The World Is Not Yours
I hate Scarface posters hanging from the dorm walls of undergraduate males for two reasons. (Or, at least I hate two Scarface posters in particular.)
The first is of Tony Montana, taking an afternoon bubble bath, a cigar in one hand, a TV remote control in the other. The caption reads: "The World Is Yours."
What this poster fails to capture (it may tell a thousand words, but not the right ones), is that this scene is the turning point of the movie, where a young Montana drunk with power, alienates his best friend and wife, who each leave the room, in disgust, shouting back at him that he's “a real asshole.”
Though we may be impressed with Montana's perverse rendition of the American dream—rising from soiled Cuban rags to cocaine-fed riches—this scene displays, in fact, that the world is NOT yours, Mr. Montana. As your loved ones leave you in isolation, it has just slipped through your fingers.
What good is power and money without friends and family?
The toys we buy we cannot take with us.
Shot Down in A Blaze of Glory
The second poster is Montana blazing away with his M-16, equipped with a grenade launcher, his "little friend" we just said "hi" to. This is Montana's last epic battle as Sosa's troops overwhelm his compound, kill his men, and destroy his empire.
This scene is the conclusion of his fall from grace, it is his death aria—an epic song of relentless violence meant only to amuse himself before his end.
What this image captures, indeed, is not Montana's cleverness and bravado, but ultimately his hubris. In this scene the gods enact revenge, he descends to Hades, and though there is a fire, there is no Phoenix.
From the ashes, better things will not rise.
If there is virtue in Scarface's narrative, it is not captured in these two posters. They tell two thousand words (plus four: The World is Yours), but these are the wrong words at the wrong time.
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