The Untouchables (film)

The Untouchables
Directed by	Brian De Palma
Written by	Original Novel: Oscar Fraley Eliot Ness Screenplay: David Mamet
Produced by	Art Linson Executive Producer: Raymond Hartwick
Starring	Kevin Costner Sean Connery Andy Garcia Charles Martin Smith and Robert De Niro
Cinematography	Stephen H. Burum
Edited by	Jerry Greenberg (as Gerald B. Greenberg) Bill Pankow
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	June 2, 1987
Running time	119 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	USD $25,000,000

The Untouchables is a 1987 film based on the 1959 ABC television series, and follows Eliot Ness's autobiographical account of his efforts to bring Italian-American gangster Al Capone to justice during the Prohibition era. It was directed by Brian De Palma and adapted by David Mamet, and starred Kevin Costner as Ness, Sean Connery as Irish-American beat cop Jim Malone, and Robert De Niro as Capone. Connery received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. The film became a solid hit, grossing over $76 million domestically.

Plot

Prohibition in the United States has led to an organized crime wave in the 1920s and early 1930s. Various gangs bootleg vast amounts of alcohol and control their businesses with violence and extortion. The problem is most serious in Chicago, where gang leader Al Capone (Robert De Niro) has almost the whole city (even the Mayor of Chicago) under his control, and supplies low-quality liquor at high prices. Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is put in charge of leading the crusade against Capone and his empire. Ness's initial strategy is to conduct raids using a large squad of uniformed officers, but these fail due to high level corruption in the Police Department, who secretly warn Capone's men of Ness's raids and hope that a public humiliation will put a quick end to Ness's efforts.

Seeking ideas for a change of tactics, Ness solicits help from Jim Malone (Sean Connery), an incorruptible Irish American police officer, following a chance encounter one evening. Malone advises Ness to recruit directly from the police academy in order to ensure the officers not have a chance to come under Capone's influence. An Italian American trainee George Stone, formerly Giuseppe Petri (Andy Garcia) is enlisted, due to his superior marksmanship and intelligence under pressure. Along with an accountant, Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), assigned to Ness from Washington, he has acquired a team capable of combating Capone without fear of corruption.

File:Untouchables post office raid.jpg

The post office is raided by Ness and his men.

Their first raid takes place in a local post office, where it's storeroom is used to house illegal liquor. Malone, along with most of the police, know where the alcohol is, and know it is left alone because no one wants to provoke Capone and his gang. The raid succeeds without anyone getting killed, though Capone takes his revenge on the foreman later. As the four pick up steam and become noted by the press, Wallace informs Ness that Capone has not filed an income tax return since 1926. Therefore a feasible method of prosecuting him is through a tax evasion charge, if nothing else. At one point, Ness and his men are visited by one of Capone's men offering them a large sum of money in exchange for their dropping the investigation, but Ness angrily rejects the bribe and throws him out, but not before the man invents the name "The Untouchables" for them, and tells them that anyone can be assassinated, even them.

The man's words prove to be true when Capone's chief hit man, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago), makes smart remarks about Ness and his family outside his house, and drives off before Ness can capture him. Realizing Capone is targeting him and his family, Ness orders his wife and daughter moved to a safer place while he instructs his team to keep a lower profile during the investigations.

During a raid on the Canada-United States border, Ness captures one of Capone’s bookkeepers, George (Brad Sullivan). They manage to persuade him to provide evidence against Capone. However, when Wallace is escorting him to witness protection, Nitti, disguised as a policeman, shoots and kills them both, writing the word "Touchable" on the wall. This leaves Ness with insufficient evidence to press charges, and the frustration drives him into challenging Capone to a physical fight in front of his son and henchmen, for the timely intervention of Malone, who forces Ness out of the hotel and saves him from Capone's wrath.

Malone tells Ness to stall the prosecutor from dropping the case while he searches for information regarding Capone’s other bookkeepers. He learns about Payne, another bookkeeper after a brutal fight with the corrupt police chief, Irishman Mike Dorsett (actually an old acquaintance of Malone from their younger years) who had sold out Wallace and George and allowed Nitti to murder the two officers guarding him (explaining how Nitti got the uniform). He calls Ness and asks to meet him at Malone's home, unaware that Dorsett has sold him out as well.

