"The Untouchables"

Review by Eric Renderking Fisk Originally Posted On "The Indy Experience" in 2003, Special Thanks to Aaron Gannt.

Harrison Ford went on to greater stardom after the first two episodes of Lucas’s Star Wars Saga [Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back] when he went on to do Raiders of the Lost Ark, written and produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Raiders was the first motion picture Mr. Ford starred in and rumor was that there were executives behind the screen at Paramount who were worried that Mr. Ford couldn’t carry a motion picture on his own. Mr. Ford proved that he could not only manage to carry a film on his own, but that he would also become the biggest box-office draw in history.

It can be said the same of The Untouchables for Kevin Costner as protagonist Elliot Ness.  Mr. Costner was a relative unknown before The Untouchables.  He then he went on in later years to star in such classics as Bull Durum, to become a writer and director of Field of Dreams and brought the book Dances with Wolves to the silver screen and later to Oscar glory. Yet, Mr. Costner left the greatest impression with his overnight success as Elliot Ness.

The Strength of the Righteous

The Untouchables is a fictionalized account of how Elliot Ness and his group of Untouchables were able to bring Chicago’s biggest bootlegger to justice Elliot Ness was assigned to the Chicago area to break the back of the mob and bootleggers during the prohibition era. Once he discovers the greed and corruption within his team, he enlists the help of Malone played with sheer brilliance by Sean Connery. The two recruit George Stone portrayed with utter coolness by Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace, the accounting genius who finds the secondary means of getting at the crime boss Al Capone.

Often the cost seems too high as this fictionalized version of Elliot Ness’s family is threatened, his courage put to the ultimate test and his integrity is questioned. In the end, even when the final price is paid with the personal sacrifice of two of his fellow Untouchables and a short bout of self doubt and the urge to quit, he completes his task with pride and righteousness intact.

Al Capone and the man with the matches

Again, with every good movie from action, drama and adventure, the villains are what make the movie entertaining and are cause of the conflict. The quality of the motion picture is in direct proportion to the caliber of the villain. In this case, Robert De Niro is perhaps one of the most captivating and charismatic villains to grace the screen. De Niro is at his best as the brutal yet dynamic Al Capone who manages the sale of liquor in the Chicago area with an iron fist and a silver tongue.

Frank Nitti, “The Enforcer”, is played with unique sleaze by Billy Drago. This is the type of murderous heathen all audiences love to hate. It is cinematic brilliance in the irony of this angel of death for the mob would wear white suits.  The pawn in this conflict is Capone’s accountant, Jack Kehoe as Walter Payne, who holds the key to tearing down the Chicago mob. He is simply the final piece to be acquired by Ness and his Untouchables and is necessary for unlocking the codes hidden in the ledgers recovered by the team in the liquor raid on the Canadian boarder...

Four Friends

Besides the action and the suspense of chasing Capone’s goons down, the best part of this motion picture is the friendship among the four heroes. Connery won an Oscar for Best Supporting actor as Malone, the incredible mentor to Costner's Ness-, teaching him many tricks and tools of law enforcement trade. Most often, Malone is the driving force behind The Untouchables, giving Ness the proper nudge in the right direction and always asking him: “What are you prepared to do?” and ending his brief witticisms with “Here endith the lesson”.  Charles Martin Smith as Agent Oscar Wallace would almost be the odd man out in this group of law enforcement, but this book-worm is a short man with a lot of wit, courage and punch. Wallace is not afraid to look danger in the eye and run into a gun fight with shotguns blazing.  Andy Garcia’s George Stone is the quintessential little brother of the group, naive and anxious for action. Being the sharp shooter of the group makes up for his inexperience and makes him invaluable. [Also, his outfit is the closest match of Harrison Ford’s gear in Raiders of The Lost Ark and the two sequels… an added bonus.]

For reasons beyond the era and the subject matter, this also happens to be my favorite Brian De Palma motion picture to date. Both artistic and brutal, The Untouchables uses camera and audio tricks to captivate the audience and elevate the drama.  Ennio Morricone's sound track is one that captures the essence of the era in much the same way Marvin Hamlisch did in arranging Scott Joplin’s Rag music for The Sting… both seem to define the era for our generation as well. Morricone’s soundtrack is used to enhance many scenes, yet Mr. De Palma uses silence or just the foreground noises of gunplay and footsteps to heighten the drama.

Most of all, The Untouchables reminds me of another time of my life when I was the “George Stone” of the family. The Untouchables has many lines and scenes that have become apart of our collective lexicon to a small extent. The Untouchables had exceeded my expectations and enhanced my love affair of this era.