The Untouchables (1987)

Starring: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia, Billy Drago, Charles Martin Smith, and Patricia Clarkson
Grade: Classic

If you want to enjoy The Untouchables for all that it’s worth, never look up the historical accuracy of the movie. It’s so far off from what actually happened that it’s comical. Nevertheless, don’t let the truth ruin your experience of what is inarguably one of the best movies of the 1980s.

If the audience didn’t get that final face-off between the two main characters, the movie would have felt incomplete. Reality be damned!

Summary

In 1930, “Prohibition has transformed Chicago into a City at War. Rival gangs compete for control of the city’s billion dollar empire of illegal alcohol, enforcing their will with the hand grenade and tommy gun. It is the time of the Ganglords. It is the time of Al Capone.”

As Al Capone (De Niro) is given a manicure, a shoe shine, and a shave, a reporter stands alongside him and brings up how he’s basically the mayor of Chicago. He just hasn’t been appointed officially. Capone laughs and talks about how he responds to the will of the people, which is why he engages in bootlegging, though he argues that it’s bootlegging when it’s coming off a boat and rather “hospitality” when it comes off of Lake Shore Drive. His cohorts laugh and so does the reporter. The reporter talks about his reputation for responding with violence for those who don’t purchase his products. As he says this, the guy shaving Capone’s face accidentally cuts Capone and is visibly scared. Capone tells him it’s okay, and he turns to the reporter to say that “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word”. Even so, and the fact that there is violence in Chicago, he still argues that it’s not by him or any of the men he employs because it’s not good business.

Following this, we see one of Capone’s guys try to sell some awful green beer to some store owner, and he refuses it because it’s terrible. A little 10-year-old girl walks in to pick up some things for her sick mother and notices another man leave a briefcase on his seat before exiting. She grabs it and goes to the door to give it back, but it’s a bomb. The entire place explodes, killing everyone inside.

September 15th, 1930, special agent of the Treasury Department Eliot Ness (Costner) reads the newspaper with the headline of the little girl killed in the explosion, and his wife Catherine (Clarkson) comforts him. At work, Ness is introduced by Chief Mike Dorsett (Richard Bradford) to all the reporters. Ness takes the floor and tells them all that at the request of the city of Chicago, the federal government and specifically the Department of the Treasury has inaugurated a special program to deal with the flow of illegal liquor and the violence in which it creates. Ness and other agents of the Treasury will work in conjunction with the Chicago Police. After a few sarcastic questions and comments from reporters, Ness gets serious with them and talks about how Prohibition is the law of the land. They hurl a bunch more questions his way, so he cuts the mini conference short. He also turns down journalist and photographer Scoop’s (Steven Goldstein) offer of following him around to detail his exploits. Upon exiting, Lt. Alderson of the Flying Squad invites Ness to meet the officers in the department in the weapons registration ready room, so he does. In his speech to them, he’s aware that some may have taken a drink but what has happened in the past doesn’t concern him. He just wants them to stay pure from here on out. Even if it is a harmless drink to some, he argues that they have to lead by example if they are to enforce the law. Next, he brings up how the Department of the Treasury has had a man undercover working in their department for some time now, and they have received word from him that a large shipment of Canadian whiskey has arrived in Chicago. With this, he readies them for action. That night, Ness is with a group of officers at the site getting ready for the shipment to arrive. He reminds one of the men that the cases are marked with a red maple leaf. Also, the Treasury agent is in a gray suit with a white scarf, and he’s not to be arrested. He goes back into a car driven by another officer and eats the dinner Catherine made him. Inside the bag is a message written by Catherine saying that she’s proud of him.

As the Ness talks to the other officer about being married, Ness notices a suspicious person outside and has the officer follow him. They walk up behind the guy, and Ness points a gun to his back. It’s Scoop, who is there with his camera. He tries again to convince Ness to work with him, but Ness has the officer send him away because they’re trying to stay quiet.

