Malone provokes George and he pulls the
gun on him. He's like, perfect, let's take him. I
like him. That's just like yeah, yeah, I guess yeah, okay,
I like him too. He was just about to shoot you. Yeah,
but yeah, I aggressive and Garcia right after this movie, Yeah,
you want to.
Speaker 2: See what he does next. He's just so damn convincing.
I'm actually uh, I have been watching him in land
Man season two.
Speaker 1: That's going and.
Speaker 2: Still he's still got it. But moving on to my
next scene, which I'm just calling it the successful Raid,
this is a quick one. This is the Untouchables going
into action and taking care of business. In this one
moment led by Malone Connery's character, he knows where one
of these underground illegal alcohol statues are and it happens
to be right across the street from the police station
at the post office. And my one of my favorite
things about this is the leave the police precinct. It
has the iconic shot of the Chicago Board of Trade building.
I think it's La Salle Street if I'm not mistaken,
and you just get any O Morricone's score, that sweeping,
heroic score as the four of them are walking across
the glass. It's just that glossy street and you get
all the classic period cars parked along each side, the
set dressing, the location, everything is like you just want
to stand up and like let's go, come on, let's
go kick ass and they do, and then they go
in and raid I'm failing, My words are failing me
at the stash house what do you call that where
they're holding.
Speaker 1: All the liquor there? But yeah, yeah, the warehouse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Connery's got some great lines after he punches
the the you know, the gangster that's running the show
there in the stomach with his shotgun. I think he
belts him in the stomach regardless, as you know, how
do they how do you think he feels now better
or worse?
Speaker 1: It's lines like that. I love in this from him, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, heroic seeing it gets my blood pump in every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Here they are in the office
and Malone it's like, okay, let's start this, let's get
compone and they literally cross the street to do it.
Right ed ness the whole time is like wait, wait,
are you sure about this? Are you sure he's nervous
because if he's already got a bad mark against him,
and if he f's this up, he's probably done. And
sure enough, right under the police noses. Yeah, clickers.
Speaker 2: Malone's got a great line too. This is also a
great scene in the way where this is where there
Malone makes this point clear is that there's no going
back after this, So this is committing to the action.
And he has that line, mister ness. Everybody knows where
the booze is. The problem isn't finding it. The problem
is who wants to cross Compone. There you go, and
then we're really off after this scene. It's very theatrical
on Triumphant. So that's kind of what I'm talking about
with the writing too, about the very theatrical nature of it.
Speaker 1: So, oh yeah, what do you got next? I mean,
this got me as a kid and it still gets
me today. And that's Oscar Wallace's death. So Oscar Wallis
is played by Charles Martin Smith and in the beginning
of the movie we kind of he's like the nerdy
type who's trying to get Compone through tax evasion, and
they kind of thrust him into more of an action
role and he steps up and there is a scene
early in the movie and the border patrol we think
he's going to die and he somehow survives it, so okay,
he's untouchable. Nothing's going to happen. And he's supposed to
escort this bookkeeper and he's in the elevator with which
he thinks is a police officer and the bookkeeper, and
the bookkeeper's like, you gotta protect me, you got to
protect me. He's like, ah, I don't worry, don't worry,
don't worry. And of course the police officer ends up
being one of Compone's right hand man Eddie and turns
around and points a gun in his head, and you're like,
this isn't going to happen. Boom dead. I couldn't believe that,
you know. It's like, oh my god, the good guy's
dying sure enough alone and Ness get down to him
and he's hung up in the elevator and that was crushing.
That was crushing minut because it almost felt like he
was the least supporting of the four, but now his
death was very impactful.
Speaker 2: If you want to be mad at this movie for
a reason, it's because they really set you up for
a fall here, and man, I fell when Wallace died
because they make him so. He's the feel good, like
you said, comic relief character. He's just kind of a
seems to be just a really upbeat dude with a
great disposition, is always smiling and he's chewing on his pipe.
Love the scene when he first comes into the office
with the books and he's wanted to talk to Ness
about the tax evasion and they're getting ready to go
on this raid with their shotguns and Malone walks over
to him says, you carry badge. He's like, yep, carry gun.
Speaker 1: Just gives him the.
Speaker 2: Shotgun and it's like okay, And he's still got the
pipe in his mouth the whole time, yep, going across
the street.
Speaker 1: So then when he dies, it's like, no, you can't.
