The Untouchables

Director: Brian De Palma

Year: 1987

Starring: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia.

Synopsis
This film is set in Chicago during the Prohibition era, when gangwars were becoming particularly violent. The film is based on the stuggle between the cops of Chicago and criminal gangs involved in the bootlegging and racketeering of illegal alcohol. There are five main characters in the film; Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner), Jim Malone (Sean Connery), Agent Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), Agent George Stone (Andy Garcia), and Al Capone (Robert De Niro). The film is directed by Brian De Palma.

Review

I really enjoyed this film as it features extremely exciting scenes and fight sequences. It feaures a great score by the famous conductor, Ennio Morricone. There is one particularly good action scene where Ness has to look out for Capone's bookkeeper, and capture him alive so he can give evidence that will convict Capone of his criminal offences. Ness succeeds, whilst taking part in a gun battle and saving a baby who's pram is falling down a flight of stairs. This is Brian De Palma's homage to director Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potempkin (1925) in which a similar scene occurs.

Capone is depicted as a brutal man with a very short fuse. We learn this when one of his alcohol storage facilities is raided by the police, and Capone murders one of his criminal partners in a rage.

Vertict

I think this a superb film, it's brilliantly acted and edited with a excellent film score. The acting from all the characters in the film is believable. Robert De Niro's Al Capone is terrific, and makes the film very convincing. I like it so much, that I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in action/crime films.

****