The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface

by Glenn Kenny

The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic film Scarface, featuring new interviews with the cast and crew.

An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,” Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.

With brand-new interviews and untold stories of the film’s production, longtime film critic Glenn Kenny takes us on an unparalleled journey through the making of American depictions of crime. The World Is Yours highlights the influential characters and themes within Scarface, reflecting on how its storied legacy played such a major role in American culture.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[John Schorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book is the author's breakdown of the plot, which enables him to veer off in highly entertaining ways, especially about some of the actors in the cast. The problem is the subject matter. Honestly, Scarface has been written to death, and if you're not a fan, you won't be moved to change your mind after reading this. But be sure to read Glenn Kenny's movie reviews and his Some Came Running blog.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be judged by its cover with the tiger and weird font choices: it's fun and it's not going to take itself too seriously. But hey, it's about Scarface! Why would you expect (or want) anything different?

As someone who has seen Scarface many many many times (including once more while simultaneously reading this book), I enjoyed the information he shares from discussions he had with the principals about the background of the production as well as the choices made during the production. It was fun to read this stuff and pair it up with the stuff on the screen.

So why only three stars? Well one star is gone for the very long chapter where he recounts the entire movie from soup to nuts. Let's be honest, anyone reading this book has already seen the film - probably like me multiple times - so the TWOP-type recap with the commentary wasn't necessary. There wasn't anything of value from his interviews with DePalma or Pfeiffer in this chapter - this was just him riffing on scenes from the movie. Sure I found 5% of this funny but that 5% wasn't enough to make up for the 95% I found annoying and a waste of my time. I've already had these conversations with other geeks like me who remember watching this movie with friends at 2AM on a Saturday night when we were 13 years old and our parents were upstairs in bed. I was here for the background stuff, not to read about what happens after Tony does this or has Manny do that.

The other star got axed because of his frequent and lengthy non-sequiturs (aka rabbit-holes). Can I buy a period please because some of these were compounded compound sentences that went on for paragraphs at a time with plenty of parenthetical asides embedded within. We're talking references to movies from the 1920s which then had their own additional references to something a movie star in the 1940s then said which led to another reference to a French filmmaker who thought something completely different - all in the same sentence. Did the editor call in sick that day?

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of, to use one of his favorite locutions, aleatory for my taste. The opening is sharp and funny, with an astute analysis of the original film and its reception, as well as a piquant little history of liquor and cocaine as illegal trades. But then we get what felt to me like a directionless wander through the making of the film; there are great anecdotes about De Palma's methods and sharp discussion of the development of his moral/artistic aesthetic...and then the making-of section mixes funny stories about Pacino's maniacal on-set perfectionism (if ten tries are good, twenty are better) with blah notebook-dump quotations featuring pretty much everyone in the film, some of whose remarks are transcribed literally and at length despite being completely anodyne. The reception section is too short (has the movie actually been critically reclaimed? Kenny doesn't trace the story much past listing the reviews upon release), and by the end we're reading about the "spiritual sequels" De Palma made, like Carlito's Way, discussion of which apparently requires allowing the novelist who wrote the original book to regale us with detailed accounts of the criminal dudes he knew as a teenager growing up on Lenox Ave. Plus this one time a kid threatened to take a quarter from him. What that illuminates in a book on Scarface, I could not say, and it's symptomatic of how and why the book wanders. The section on De Palma is lively and smart, though, and it made me want to re-watch Body Double and Blow Out, neither of which I think I've seen since they came out.

[Larry Singleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wouldn't recommend it overall because of the large portions running through the plot of the film (any Scarface fan can do this already), but I really liked the parts discussing Al Pacino's approach to acting. In particular, the stuff about Pacino wanting to do multiple takes is great; I love the Dog Day Afternoon anecdote where he says, "I don't have the guy. Let me find the guy." We tend to think of these great actors as geniuses who do everything perfectly, and this gives fascinating insight into their process.

Other great lines I liked:

"Acting, according to Pacino, is about 'getting into a state that brings about freedom and expression and the unconscious.'"

"Mamet compares Pacino's excavations of his characters to the way Louis Armstrong played jazz: 'He's incapable of doing it the same way twice.'"

Scarface, and Al Pacino's performance in it, have gotten the reputation of being comedic over the years. And they are, for sure. But I liked these passages because they really give one the sense that for Pacino this was no joke; he was always a real artist — even if the movie has him owning a tiger at one point etc.

[William Dury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and informative. Stories of its cultural impact make clear that film’s years of storytelling dominance are ended. Good book. The most interesting takeaway for me is the similarity between Hitchcock’s creative process and DePalma’s. And that DePalma was totally immersed in what he was making and completely disinterested in whether or not it found an audience, beyond having enough success to enable him to make his next film. Which probably explains why his films are all over the map in “watchability.” The most entertaining ones (“Carrie,” “Untouchables” and “Mission Impossible”) were likely the ones he was least interested in. The best ones (“Dressed To Kill,” “Blowout,” and “Body Double”) are just that, better movies but entertaining in an engaging way, as a sort of game between director and viewer (voyeur?). The rest seem to be DePalma talking to himself incoherently.