He's the Oh no, I loved him.
Speaker 2: You just really really he's so likable and it's awful
the way he goes on.
Speaker 1: You called it super violence. Super violent?
Speaker 2: No, definitely that when he shoots the uh the bookkeeper
or whatever that character is who is our haits that
actor from he was.
Speaker 1: Her head set actor from a funny farm, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's awful. And then he actually hangs
Wallace up like on the clipboard by his jacket.
Speaker 1: He somehow hangs him into the in the elevator and.
Speaker 2: The word in blood reads touchable. So it's great, but
it's awful. Yeah, all right, I've got the next one.
In this one I call an operatic death This also
is gut wrenching. May have seen this coming a little
more than Wallace's death. However, this is wonderful cinematography and direction.
We've got a POV tracking shot. It's a one take
shot from the from the research.
Speaker 1: This is good. I like this.
Speaker 2: It's the peeping tom perspective of gangster who is breaking
into Connery or Malone's apartment and he's watching him from
the window, climbing along like the ledge outside the windows,
and then finally goes in and lures Connery out to
that stoop out back and man every time like I'm
just every time, I'm like, oh no, don't go out there,
don't go out there. And of course that shot of
when he looks up in the realization that he's basically
been set up and Nitdi is standing on the staircase
and just blows him away with that Tommy gain. This
is the shit that is seared into my mind from
this movie. The number of bullets that he gets hit
with always, he gets hit in the chest, flips around,
gets hit multiple times in the back, blood everywhere. So
this whole scene combined with then after he shot the
song I'm going I hope I don't butcher this, but
vesti la giuba or giuba from Palliacci the opera, that
particular song which is very famous is playing, and Capone
is at the theater and then he's got like tears
of joy when he hears the news from Nitty that
Malone has been taken out. Everything from this, the Malone
grabbing the train schedule, the emotional basically farewell from great
emotional moment from Costner. But Garcia on his knees with
his head hanging down and he's like crying, Yeah, puts
his hand out to touch Malone's hand. It's awful, But
really it's gut wrenching when Connor dies.
Speaker 1: Because I remember when I saw in the movie and
after he gets shot and the cuts a Capone and
then they cut back to the apartment and Connor's crawing
against the floor. There was people in the theater grown like, oh,
come on, there's no way he survived. But then the
death scene, the theater was silent. You could hear a
pin drop, and then the what are you but bad
to do? That was tough. Yeah, I kind of turned
away from the screen for a little bit. Yeah, I
regard this is one of the iconic death scenes in cinema.
It's just no, definitely, and then just getting frustrated when
he's trying to tell Ness to get the train schedule.
It's like, you want this, you want this, like you
stupid son of a bitch, because you could tell you.
Speaker 2: Like He's literally saved his final moments, his last breath
to have enough energy to grab that train schedule, but
he barely gets it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of training schedules, Definitely, one of the most
iconic scenes of the movie is the gunfight on the steps,
and this is pretty much taken from a battleship but Tanken,
did you ever see that Jason find a chance? You know?
Speaker 2: I want to say I did in film school, but
I couldn't tell you anything about it to be honest,
But I'll just say yeah that this Union State, the
Chicago Union Station shootout is this is the scene.
Speaker 1: This is the scene from the movie I think most
people identify with. Yeah. It's amazing because you have Costner
and George and they're trying to get to the train
station before the bookkeeper gets there so they can pick
him up and use his information to prosecute Compone because
they realize the only way they're going to get to
get him is through this tax evasion, and they're waiting.
Ness is waiting at the top of the steps, and
this lady's pulling up the baby carriage and he goes
runs down help and by the time he gets up
to the top of the carriage there's components men. One
of them of course recognize Ness. Gunfight ensues and then
here goes the baby carriage. Boom boom, boom, boom boom.
Down the steps. People are shooting at the baby carriage.
Here comes Stone coming in. He's just picking everyone off
left and right, and then Stone slides stops the carriage.
The last of components Men as the bookkeeper's hostage, basically
tells Ness he's going to kill the bookkeeper or they're leaving,
one of those two alternatives, and then Boomstone shoots components
men right between the eyes and a scene so awesome.
