Carlito's Way

Brian De Palma, USA, 1993, 145 minutes

Al Pacino plays Carlito Brigante, an ex-con who decides to make his new way an honest one in this stylish action thriller from De Palma. But his determination is hampered by the pressure which his crooked lawyer friend (Sean Penn) puts on him, taking advantage of the fact that Carlito feels indebted to him for obtaining his release from prison. Carlito gets back together with his ex-girifriend, a beautiful dancer with whom he had split up because he thought that they would never see each other again, and they dream of getting away to paradise together However, Carlito's association with his lawyer puts his life and liberty in peril; for him, a different kind of joumey beckons.

The character of Carlito represent someone who is stuck between two ways: the criminal way of the street, which, represented by his drug-addict lawyer; Carlito now finds unattractive; and the honest way, represented by his girlfriend and by the dream which he shares with her of getting away. But it is being trapped in the middle that threatens to destroy Carlito - he now finds the dishonhest way repulsive, but his history has been to stick by it, and by those in it - and while he continues to do so, he cannot realise his aim of life on the straight and narow.

De Palma directs with flair and vigour, and he is helped a lot by good performances from the three main characters. Penn is particularly noteworthy as Kleinfeld, Carlito's dishonest Jewish lawyer. But as well as being an excellent action movie, Carlito's Way is at times an emotional one, especially at the ending (another shoot-out at a station, in fact). De Palma will have to make his next film a really exceptional one if he is to better this.

Review by Iain Lang
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95