After seeing another man have a smoke outside of the warehouse they are scoping out, Ness sits in a snowplow, and they drive straight through the warehouse door to bust everyone inside with other officers on both sides of the truck. Championing the Volstead Act, he takes everyone under arrest and finds the maple leaf cases. Scoop is allowed in to take a picture of the bust on Ness’s orders, and he takes an axe from Officer Preseuski (Don Harvey) to one of them to reveal the contents inside. Unfortunately, it’s just an umbrella, and Scoop takes the picture of Ness’s shock and disappointment. He has the officers send Scoop away, and they tear the place apart to see if they can find anything. They don’t, and Ness goes home frustrated. He stands on a bridge and reads the newspaper headline detailing his and the Flying Squad’s failed bust. It even refers to Ness as a “Poor Butterfly”, with the picture of him holding the umbrella under the title. He crushes up Catherine’s note of being proud of him, and he tosses it off the bridge and into the water below. Just then, Irish beat cop Jimmy Malone (Connery) approaches him for littering and tells him to throw whatever in the garbage next time. Ness doesn’t want to hear it and questions if he has something better to do. Malone doesn’t stand for the disrespect and gets close. When Ness reaches in his jacket for his badge, Malone uses his club to point out Ness’s gun and asks why he has the “mohaska”. So, Ness explains he’s a Treasury officer. Malone leaves him alone but still tells him to remember what they talked about. Ness follows him and asks why he would just let him go without proof. Malone brings up a good point in that who would claim to be a Treasury officer. Ness demands to know his name and unit, and Malone just points to his badge. Continuing, Ness asks Malone how he knew he had a gun. Malone questions if he needs a lesson in police work, so Ness backs off. Ness admits he had a bad day and was going home, so Malone says he completed the first rule of law enforcement in that when his shift is over, to make sure he made it home alive.

Elsewhere, a worker under Capone tells another guy that they are getting $100,000 for 40 barrels and to make sure there are no empties. He gives the guy the ledger with all the information he needs before adding that there are 55 gallons to a barrel. He sticks a paper in an incoming waiter’s stuff, and henchman Eddie opens the door for the waiter who gives Capone breakfast in bed, along with the newspaper. Capone sees the headline of Ness screwing up and laughs.

Back at the police department, the officer that was with Ness during the failed raid makes fun of Ness’s words of “Let’s do some good” to the Chief before they went into the warehouse. Once Ness enters, they stop talking. He walks through the halls to his office and everyone stares at him. Getting to his door, he sees that someone plastered the newspaper headline detailing his failure above his name on his door. As a response, he takes the cut-out and puts it on his wall inside the office and makes sure everyone sees it. Shortly after, the mother of the girl that was killed by the bomb in the opening of the movie shows up at Ness’s office and thanks him for his work because she knows how serious he is taking things and wants the gangsters involved to be stopped just as much as him. Next, Ness shows up at Malone’s house to try and convince him to join this new team he’s creating. Despite being just a beat cop at his age, Ness knows he’s a good cop, one of the very few in Chicago. He asks for Malone’s help directly. Malone admits he would have loved to have met Ness 10 years and 20 pounds ago, but now, his objective in life is to just stay alive. Malone declines the offer. That night, Catherine holds their asleep daughter while listening to the radio, and Ness sits across from them contemplating his next move. The next day, Ness goes into his office to find accountant Oscar Wallace (Smith) sitting in his chair. To Ness’s surprise, Wallace has been assigned there by the Washington Bureau. Right away, he offers Ness a suggestion on how to stop Capone, mentioning how Capone has not filed an income tax return since 1926. Annoyed by the lame suggestion and after he finds out Wallace is an accountant, Ness leaves the room. He finds Malone waiting for him. He wants to talk, but he knows “these walls have ears”. So, he takes Ness to a Catholic church for their private conversation. Malone knows Ness wants to get Capone, but he asks how far he is willing to go to get him. Ness says he’s willing to do anything “within the law”. Malone points out that this isn’t enough because his people won’t stop until one of them is dead.

How do you get someone like Al Capone? Well, Malone is cutthroat in his strategy. If Capone pulls a knife, Ness has to pull a gun. He sends one of Ness’s to the hospital, Ness has to send one of his to the morgue. According to Malone, “That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone”. Seeing Ness’s determination when asking if he’s ready to make a deal like this, Malone agrees to join his team, labeling it as a metaphorical blood oath between them.