If you watch Battleship the Tank and with this is
based on. It's a Russian movie. It's so much shot
for shot, but it works for both, and it's so
much fun. And I was I couldn't believe when I
saw this in film school. And this, of course, this
is after I saw this movie and I was like,
holy shit, it's the same thing. I gotta go back
and see it. Effect of though in this setting, it's
so much fun. Yeah, this is definitely one of the
best scenes from eighties movies. Yeah, I would say, yeah,
I would definitely say top ten act scenes without it
eighties movies without a doubt. It's just really really well crafted.
I love the conflicting music in the beginning with the
lullaby in the background. Oh yes, and then you have
Marconi's score a little bit more, you know, foreboding in
the foreground. All the different players, whether it's the navy
guy or the suspicious character wearing the suit who then
is just met by his girlfriend and walks off. There's
so many different players in this and you just you
called it all out, but it's all it's using all
film techniques, all film techniques to build tension, and depaulm
is a master at it. It's the pacing, it's the
vertigo shots looking downward, the editing, the time constraint when
you keep hearing the announcement of the train is going
to be leaving at twelve oh five I believe or
whatever it is. So there's just you're anticipating the entire time,
the slow motion. But come on, it's Garcia, it's George Stone.
Ji Setie is such a badass in this man. When
he comes riding around the Glarner double fisted with the
little snubnosed pistols and just tosses one to Nests and
then being the marksman that he is, talk about another
really violent scene because when what he's the bad guy's
counting to three, right, and on two he barely opens
his mouth and Stone puts a bullet right through him.
Speaker 2: M And you get that blood splatter on the back
and that great music in the background, and you're just like, damn, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just that look that Stone is giving compone Sky,
just waiting for Ness to just say just shoot shoot
m hm. And he knows as soon as Nest says it,
I got him. That's awesome. And then he finishes it off.
Speaker 2: He actually finishes the count right, he's about because the
bad guy's about to say two, but one of them does.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Stone then goes two after he shoots him. Yeah, thank
you for saying that. That's what that's what you should
That's a scene you study in class.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, definitely uh. And finally, for me, another
famous scene or or even moment, what I would say
scene too, is when Ness realizes that Nitty is the
one that killed Malone and they had the rooftop chase.
There's two moments that I really like. There's one when
we think Ness falls off the roof and Nitty goes
to check and Ness shoots him but hits his hat
and the way he just flies back and flops and
then gets up and starts running again, and then he
tries to escape and Ness catches him and Ness is
going to escort him back, and Nitty is just playing
with him like, oh yeah, I'm alone. It's like a
pig when I killed him and you think Ness is
a good guys. He's going to take him, just arrest
him like he's supposed to, and just tosses him off
the roof and goes, does he sound like that? And
then he lands in the car and that stone later
the Nitty I left him in the car and it's
just awesome, and you just see his dead body all
smashed up in the car. It's like awesome when Nitty's
body just hits that car.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the fall off the roof isn't bad actually,
and there's just that they had to do the one
close up that looked bad with the special effects.
Speaker 1: But outside of that.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty good, pretty well filmed stunt and
and pretty well edited great chase across the rooftops. Nitty
is a real bad dude. Another memorable quote screamed like
a stuck Irish pig.
Speaker 1: It's awful.
Speaker 2: And this is the time when Ness finally he crosses
the line. He's been pushed too far and this guy
needs to go down, and he really goes down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, moving on to swiss cheese and complaints apartments
and what do we call it swiss cheese? Because although
this movie is delicious, it does have Tommy gun holes. Yeah,
so it doesn't have any of those Tommy gun holes.
We just file a complaint. What's a complaints apartment? So, Jason,
do you have anything for swiss cheese or complaints?
Speaker 2: I got a few, uh kind of like questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. After the very first raid gone wrong, when Ness
gets oh yes, okay, he has his photo taken by
you know, reporter photographer and then is skulking on the
bridge where we are then introduced to Malone. They have
a scene together on the bridge, but he's already got
the newspaper with the photo of him failing in the
headline of the raid gone wrong, that was a failure.
Speaker 1: I was like, how did that already? How is it
published already?
Speaker 2: It seemed like that was the night of the same
night of the raid. I didn't He says, I'm alone
that he had a really rough day, and I got
a little confused as to how that paper came out
so quickly.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming it's the next day. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
I guess it has to be. And he had to
explain all that all day long, like what the hell
went wrong? Yeah? But yeah, I think my question is,
like they make such a big deal about the informant
and then Ness says, don't touch the informant, but once
you still want to arrest him, just to kind of
keep up with the act.
