Friday Afternoon Jukebox: Scarface Edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vT8OU5WtfkQ

I went ahead and solved that Thursday Night Fight y’all we’re having. It’s Giorgio Moroder’s “Push It To The Limit”. I frankly can’t think of another song that more accurately what it is that we do here. Especially the tiger-tied-to-a-tree-part there at the end of the video. Nothing screams “Ordinary Gentleman!” louder than a tiger-tied-to-a-tree.

Now that I’ve solved that, can we briefly discuss the movie Scarface? And not the topics that you’re imagining we might discuss: not the obscene amount of violence, not the casual cruelty, not the glorified criminal lifestyle (see the video above), not the fact that the main character seems to take his direction from an omnipresent blimp, not the fact that Robert Loggia was hired to play a Latino character, and not the fact that two great characters from Breaking Bad also appeared in Scarface.

None of those.

What I’d like to discuss is the oddity of Tony’s apparent sexual attraction to his own sister, a topic which is hinted at throughout the movie and yet ignored by the film’s biggest fans. I get why it would be ignored – because, again, weird, but also, ick, and finally, gross – but it is impossible to miss the subtext throughout the movie. Frankly, the fact that Tony is repeatedly violent toward those who express any interest in Gina would be evidence enough. He murders his own best friend Manny after discovering his affair with Gina. It’s the film’s final scene though. That’s the one that tells the real story. That’s the scene where Montana famously encourages his attackers to “Say hello to my little friend!”* Tony though makes that declaration after everything below has occurred:

And now I’m quoting, “Is this what you want Tony? You can’t stand for another man to be touching me, so you want me Tony, huh? Huh? Is that it? Here I am Tony. I am all yours now Tony, you see? I’m all yours now! You’re better come and get me now. Come and get me Tony, come and get me Tony, do it now before it’s too late…”

I’m also not quoting the part where Gina starts screaming, immediately after saying everything above, much more graphic demands. Because seriously…seriously?!? It’s not that I necessarily mind it being in the movie; Tony Montana’s a bad, insane man, hellbent on having the world as he wants it, his detractors be damned. That’s within the world of the movie. But those who cheerlead the character? How do they explain themselves? How do they put aside the fact that their hero is apparently obsessed in every (un)imaginable way with his own sister? Am I to assume that Oedipus had his own cheering section too? That there were ancient Greek teenagers with Oedipus statues carved into their bedroom walls?

So, to recap: “Push It To The Limit” should be our website’s song, Tony Montana is extra-gross, and what is seen cannot be unseen.

*Not as good a pick-up line as you might imagine.