Upon exiting, they both acknowledge that someone in the police department let Capone know ahead of time about Ness’s raid. Because of this, Malone tells him not to trust anyone, including the people on the force because nobody wants him there. Agreeing to this, Ness questions who they can get to help them. Malone poses a metaphor in that if he’s afraid of getting a rotten apple, don’t go to the barrel. Get it off the tree. Malone takes him to where the new recruits train and introduces him to Barry, the guy who heads up the place. Malone asks for anyone who is consistently the best shot. Barry tells him that it’s Williamson (Kevin Michael Doyle) and George Stone (Garcia), so Malone gets Barry to call them up one at a time. Before Barry leaves, Ness asks him if either of them is married, and they aren’t. Willamson pops in first and stutters through every answer he gives to Malone’s questions. With this, Malone cuts the conversation short and sends him back. Following Stone nailing a target several times over during a shooting drill, Barry calls him over and refers to him as a “prodigy” to Malone and Ness. Stone talks about being from the Southside when asked, and Malone responds by demanding to know what Stone’s real name is before he changed it. Stone admits it’s Giuseppe Petri. Malone calls him a few Italian slurs while flipping out and pulls out his club before Stone puts his gun to Malone’s throat, calling him a stinking Irish pig. It turns out that this was all a ploy by Malone to see what Stone had within him. Seeing the fire, Malone tells Ness he likes him, and Ness concurs. Realizing Malone was just trying to provoke him, Stone calms down. With this, Malone welcomes him to the Treasury Department. Later, Alderson approaches Ness, Malone, and Stone in Ness’s office and brings up a couple of reports about suspicious activity to check out. Ness dismisses him, and Ness and Malone both agree they think Alderson is lying. Even so, Malone hands out guns to the other two because he wants to take them on a liquor raid. However, he knows they need another man.

Just then, Wallace walks in with some papers he wanted to show Ness. Instead, Malone interrupts him and gives him a gun to come with since he’s technically an agent as well. The Chief knows Malone and tries to make a snide comment to them as the four leave the police department, but he shuts it down as they exit. The four go to the post office for the raid to Ness’s confusion. Malone argues that everyone knows where the booze is at. The problem isn’t finding it. The problem is who wants to cross Capone. They walk into the public building with their guns and move past the customers before going to a back room. They find a closed door, and Malone lets Ness know they are about to walk into some real action, almost testing him to see how determined he is. Without question, Ness is ready. With this, Ness hands Malone the axe on the wall, and he breaks through the door. They raid the place successfully and put everyone there under arrest, with Malone even taking a guy down after he asks Malone for his warrant. The four go out to celebrate that night over dinner and cigars at a restaurant. There, Ness asks Malone about the chain he has, and he tells the group that it contains his call-box key and a picture of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. They continue to enjoy their conversation when Scoop barges in to take a picture. Ness has to have them put their guns down and says it’s fine. He allows the picture but it’s only for them, not publication. Elsewhere, Capone talks to a group of his men at some private meeting where they are all dressed up. Pulling out a baseball bat, he talks about the importance of teamwork in baseball and how it relates to what they do as a unit. At the end of his speech, he takes the bat and bashes the head in of the guy Malone attacked at the post office raid in front of everyone.

Eliot Ness’s Untouchables are now getting to Al Capone and company, and Capone knows it. The war has begun!

My Thoughts:

The Untouchables is the definition of the word cinema. It has everything a viewer could possibly want in a movie.

The ultimate battle of good and evil? Check.

A war between a larger-than-life hero versus a larger-than-life villain? Check.

Drama? Check.

Suspense? Check.

Excitement? Check.

Action? Check.

A great cast? Check.

Excellent direction? Check.

The list goes on and on. It might be one of my favorite films of all time.

Honestly, it’s what going to the movies is all about.