Speaker 2: I had that written down to before. I don't know
why I didn't have it here thousand percent? What was
the deal with the informant? Bad intel? And was he
I'm assuming then that Capone's people got to him first
or got it. How to interrogate the inform You gotta
find that guy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, At that point, the guy would know like, oh,
we've been set up, or he's been set up and
it's not liquor. I guess compose the whole thing is
just just embarrass him and he'll go skulking home. But
that's not the case. Yeah, go ahead. I mean, it's
one of my favorite scenes that I mentioned. But you know,
with Oscar Wallace's desk, how did Nitty find time to
write and touchables or touchables and blood? Right? I want
to get out of there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he put in some work there, and he did
take him a lot more time than it took for
Ness and Malone to get down there and get into
the elevator.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you on that one. For sure, effective
but maybe not quite realistic.
Speaker 1: Right because there's two cops waiting down at the elevator.
Malone and Ness hear that gunshot, so they're on their
way down. Yeah, I don't think i'd be taking time
to And it's not little print, it's big. Oh yeah,
two foot tall letters all across the elevator for sure.
Good call, man, good call. I question.
Speaker 2: We we love Oscar Oscar Wallace. Now during the Canadian
Mounty scene when they take over the shipment of Canadian whiskey.
Speaker 1: On the bridge.
Speaker 2: Do we This is where just gets a little maybe
a little far fetched for me. Did you buy the
fact Wallace takes out more cronies than anybody else? He like,
shoots at least three guys with his shotgun and takes
out the fourth by knocking him out with the butt
of his shotgun. I was like, I don't know if
Oscar Wallace was quite capable enough to take out all
those guys.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you felt about that. He's been trained, Okay.
I always loved that because the least likely of the
four was able to pull that off. I mean, most
of it was fear and some of it was probably
just training instinct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as an accountant with the Bureau. He I mean,
he's with the Bureau. He had to have some training
at some point. Yeah, I mean, okay, See that's why
I've just formed it was just a question uestion.
Speaker 1: No, it's okay. It bothers you, that's fine, didn't bother me.
Speaker 2: Sense during the Union Station shootout, that gangster that takes
the bookkeeper hostage and starts moving up the staircase to
the exit, here's a question for you, But why doesn't
he just continue moving up the staircase. He's got the
bookkeeper hostage at gunpoint, he stops.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I have no idea, you know
what I mean, Like, what is he what is he
trying to negotiate? Just get out of there. Yeah, it's
your typical bad guy telling the good guys what your
plan is and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, monologuing or something. Yeah, did you have more?
I just have two more quick ones.
Speaker 1: I know we're only supposed to have a few, but
they're very quick. This is my big one. This is
kind of disappointing, all right. So we have Elliotts and
we have Copone. There's very few scenes of the two
of them together. Base of the one, the staircase, and
then in the courtroom, and then at the very end,
when pretty much we know Capone's going to jail and
Ness makes his way over to talk to him, I'm
thinking for some big dialogue moment, and then he drops
that never stop fighting until the fight is I'm like, really,
all these great lines in the movie, and that's what
we dropped with the conclusion of the nes Capone saga. Yep, yeah,
I was really bummed with that. That didn't do it
for me at all.
Speaker 2: Never stop, never stop fighting until the fight is done here. Okay,
it didn't work for you. That is weak sauce, gotcha. Okay,
didn't bother me as much. But I can understand your
point of view there for sure. They don't have many
scenes together, really, Okay, that the big climactic moment for
the two of them, a little of a letdown, kind
of takes the air out a little bit. Yeah, okay,
all right, here's one for you. The photo, the iconic
photo we talked about at the top, a photo that's
taken in the middle of the movie is not the
same movie photo we see at the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's just weird to me.
Speaker 2: I don't know why they did that, because it's clear
as in the middle of the movie, what the the
you know, we see a freeze frame of the photo itself,
and at the end, I'm like, that's not the same picture.
I mean, it's the four of them sitting together, but
they're in like a slightly different I forget, I apologize.
I don't know specifically why. I just know it's different
because it looks if they're one's expression is different. I
don't know if their hands are placed in different places,
but it's just different.
Speaker 1: It's weird. It'd be funny if they lost the one, like, ah,
all right, we're gonna shoot another one. Do you remember
where you guys were sitting? I love it, I love it. Yeah,
two copies.
