After two difficult years in the making, SCARFACE appeared in late 1983, marking De Palma's entry into territory he hadn't previously explored -- the American gangster film. It was also a first for him in another sense; here he was part of a collaborative team on a picture designed to showcase its star, in this case Al Pacino. In a situation typical of the often divisive nature of the director's work, many people would come to …showed first 75 words of 833 total…

…showed last 75 words of 833 total…begins (and admiring his blunt humor and honesty as a character), embraced him as nothing less than a hero. Even more than CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL and PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE before it, the film's acceptance spilled past the borders of De Palma's usual fan base, and within a few years it was solidly entrenched in popular culture. In some ways it has stayed an anomaly among his works, but certainly not a forgotten one.