Scarface - Movie Analysis Essay

Introduction

The movie Scarface focuses on the life of a man known as Tony Montana and showcases his progress to power from a Cuban political refuge to a drug trafficker. In 1980, around one hundred and twenty-five thousand refugees joined their families in the US from Cuba; Fidel Castro had forced those who owned boats to carry twenty-five thousand refugees out of the whole lot. Scarface depicts the life of immigrants settling in the United States through Tony Montana and his friends (Chi-Chi, Angel, and Manny Ribera). The four went to a detention camp, where Manny tries to make a deal with the drug kingpin Lopez in Florida. To get green cards, they were to assassinate Rebenga, whom Castro had shipped out since he was not trusted. After getting their green card, they got recruited in the drug trafficking business by Suarez, who was Lopez's foreman. The drug business was so erratic that it led to the death of Angel, but the gang still managed to keep the money and purchase the cocaine. Lopez becomes impressed with their work and offers Manny and Tony a job to work for him. Later, Frank sends Omar and Tony to Bolivia to make a cocaine exchange with a powerful drug lord known as Alejandro. When Tony returns, Frank gets angry at him for making an illegal deal that jeopardizes their relationship forcing Tony to start his own business. This essay thus analyzes how migration-related issues are presented in the movie Scarface.

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The movie portrays cases of the Cubans who moved to South Florida following Castro's eradication of the so-called "scum" of Cuban society. The success Tony had as well as his rise of status is not something easy for any immigrant with no connections from the inside. Additionally, tony and other top gangs in the United States history were handling their illegal businesses in a low-key manner. Hence, Scarface is more than just a gangster film since its scenes and events are not similar to other movies of the same genre filmed in that era such as the Godfather. Instead of talking about a gangster group or family like other movies do, it concentrates on a single character - Tony as a stranger in a new nation. The immigrant status is the start of Tony's criminal life since his activities started being visible after he settled in the US.

In the movie Scarface, the immigrant status plays a significant part in Tony's character since the majority of the immigrants who settled in America, rarely achieve the things that he did. The fact that he was an immigrant into the US made the film more of a success story rather than just a criminal movie. This man goes through all odds as an immigrant and succeeds in the US. The American society is so globalized that it has immigrants of diverse nationalities and varying ethnicities who take part in illegal activities for survival. The advancement in technology makes nations more connected, although that means that criminal acts have now become more trans-national. It is now easy for immigrants to bring in illegal substances such as drugs and weapons into the nation through its borders.

Mass immigration is not a net drain on the community's resources. It is only in the Cuban case that there was a spike in violent crime, a phenomenon the producer attributes to the fact that Castro deliberately sent criminals to America. In most cases, immigrants happen to be the victims rather than perpetrators of crime. The immigrant status influences Scarface character a lot. The movie relates to Parrenas' article in that immigrants always have a hard time in their stay in host nations, and this is still visible to date. "In the spatial politics of globalization, the attainment of substantial refuge in the Philippines involves the involvement of descending flexibility in other nations" (Parrenas 561). The drop in immigrant's social status usually forces them to create state identities. Immigrants manage their marginal state in host nations by constructing their personalities based on the rise in class status in their home countries.

Similarly, the movie relates to Balta and Ozlem's article as well as Ustubici and Ahmet's reading by showing how immigrants go through hardships to survive. Most of them lack finances for their survival and wellbeing. In the movie, immigrants are seen to be living in the poorest regions of the nation, practicing different cultures and living as gangsters. For instance, Tony is seen engaging in all the dangerous activities due to his immigrant status. As is broadly discussed in Ustubici and Ahmet's article, instead of eliminating uneven border passages, measures of control such as walls and fences make transit movement riskier and costlier for immigrants. "Policymakers see deaths in the Mediterranean Sea as an obligation of the migrants. Cohesive border administration is hence planned in a manner that there is a lot of risks whereby those moving across it are a threat to the nation" (Ustubici and Ahmet 8).

Additionally, Balta and Ozlemportrayimmigrants as the actual devils, although self-enabled unbalanced border passages in the Mediterranean are relatively communal as well. "Focusing on how citizenship rules are being trans-nationalized in this specific practice, makes it known that nationalities have discrepancy cost for immigrants" (Balta and Ozlem 947). Hence, the appropriate visas might not signify direct entrance into America but denote affiliation within two societies: first, an international community of the affluent whom American visas merge the immediate advantages of global and local ranks. Secondly is a nation of applicants universally, who picture future opportunities of easier access to a diplomatically more charming situation, well-defined by the laws

Conclusion

The United States is deeply divided on issues relating to refugees and immigrants. It makes sense electorally, rationally, and politically, to get political power by saying all sorts of bad things concerning immigrant groups, although at a particular instance, it sounds meaningless (Balta and Ozlem 940). As stated, the movie Scarfacefocuses on a man who brings himself up from nothing as an immigrant in the United States through a criminal life. The film is successful in bringing out the idea of an immigrant's life in America especially since it did not use an Italian American as the main character as it is common in other movies of the same genre. ThusLatinos and African Americans who happen to be the majority of America's immigrants, find a connection with it. As a result, Scarface is a glorification of the criminal lifestyle, whereby acts of worldly desire, drug abuse, and murder are glamourized. Nevertheless, the fact that Scarface adores a criminal life could be a misperception; tony fell as fast as he progressed in his strive for dominating Miami's crimes with poor outcomes. Scarface is thus an account of migrant's discrimination through the rise and fall of an ambitious immigrant desiring to accomplish his part of the American dream in a society that discriminates against and stereotypes migrants.

Works Cited

Balta, Evren, and Ozlem Altan-Olcay. "Strategic citizens of America: transnational inequalities and transformation of citizenship." Ethnic and Racial Studies 39.6 (2016): 939-957.DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2015.1103882

Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar. "Migrant Filipina domestic workers and the international division of reproductive labor." Gender & Society 14.4 (2000): 560-580. Accessed from https://www.jstor.org/stable/190302

Ustubici, Aysen, and Ahmet Icduygu. "Border closures and the externalization of immigration controls in the Mediterranean: A comparative analysis of Morocco and Turkey." New Perspectives on Turkey 59 (2018): 7-31. Doi:10.1017/npt.2018.16