Speaker 2: This is my last quick one. Did you think that
after Frank Nitty's situation outside the court room at the
end when he shoots the officer, you know, he gets
dragged out of the cart and shoots the officer and
then the whole thing goes down obviously between Ness and
Nitty on the rooftop your favorite scene. Wouldn't the trial
be paused at that point when they're just been a
shooting outside? Do they continue that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You would think they would have to clear the courts. Yeah,
there's a gunfight in the building. Everyone's got to get out,
shut everything down. Yeah, it seems so weird when that
the bailiffs gets shot in the way, he's just like,
take my gun. Such a weird line delivery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a real quick, weird moment. Well that's
all I got.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to Hey it's that actor all right.
So in this segment with spotlight a character actor you
have seen in many other films, an actor making their
big screen debut. Who an actor makes an uncredit cameo,
it's hey, it's that actor. Who do we choose this week?
Speaker 2: This week we choose four Hour Hats That actor Don
Harvey as Officer Prazuski. He was one of the Flying Squad.
It's near the beginning of the film, right before the
the raid that is a giant failure for Elliott. Ness
Ness gets into the car with Prazuski and they have
a little conversation and basically Prazuski is just replying yes, sir, yes, sir,
yes sir. But Ness asks him if he's married and
makes a comment like it's it's nice to be married.
But I recognize that actor's face right away. He's very
young in this. He is an American character actor from Michigan.
Here's his eighties. This is gonna be quick. He did
a couple episodes of soap operas early on. He did
After School Special in eighty five, had a role in
Creep Show two in eighty seven, does this in eighty
seven as well? Then now wait for it. He played
the role of Alan Beeks in an episode of Miami Vice.
This was season four, episode seventeen. The name of the
episode was hell Hath No Fury. That was in nineteen
eighty eight. He plays the role of Swede Risburg in
Eight Men Out in eighty eight, then plays the role
of another DePalma film after this, Casualties of War in
eighty nine. But I think I actually know him best
as the bad guy named Garber from Diehard two. He
has the line near the beginning when he puts is
the TV camera out of the way, He puts his
hand on it, and forgive my language here, listeners, but
his quote is no pictures, you pinko bitch?
Speaker 1: Do you remember that character? I don't know.
Speaker 2: That just seems to be a memorable moment from that film.
That's what I know our guy Don Harvey from. But
other notables after Yeah, we're already into the nineties and
so on and so forth here. But he's in Hudson Hawk,
Tank Girl. He's been a ton of episodic TV. Just
look him up. He was in Taken three. In recent years,
he was an episode of Lethal Weapon, the TV series.
He was an episode of Yellowstone, a couple episodes of
Better Call Saul. He plays Anthony Pellicano in a couple
episodes of the TV mini series Pam and Tommy. Don
Harvey still Working Today recognized him right away.
Speaker 1: When they did the lineup. When Nes goes to see them,
he stood out, yeah, good, oh for sure. Wait second, yeah,
there he is in the in the cor scene. And
then as soon as you started mentioning all those movies,
I saw him in everything that you were talking about, saying,
oh yeah, oh yeah. Let's move on to facts and trivia.
What are some facts and trivia we have about the Untouchables.
Speaker 2: Well, we talked about Oscar. We're going to talk about
him a little more. The character of the IRS agent
Oscar Wallace was partially based on Frank J. Wilson, the
IRS criminal investigator who spent years keeping tabs on copone's
financial dealings before laying charges. Unlike Wallace, Wilson was not
killed during the investigation and was later involved in the
Lindberg kidnapping case.
Speaker 1: Interesting. So, Andy Garcia was originally considered for the Frank
Nitty role, but he insisted on reading for George Stone instead.
Good move, mister Garcia, yueh, no kidding.
Speaker 2: We were talking about de Niro of course, and let's
continue on with some casting trivia. Robert d Niro was
Dipalma'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 play Cuba and His Teddy Bear.
He also wanted to gain about thirty pounds to play Capone,
and according to DiPalma, Daniro was very concerned about the
shape of his face for the part. Di Palma then
met with with Bob Hoskins to discuss the role in
case Daniro could not appear. When de Niro took the part,
de Palma mailed Hoskins a check for I Think It's
twenty thousand pounds with a thank you note, which prompted
Hoskins to call up to Palma and ask him if
there are any more films he didn't want him to
be in.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, So the Great Union Station Shootout.