Later, Malone is sneaked upon by a knife-wielding thug, "Bowtie," at his home, whom he quickly drives out the front door at gunpoint, only to be ambushed by Nitti and shot many times by a tommy gun. Ness and Stone arrive to find him mortally wounded. With his dying breaths, he informs the two about Payne’s upcoming departure from Chicago by train. Ness and Stone arrive at Union Station (Chicago) and find Payne guarded by Bowtie and many gangsters. After a fierce shootout (a homage to the famous Odessa Steps scene from The Battleship Potemkin), the two succeed in killing all of the gangsters (including Bowtie) and taking Payne alive.

Payne testifies in court against Capone, admitting he has disbursed 1 1/3 million dollars for Capone over a three-year period. Ness, however, notices Capone relaxed and even smiling despite the probability of serving a long prison sentence, and also sees Nitti carrying a gun in court. He takes Nitti out of the courtroom with the bailiff and discovers that Nitti was permitted by the corrupt mayor of Chicago to carry the gun into court, and possibly use it inside the courtroom if necessary. However, Nitti is revealed to be Malone’s murderer when Ness sees a matchbook with Malone's address on it. Panicking, Nitti shoots the bailiff and runs up to the roof of the building, exchanging gunfire with Ness all the way. Eventually, Ness has Nitti in his sights, but can't bring himself to shoot him in cold blood. Nitti gives himself up to Ness, stating Malone died a coward and Ness should think about that when he, Nitti, "beats the rap" (avoids jail). Enraged at the thought that Nitti will escape punishment for his crimes, and provoked to revenge, Ness pushes Nitti off the roof to his death, avenging both Malone and Wallace.

Back inside the courthouse, Stone shows Ness a document from Nitti’s jacket, proving that the jury has been bribed, explaining Capone's relaxed mood. After unsuccessfully pleading for justice, Ness extorts the obviously-corrupt judge into doing the right thing, lying that the judge's name is among those in the bookkeeper's ledger of official payoffs, causing the judge to incriminate himself. As a result, the judge switches the jury with the one sitting on a divorce case next door, but before the trial can continue, Capone's lawyer withdraws the plea of "not guilty" for a plea of "guilty" without Capone's consent. Capone flies into a rage and assaults his lawyer for this, but surprisingly enough, the case is closed, all evidence is thrown to the wind, and Capone is sentenced to eleven years in prison. Although it is literally Capone's own lawyer who puts Capone behind bars, Ness receives all of the credit.

Ness packs up his Chicago office. He sees the Saint Jude pendant that Malone had carried with him for many years. Ness offers Stone the pendant, having shaken hands with him. "He would have wanted a cop to have it," Ness insists, because Jude was the patron saint of police officers. Out on the street, a reporter wishes to have a word from the man who (supposedly) put Capone away, but Ness merely remarks he was just there "when the wheel went 'round." When the reporter mentions that Prohibition is due to be repealed, he asks what Ness might do then. Ness decides to go for a drink.

Cast

File:The untouchables group.jpg

The Untouchables: George Stone (Garcia), Jim Malone (Connery), Eliot Ness (Costner), Oscar Wallace (Martin Smith).

Actor	Role	Based on
Kevin Costner	Eliot Ness	Eliot Ness
Robert De Niro	Al Capone	Al Capone
Sean Connery	Jim Malone	Martin Lahart
Andy Garcia	George Stone	-
Charles Martin Smith	Oscar Wallace	Frank J. Wilson
Richard Bradford	Mike Dorsett	-
Jack Kehoe	Walter Payne	-
Billy Drago	Frank Nitti	Phil D'Andrea
Brad Sullivan	George the Bookkeeper	-
Patricia Clarkson	Catherine Ness	-

Production

The Untouchables was filmed in Chicago, Illinois; Hardin, Montana; and the surrounding areas of Great Falls, Montana.

Robert de Niro prepared so thoroughly for the role of Al Capone, that he even wore underwear from that period, even though it would never be seen throughout the movie. After the movie came out, he said that he was not satisfied with his performance or the movie overall.