It all begins with the contrast of good and evil, the incorruptible Eliot Ness taking on the all-powerful Al Capone. Despite all the possible casting options that were considered for the two real-life figures, Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro were a match made in heaven for the goals of this film. Here, the more vulnerable Eliot Ness is a good-natured, religious family man who cannot be bought. Doing the right thing in stopping the crime in Chicago, knowing the uphill battle it will be because of how many people are bought off by Capone, is ingratiated in Ness’s soul. It’s all he thinks about. Any time a random citizen is killed senselessly, or someone gets away with something, Ness takes it personally and it drives him to try and take down one of the most powerful and popular faces of the Prohibition period at all costs. The danger Capone poses to the city is too big, and Ness is the only one who can stop him and knows it. Watching Ness turn down a money offer from Alderman John O’Shea to stop what he’s doing (“You tell Capone that I’ll see him in hell”) or yelling at the district attorney “Don’t you dare stop now” when he wants to back out of pursuing the trial because of the lack of a witness is just a sliver of the power Ness exudes in being the purest form of a hero fighting evil. Though some might find his “white knighting” almost too pure, the young Kevin Costner is seemingly perfect for the job to not only do exactly what the characterization is asking of him, but also make the character someone we want to root for because of his action hero tendencies, fearlessness in the face of battle, leadership, and ability to appeal to the emotional side of things to make us care about him and his mission. Though Ness is not afraid of a shootout either, he still makes sure we understand the emotions involved in his job, with him notably being personally affected by killing the guy in the cabin at the Canadian border because it was avoidable. Unfortunately, the guy refused to put his gun down and was about to fire. It’s kill or be killed, and he had to take the shot, preparing Ness for what’s to come against these ruthless gangsters.

It hardens him but helps evolve his methods, as he can’t help but take some pages out of Jimmy Malone’s book. If he didn’t, he never would have considered such genius trickery like convincing the judge to switch the juries at the trial with a nice white lie. When fighting such powerful forces, sometimes you have to sprinkle in a few underhanded tactics. If they aren’t going to play by the rules, the heroes should be okay with not doing the same either, within reason of course. If the heroes go too far, they start to teeter the line of good and bad. This learning experience, while also maintaining his general beliefs in how to approach crime fighting, is what makes Ness a movie icon. Truthfully, he’s one of the best movie heroes of all time, and he does so by doing everything right and by the book. Usually, we’d groan at this sort of thing because he’s almost too good, but this is why the unassuming Costner is such a great choice and why his performance is so underrated in hindsight. Seeing how serious Ness is taking his job and his insistence of leading by example, while also straying away from doing things “within the law” when it’s absolutely needed to further fuel Malone’s words of wisdom to him in fighting the gangsters of Chicago, becomes a joy to watch. As evil as Al Capone is, Ness matches it with his heroism, and it’s one of the best contrasts of the hero/villain you may ever see depicted onscreen. Though he was in quite a few movies before this, this was the film that made Kevin Costner a movie star, and it’s because of how well he was able to portray Eliot Ness against acting heavyweights such as Robert De Niro and Sean Connery. The fact that he did so in such an understated manner and performance is a testament to his “It” factor as an actor. Seriously, his take on Eliot Ness could have been the star in a series of sequels where he’s chasing bad guys by his lonesome, and I would have watched every one of them, no matter how inaccurate they were.

Stand aside Robert Pack. Kevin Costner’s pulpy portrayal of this crime fighter is the best there ever was.

On the other side of the coin is the legendary Al Capone. Who better to play the gangster icon than Robert De Niro? Looking the part, Capone isn’t in the movie as much as you’d expect. He’s only in it for a few pivotally placed scenes to remind the audience of the threat he is, and it increases the dramatic effect of his presence exponentially when he does appear. The handling of the character onscreen is fitting of one of the most recognizable gangsters of all time, and it doesn’t take away from Eliot Ness either. Ness is the one who needs more screentime anyway because he is the one who has to win over the audience, he’s driving the action of the plot, and Costner isn’t the star De Niro is, so he has to work that much harder to resonate with the viewer. If he’s overshadowed by De Niro and Connery, he’s dead in the water, and the perfect contrast of hero and villain becomes a one-sided, potentially self-indulgent, one-act show of De Niro running wild over the picture to the point where you don’t care about the protagonist. Basically, De Niro could have stolen the show and never gave it back. It had to be done like this to still give audiences the Capone they want but also to make a star out of Costner’s Ness. This is why the film is set up in the manner it is, and I wouldn’t change it one bit. Utilizing Capone much like how he is placed in the poster of the film, as this big, overlord-like figure over the city that the smaller heroes have to find a way to defeat, is why it worked so seamlessly. It made De Niro’s Capone like a Darth Vader type. He didn’t need to be in every scene, but when he was there, everyone turns their heads. This is why one of the coolest scenes of the movie is when Ness goes by himself following the elevator disaster straight to the Lexington Hotel where Capone is staying at and confronts him while Capone tries to walk down the stairs. Despite Capone having a million henchmen with men, Ness punches out one of his guys, challenging him to go right then and there because he’s losing it.