So the baby in the character of the train is
the film stunt coordinator's son stunt quarter named Gary Hymes,
and the sun is Colin. Yeah. It was eighteen months wow.
Speaker 2: As mentioned earlier, While the film is based on historic events,
most of the film is fictionalized are inaccurate. The raid
at the Canada United States border never happened, neither did
the courthouse or railway station shootouts. Ness did not kill
Frank Nitty, who died in nineteen forty three, twelve years
after the Capone trial, by suicide, the day before Nitty
himself was scheduled to be in court. In reality, Ness's
unit had very little to do with Capone's final tax
evasion conviction, which was orchestrated by US attorney George E. Q.
Johnson and IRS agent Frank J. Wilson, aforementioned who inspired
the character of Oscar Wallace as I said, but was
never actually a part of the Untouchables.
Speaker 1: In the original script, the final gunfight had Elliot Nass
and George Stone battling Compone's gunman on a stop train.
Brian to Palma conceived the gunfight on the steps of
Chicago's Union Station when Paramount decided that staging the scene
and finding a nineteen thirties period train would be too expensive.
That sometimes would costs to actually save you.
Speaker 2: It was reported on July second of two thousand and
four that Antoine Fuquah would direct an Untouchable spin off
titled The Untouchables Mother's Day, which was later changed to
Capone Rising. The film script, which was written by Brian
Koppelman and David Levian, with later revisions by David Robe
or Rob excuse me if I mispronounced that, focused on
the rise of Chicago mob Kingpin K in the years
before the Encounter with Ness and his Lawman and June
of the following year, original director Brian de Palma replaced
Fuquah on the film. According to DiPalma, the film went
into development several times, with Nicholas Cage, Gerard Butler, and
Benicio del Toro all attached to play Capone at different stages.
Speaker 1: M I don't think I want to see that one. Yeah,
I don't know how that would have worked, yea. So
Albert H. Woolfe, the last survivor of the real life Untouchables,
was a consultant on this movie and helped Kevin Costner
with his portrayal of Elliot Ness. Cool. Let's move on
to box office. So The Untouchables hit theaters on June third,
nineteen eighty seven, opening in oneenty twelve screens nation wide.
Made an estimated budget of twenty five million dollars The
film went on to earn seventy six point two million
at the North American box office. When it debuted, the
movie landed in the number two spot, behind Beverly Hills
Cop two. Even with that tough competition to Untouchable stayed
in the top ten for another five weeks. By the
end of its theatrical run, it ranked as the sixth
highest grossing movie of nineteen eighty seven. Interestingly enough, both
The Untouchables and Moonstruck finished the year in the top ten,
even though neither movie reached number one at the box office.
Moving on to reviews. When growing up in the eighties,
we would watch at the movies with Gene Siskell and
Roger Eber to hear their reviews and watch clips of
upcoming movies. Their review of The Untouchables was split. Roger
called it a respectable film that lacks the fire, the passion,
and even the humor we might expect from this material.
Jeene thought it was one of the best gangster movies
he had seen in a long time. They both enjoyed
Sean Connery's performance in the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gives it
a Tomatometers score of eighty three percent, with a Popcorn
Meter score of eighty nine percent. It also has an
IMDb rating of seven point nine. So this takes us
two additional thoughts and questions. What are some additional thoughts
and questions we have about the untouchables?
Speaker 2: Well thought I had was just the general idea of prohibition.
I you know, I of course knew of it, and
I just didn't know a lot about it. So I
just looked it up real quick on Wikipedia, and it's
just crazy the fact that this was a real thing
for thirteen years. Man In our history, the Prohibition era
was from the period of nineteen twenty nineteen thirty three,
when the US prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale
of alcoholic beverages. The alcoholic industry was curtailed by a
succession of state legislatures, and prohibition was formally introduced nationwide
under the Eighteenth Amendment, ratified on January sixteenth, nineteen nineteen.
Prohibition ended with the ratification of the twenty first Amendment,
which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. In nineteen thirty three, a
wide coalition composed of mostly Protestants prohibitionists first attempted to
end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the nineteenth century.
They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill
society beset by alcohol related problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence,
and saloon based political corruption.
