Movie 141: The Untouchables

Chicago 1930, and prohibition is in full effect. The town is more or less run by mobster Al Capone (Robert De Niro) and the Department of the Treasury send Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) in to bring him down. Efforts so far have been fruitless, but after a chance meeting with beat cop Jim Malone (Sean Connery) Ness learns to do things “the Chicago way” and forms a small team that can’t be bought

Highly fictionalised, but entertaining and close enough to the truth. A film about trying to get a guy for tax evasion shouldn’t be all that interesting. But hey, there’s gun fights so its fine.

This is an oldie so no doubt many of you have seen it. And its been highly parodied. It does have a pretty star studded cast, or did for the time as Costner’s star has fallen pretty damned far in the intervening years. Back then he was relatively big though, possibly only on the rise, and he wasn’t first choice from what IMDB says.

And that’s understandable. If there’s a weak link in the main cast then I guess its Costner. He does a good job as the straight laced Ness but he can be a little on the dull understated side at times and a few of the other names that were bandied about might have improved the film a little but it doesn’t need much improving.

De Niro doesn’t parody Capone here which is good. He’s a bit too skinny, not enough time to fatten up, but thankfully he sticks with his own voice. It might just be in my head but I have a feeling that Capone has a bit of a distinctive voice. It works better without De Niro trying to do it as it would have come across more as parody than straight acting which wouldn’t have fit. We all know how good Bobby is at playing gangsters, and his range. Good job here.

Its also a nice performance by Andy Garcia as the rookie cop member of the team, an Italian from the south side with an attitude. I’m not a huge Garcia fan in general but he’s great here. As is Charles Martin Smith as the accountant who comes up with the tax evasion angle.

But of course the stand out is King Sean of Scotland. I think he might actually be doing a bit of an Irish accent when he’s first on screen, but that doesn’t last all that long. Connery is the only actor who can get away with being Irish, Russian or an immortal Egyptian by way of Spain and talk with his normal voice. He’s a bit of a Yoda like cop here who’s not afraid of getting his hand dirty. And a bit of an indestructible tough old bastard. I couldn’t picture anyone else playing this character as well as he does.

So it’s a good one and if you haven’t seen it you probably should

Next up: Yojimbo