"BRIAN DE PALMA'S 'THE UNTOUCHABLES,' THE FIRST REALLY GOOD FILM OF THE SUMMER SEASON"
Flashback to the Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1987, and the headline, "FLICK OF THE WEEK: A GREAT SCRIPT FOR `UNTOUCHABLES`," by Gene Siskel:
Our Flick of the Week is Brian DePalma`s "The Untouchables," the first really good film of the summer season, giving us a much different view of Treasury agent Eliot Ness from the stern, tough Ness played by Robert Stack on the 1959-63 TV show.Here, Ness (Kevin Costner in a star-making performance) plays Ness as a young, innocent, Gary Cooper type who is forced to beg a tough but honest Chicago cop (Sean Connery) for help on how to "get Capone."
With two other recruits who can`t be touched by corruption, Ness slowly and painfully learns that an eye for an eye may not be a bad philosophy when dealing with a totally corrupt system.
Ethics aside, the filmmaking by DePalma is stylish and alternates between shocking surprise and hold-your-breath quiet.
Only a needless scene of Ness and Canadian Mounted Police stopping an illegal liquor shipment seems out of place. The time wasted could have been better spent with more scenes of Robert De Niro, quite chilling as Al Capone, a role that requires skill to rise above caricature.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet deserves credit for giving DePalma the best script he has ever filmed--one with a great rooting interest as well as violent ironies.
"The Untouchables" is violent to be sure, giving it an R rating. It is playing at the United Artists, Esquire and outlying theaters. ***1/2