It’s one of the ballsiest things the protagonist can do, but he’s furious and is down to start something on the spot with someone who is more powerful than the mayor of the city, making him look like a total badass. At the same time, it still works in showcasing Ness’s vulnerability, as he tends to act with his emotions too much because he takes everything so personally and that’s just what Capone wants. He’s baiting Ness to slip up, and Ness almost goes for it out of anger. He even tries to pull his gun on Capone in a fit of rage until Capone’s guys draw theirs, prompting Malone to stop Ness from being gunned down in the lobby (“Fuck you and your family“). In this scene, Capone felt like the all-encompassing figure of the city that we should be afraid of, and it worked dually in making him a scary villain and making Ness this cool, emotional hero who is willing to go that far to show he’s about it. Also, seeing De Niro, Connery, and Costner in the same scene was just ultra-cool as a movie fan. Though it has been said that De Niro’s outbursts and angry performance of Capone was underwhelming and even expected from him, I didn’t have a problem with it. The actors are taking liberties with real people while also trying to change certain things to fit what the screenplay and director wants. Because of this, Ness’s heroic tendencies are tuned up tenfold. Plus, certain facts about him are omitted entirely or changed to make him look even more pure as a hero. The same can be said in the opposite effect for Capone, which is why De Niro throws a bit more of his aggressive flare into the performance to make the antagonist more outwardly evil, even if the real Capone didn’t necessarily act as outlandish in public. Simply put, it might not be true to life, but cinematically, it’s what was needed in making the battle between the two as important as it is while making sure the audience knows how to react accordingly. It’s a filmmaker, screenwriter, and its actors all on the same page, understanding the goal, and controlling every aspect of the production to get their desired effect.

Despite the extremely Scottish Sean Connery playing an Irish cop (with a Scottish accent as most would expect), Jimmy Malone is one of the best mentor characters to grace the screen. The accent isn’t important if you are able to deliver these lines as strong, as earnestly, and with as much gravitas as Connery does here. We can’t help but hang on to every word of knowledge he speaks. Knowing his age and how he lives alone, the hardened veteran beat cop is just as strait-laced and no-nonsense as Ness, but he’s seen everything in Chicago, and it has made him a cynical man. Even so, the aura he possesses as this tough, badass teacher is something only Connery could possess while speaking the carefully constructed lines of David Mamet’s screenplay. Malone stresses that he just wants to live to the next day, and it’s his only focus now that he’s older in age. Despite his words, it’s almost as if he wants to make sure Eliot Ness is the real thing. Is this too good to be true? Is Ness the man he wishes he could’ve worked with during his prime as a cop? Together, they could’ve saved Chicago years ago, but now, he’s nearly given up on cleaning the streets because he knows it could mean certain death if the wrong feet are stepped on. Is Ness the guy who can create a team that can actually make a difference? In the famous Catholic church scene where the two make their blood oath, Malone gets serious with him. Once this door is opened in trying to get Capone and the opportunity is there to actually make a difference, there is no going back. People are going to die, and he wants to know if Ness is dead serious on taking this next step, even if it means taking someone’s life to do so. When the bad guys hit, they have to hit back harder. They have to be all-in with this fight and can’t let up because Capone’s men surely won’t. They have to take the fight to them, something that Malone knows, and Ness needs to learn. When Ness tells him how badly he wants to get Capone, he believes in Ness, and it breathes new life into Malone.