The fact that DePalma wouldn’t give Nancy Allen the Elvira part in “Scarface” seems to have ended their marriage. Ah, romance!

[Brett Gerlt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as strong of a book as Made Men. It starts out well enough but sort of runs out of steam as it hits the detailed breakdown of the movies plot. It’s a beat by beat retelling that also reads like a wiki wormhole with little offshoots of trivia and details about those involved in the making. The book needed a good edit. There are large sections that are just direct transcriptions from interviews that have been dumped on the page. They can be meandering and repetitive.

I wonder just how debilitating not getting access to Pacino was for the writing of the book. It seems like the book could have been a different experience altogether with his participation.

[Bucky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thought it would be more about the production of the movie, which he barely touches on strangely. Either not a lot happened or he didn’t do much work. The whole back half of the book is him talking through the entire film scene by scene and quoting blocks of dialogue. Very strange. I guess if you wanted to avoid watching a 3 hour film and read it instead this book makes sense? Also only a true wokie find a way to mention trump multiple times in a Scarface book lol, every time was a real stretch for relevance.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just read a De Palma book that ends before Scarface AND Pacino’s autobiography, this was a natural collision. Like Kenny’s Goodfellas book, this is a most anecdotal account. On that score it’s hit and miss but moves a reasonably good clip. Where I lost patience was the final stretch where Kenny lets Edwin Torres ramble on and on about Carlito’s Way or not even really that. I appreciate tying that movie to Scarface but it still really reeked of padding. On balance, this was pretty good enough.

[Karl O' · Rating 2 out of 5]

All bone, little meat. If Tony Montana’s Tiger was to dine on this morsel of a book he’d leave Miami hungry. There is little new here that I didn’t already know about Scarface. This is a meager snack of a study. Beware the movie book with no photographs. Did not offer much new on the topic of Scarface. You couldn’t help feel the author was stretching his material to get to a large print 300 pages.

[Jack Bell]

Good book — not as long or detailed as I thought it was going to be but full of plenty of its own invaluable insights nonetheless (the interviews are what make it worthwhile).

The narrator does a good job of tonally matching Glenn Kenny's droll, wry prose, but after a while the number of names and foreign words he mispronounces is honestly just too constant to ignore and becomes bothersome.

[Edwin Arnaudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat haphazardly ordered, frustratingly repetitive, and the lonnnnng quotes could use some editing, but overall a fascinating, insightful read from one of our best film writers.

(Kenny's Goodfellas book also had some odd errors in its first edition that were fixed in Round 2, so perhaps a revised version is forthcoming here as well.)

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of the making of the film Scarface starring Al Pacino. This is a pretty detailed account of things that happened during the shooting of the film and some history and the legacy of the film.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[HTP Books]

Crime Films, Organized Crime, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Film

[John Bleasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically the making and trivia about Brian DePalma's Scarface.

[James McGlynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was ok. Some good insights into DePalma and Pacino but also some irrelevant minutiae. Did like learning that the Cuban Bauer taught Pacino how to speak like a Cuban.

[Parsa Taheripour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an amazing book, but did make me want to rewatch Scarface for the 1,001th time

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been better if he didn’t spend a lot of time talking about other movies besides Scarface

[A Cesspool · Rating 4 out of 5]

principle takeaway: It's no Made Men

Big fan of the author's Goodfellas monograph -- so when his Scarface book was first announced (a little over a year ago), it went straight to the top of the queue.

I suppose this is now the definitive Scarface making-of?
My lone gripe is with how much I was already familiar with.
If you haven't already read Oliver Stone's exceptional (introductory) memoir, or talent biographies by Andrew Yule and/or Shawn Levy... Kenny's commemorative Scarface text is still one of the better feature film production-diaries. Just as informative, if not more, than some of the better director's commentary tracks -- especially since none exists for Scarface, this should be considered a fandom-must, imho.

One requisite for every great B-T-S/production memoir is: multifaceted-investigative; à la Erin Carlson's essential A League of Their Own bio is also exceptional Big (1988) and Jumpin Jack Flash (1986) making-of(s) [fyi: each feature I could just as easily do without, nevertheless a remarkable production(s) journal by Carlson]; Likewise, Chris Nashawaty's Caddyshack yields informative supplementary B-T-S for Animal House ...and so forth, and so on. I was a little taken aback when Kenny's Scarface monograph was lackin any real supplementary deep dive(s), but the author comes through on the bookend with extensive commemorative treatise on Carlito's Way (1993). So there.

The best thing about World is Yours is it made me want to re-read Made Men -- I hope (Goodfellas' for real producer) Barbara De Fina publishes a memoir (sooner, rather than later); But I srsly wish Glenn Kenny might tackle extensive talent profile on DeFina (á la Kenny's Robert De Niro: Anatomy of an Actor).
- - - - - -

fyi: next in the (2024 must-read) queue... Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls.

fun fact: Orion overseer Mike Medavoy only optioned Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan out of turnaround bc -- Barbara Boyle is responsible for his mid-late 1980s legacy -- he thought it would be a good vehicle for his preferred/go-to performer: Barbara Streisand.

[Philip Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review in The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...