Speaker 1: And here's something interesting that I found about this too,
because throughout the movie, we see Malone have a drink,
we see Oscar have a drink, and you're like, ooh,
they're breaking lag even totally. Ness tells the police do
not take a drink. That actually was not illegal. You
could drink as long as yours if you had alcohol
when this band started, you could still drink it. You
just couldn't buy it, sell it, or manufacture it. So
whatever you had left you could finish, right, So what
they were doing was not illegal. Huh. There you go.
Anything else on thoughts and questions.
Speaker 2: I just because I spoke a couple of times on
the theatrical theatricality of this movie. I know this might
sound out of left field, but I could see this
as a theater production in musical form actually, and I
think it could be pretty cool. And I'm surprised that
I did not see that in the research, that it
hadn't even been entertained as such. But I just think
with Mammett's style, and obviously he is a playwright. It
could be done, maybe not necessarily as a musical.
Speaker 1: Yes, a musical Coon Capone, let's go get copon, we
won't do it a love worthy Untouchables love it perfect?
That's it sold. Yeah, I could see it being a play.
Mm hmmm, yeah, yeah, let's go with that. It'd be
interesting mull it over thinking about it.
Speaker 2: But that's uh. I think that's pretty much all I got.
We covered my other thoughts and questions earlier.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, I don't think I really have anything
else for additional thoughts and questions. Jumping in rating already? Well,
I know that seemed real quick, isn't it. Yeah, it
is all right, So let's move on to our rating. So,
on a scale of one to five police badges, what
do you give the Untouchables? Like?
Speaker 2: After just talking about this and I feel like this
has just gone by way too fast. I feel like
we could talk about this movie for days, probably just
go through every single scene. This is up there, man,
I'm going between four point five and five. I just
don't know what to do here, because is it is
it perfect? It's pretty pretty close to being one of
the all time greats. I'm going for it. I'm going
with five five badges, man, police badges, all the badges.
I'm giving it all. I freaking love this movie. I
just from beginning to end. I mean, it's just under
two hours. It's got so many iconic moments. I love
all the performances. Say what you will about Connerie's accent.
It just I think is is is it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What else can you say? Any Morricone score, The action
is great. It's just so well shot and interesting to
watch at all times.
Speaker 1: It moves me. It's got a lot of levels.
Speaker 2: I'm emotional at different points and real highs and lows
where I literally want to just jump up to that
sweeping score by Morricone.
Speaker 1: And and you know, let's.
Speaker 2: Go the set dressing the way it you know, Chicago
looks in this film. I just there's really no downside
to the Untouchables. It's an exhilarating movie and good guys
winning the end. I'm happy that's true, good versus evil,
and the good guys do win at the end. I'm
giving this four and a half badges. Yes, the music
is great. Our Untouchables are great. DeNiro, I don't know
he he kind of.
Speaker 1: I don't know. For some reason, he felt like it
was in a different movie. At some points, you just
feel I felt so separate. Yeah, it did feel like, hey,
we have him for three days, let's just shoot his
scenes and get him out of here, right, And then
it was just that whole final confrontation thing. But this
is a guy's guy movie. For great point, this is
if you have a man cave, this poster should be
down in your room. This movie certainly needs to be
part of your collection. I really like Kevin Costerers betraying this.
I know you know he was getting beat up, but
I think it works. I just like all four of
the Untouchable characters, and some great actions have pieces. It's
a lot of fun. It should be spoken out more
as fun action movies from the abies. And yes, it
is one of the least historical movies that will probably
cover that's supposed to be based on actual facts. It's
just that doesn't bother me for this one. I don't
know why. I do enjoy it a lot. It definitely
deserves its high accolades. I don't know what Roger Ebert
was watching.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not sure either. Not entirely agreement there with Roger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can't get them all right. Yeah, he's
entitled to his opinion too, exactly. So that wraps up
for the Streek's episode. Thank you so much for hanging
out with us, We really appreciate it. If you enjoyed
the show, be sure to follow us on your favorite
streaming platform, leave a rating, and drop a review with
a nice of the better. Curious for more we knew
you would be, check out all hebesboomspodcast dot com for
everything you need to know about the show. We'll catch
you next time as we jump into another unfregettable gem
f in the Greatest Decade of All Time to nineteen years.
Until then, stay awesome and have an excellent day.
Speaker 2: First rule of law enforcement, make sure when your shift
is over, go home alive.
Speaker 1: Thanks for staying up with us. Good night, Quarrel.