It gets to the point where Malone is willing to get into a fist fight with the Chief just to get the location of Capone’s bookkeeper Walter Payne, knowing that the Chief has been paid off and he tried to get Malone to skip town to save himself. It doesn’t matter. Malone sees something in Ness, and it brings that very last bit of hope that he has left inside him to bust down that metaphorical door in one last all-out attempt, just as the viewer sees something in Costner as to why we like him so much. He’s just got “it”. Just as Malone becomes this mentor to Ness in showing him how to get down and dirty the Chicago way, it seems as though Connery himself is doing this for the young Costner in terms of acting. Because of this, their chemistry onscreen and the characters’ friendship feels very real and makes their overall team that much better. In doing so, it also makes their final scene that much more emotional (“Now, what are you prepared to do!”). Now, considering the liberties the screenplay takes with these real-life people and the fact that the Jimmy Malone character is an amalgamation of a few different people, one can only wonder why they didn’t just make the character Scottish to explain Connery’s performance. There may have not been that many Scottish immigrants in Chicago in the 1930s, but the inaccuracies of The Untouchables is one of its most famous attributes. It seems like an easy fix to explain what ended up being a huge blunder. Even with the Oscar win, it has always been talked about how bad Connery’s accent (or lack thereof) is for an “Irish” character. I’m not sure why they didn’t just take that extra leap considering what they did with everyone else. Regardless, Andy Garcia is also great as the secretly Italian, young upstart with wicked range. His introduction with the Irish Malone outing him for being a full-blooded Italian who changed his name was such a great scene, as it was an extremely accurate depiction of the prejudices existing within citizens of big multicultural big cities, especially in the 30s (“Isn’t that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gunfight”).

Brian De Palma’s visual style and flare is once again on full display, and it’s phenomenal. It’s one of those movies you could study as a director to find new ways to make the events onscreen pop even more. De Palma is a master at it, and The Untouchables is yet another bloody example of his artistic abilities behind the camera. The action sequences like the juxtaposition of the home invasion and Capone watching Pagliacci or the shootout at the Canadian border, as well as some of the more suspenseful scenes like Capone’s guys stalking Malone from outside his home in a low-budget horror type of way and the aforementioned elevator scene (“Touchable”), make the feature a highly entertaining action movie from start to finish. Ness’s chasing of Frank Nitti on the rooftops and the awesome low angle shot looking up at Ness from the roof while he shouts, “Did he sound anything like that?” might be one of the coolest hero shots of all time. In addition, the Union Station scene is one of the greatest action sequences ever. It might be preposterous, but it’s cinema. It’s damn near operatic! It’s a pure masterclass of directing action, suspense, drama, and emotion in one expertly done 10-minute sector. I know it’s been parodied to death by now, but if you view it in context, it’s an amazing sequence that will have your eyes glued to the screen the entire time. From Ness’s suspenseful surveying of the scene waiting for the bad guys to show up and not knowing when this mother is going to get out of the way to the time that he utters the emphatic statement of “Take him”, the goosebumps cannot be ignored.

On a minor note, I love the foreshadowing of Capone’s statement before the opera saying, “You got an all-out prize fight, you wait till the fight’s over. One guy’s left standing and that’s how you know who won”, as well as the more eerie foreshadowing of Ness’s final line considering the real-life person’s ironic turn into alcoholism in his later years. Also, where the fuck does Malone get all these tips from? It seems like Ness is left out of the loop and can’t find anything, but Malone comes out of nowhere with all the information they need to go on to the next mission. It’s something even Ness questions following Nitti threatening his family outside his house. Who the hell does he know, and why gatekeep it?

With a top-notch cast led by the perfect hero-villain combo of Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness and Robert De Niro’s Al Capone, an Oscar-winning Sean Connery, director Brian De Palma, screenwriter David Mamet and the always great Ennio Morricone behind the score, The Untouchables is one of the greatest gangster movies in the history of cinema.

If you disagree, Eliot Ness puts it rather simply.

“Yeah? Well, you’re not from Chicago.”

Fun Fact: Bob Hoskins was the back-up plan to play Al Capone because let’s be honest, he looks exactly like him. Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando were also considered if neither De Niro nor Hoskins were available, though Brando would turn down an offer of $5 million for two weeks of work. Director Brian De Palma originally wanted Don Johnson to be Eliot Ness, but he turned it down. Mickey Rourke, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Jeff Bridges, and William Hurt all turned the role down as well. Mel Gibson was interested but couldn’t commit because he was already signed up for what turned out to be Lethal Weapon. Jack Nicholson was cast at one point but dropped out. De Palma envisioned Andy Garcia as Frank Nitti, but Garcia was the one who wanted to be Stone.