Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Carlito's Way

Man, I watched Carlito's Way last night. Again. Love Pacino. Love the movie.

It is so much more than a gangster movie. Dreams, man - dreams. Carlito gets out of prison after five years and is determined to go straight. It doesn't work out that way. He was the king of the streets before he went to prison and now that he's out everybody wants a piece of him again.

But he's trying so hard. He lucks out and lands a job running a club for his sleazy lawyer friend. He is putting money away, saving for his dream of escaping to the Bahamas to go into the car business with a friend.

He runs into his girlfriend Gail who he hasn't seen in five years and their romance reignites.

She has dreams too. She wants to be a dancer. She tells Carlito that she is auditioning for parts and that she is getting closer to her dream. The truth is she is working in a strip club because she just can't make it.

She said something that killed me. After Carlito finds out she's a stripper she says: "Yeah, I had a dream, Charlie. But now I'm awake, and I hate my dream."

Toughness too. The movie is about toughness, real and feigned. Carlito is a true tough guy. Kingpin on the streets, successful and respected. His lawyer is a pretend tough guy. He wants to come across as tough but he is an idiot and does not know how to act, how to survive in a tough guy's world. Benny Blanco from the Bronx is a street punk tough guy trying to become a Carlito.

Carlito and Benny Blanco from the Bronx get in a beef and the situation dictates that Carlito should kill him. But he doesn't because he is trying so hard to change.

Of course it is Benny Blanco from the Bronx who kills Carlito in the end just as he is about to escape and realize his dream.

People are dreaming so hard in this movie. Carlito trying to make a new life in the Bahamas, Gail trying to believe with every bone in her body that Carlito will win out in the end and they will live their dream together.

All the dreams get crushed and Carlito dies.

People dreaming dreams that will never materialize, people trying to define what tough is and losing themselves in the attempt. Sounds like real life to me.

You want to see them make it. You want it so bad. To see somebody, anybody, pull their life together and realize their dream.

But reality intrudes.

And what really sucks is that Carlito gets killed by a guy who calls himself Benny Blanco from the Bronx.

There are nobler ways to die.

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