Differences between fact and fiction

• In the film, there are only four "Untouchables": Ness, Jim Malone, Oscar Wallace, and George Stone. However, according to Ness' biography, there were actually ten of them, including himself. Malone, Wallace and Stone are fictional characters. Malone's real-life counterpart may have been Martin Lahart, an Irish-American from a family of cops who served as Ness's second-in-command. However, Ness and Lahart were both in their 20's at the time of the Capone investigation, and Lahart was born in the U.S., not Ireland. According to Charles Martin Smith in the Special Collector's Edition DVD feature The Script, The Cast, Wallace, the bespectacled agent with the accounting background, was loosely modeled on Frank Wilson, the Treasury Agent who commanded the team of IRS investigators who put together the tax evasion case against Capone.

Al Capone

Eliot Ness

• While Ness and his real Untouchables did battle with Capone's organization, they had little to do with assembling the tax evasion case that would ultimately send Capone to prison. That case was put together by the criminal investigations unit of the Internal Revenue Service separately from Ness' efforts, though some of the evidence used to assemble that case included financial records seized by Ness during raids. Similarly the IRS unit would pass information on to Ness's squad about the location of breweries, stills, etc.

• Ness's main strategy in his war with the Capone mob was raiding breweries. Breweries represented a major investment of capital and putting one out of commission simultaneously constituted an immediate major loss of assets due to the confiscation of the equipment, and a future major loss of income due to the crippling effect the raids had on the Mob's ability to provide a saleable product. In the film, Ness and his squad make one raid on a liquor warehouse, and intercept an international shipment of liquor coming across the Canadian border, but do not raid a single brewery.

• Contrary to the meetings in the film, the real Capone and Ness never actually met face to face before the trial of Capone

• Two of the four Untouchables are killed in the movie. In real life, none of the actual Untouchables were killed, though some were injured during their battles against the mob. Frank Basile, an associate of Ness's prior to the formation of the squad, was killed, but he was not officially an agent. Of note, the two Untouchables who are killed drink or prepare to drink alcohol at some point in the film.

• During the trial scene, Nitti is shown to have bribed the jury of Capone's trial into acquitting Capone of all charges. The judge then substitutes another jury for the tainted one. (This makes little sense, as, in the film, the trial is well underway at the time of the jury-switch, meaning the new jury would be asked to decide a trial in which they'd missed the bulk of the evidence and testimony.) In reality, Nitti was ruling Capone's crumbling empire, while enforcers attempted to tamper with the pool of potential jurors that had been assembled before the trial began. The judge then replaced the pool of potential jurors with another pool that had been assembled for a different trial.

• The judge in the trial is depicted as a grafter, who switches juries only after being threatened with public exposure of his corruption. In fact, the judge in the Capone trial, James Wilkerson, had a well-deserved reputation for probity and integrity, and the idea for switching the jury pools prior to the beginning of the trial was entirely his.

• In the film, Capone's lawyer pleads his client guilty over his client's vehement protests. In real life, Capone pled not guilty, and the trial went to verdict. A defense lawyer in a criminal trial would not be allowed to plead guilty on behalf of his client without the client's consent.

• The final confrontation between Ness and Nitti, in which the latter falls to his death, is entirely fiction. In fact, Nitti spent nearly six years running the empire after the fall of Capone, and he committed suicide in March 1943 upon learning of his possible jail sentence. The Capone minion who was discovered carrying a gun in court, and who was later found to have a list of the jury pool in his pocket, was Phil D'Andrea, not Nitti, and the discovery led to a quiet arrest, not a rooftop shootout.

• In a similar vein, while Nitti was depicted as Capone's chief hitman in the film, in reality he was, by this point at least, in charge of the gang's financial dealings; Jack McGurn or Fred Burke would have been more accurately depicted in this role.

• In the film, Ness and his squad are referred to as "Treasury Agents." In fact, at the time of the Capone investigation, the Bureau of Prohibition, the agency Ness worked for, was part of the Department of Justice, and had been since 1930.

• In the film, Ness is depicted as a family man with a wife, a daughter, and a son on the way. In real life, the thrice-married Ness was a bachelor during most of the Capone investigation. He had only one child, a son he adopted with his third wife, long after his law enforcement career had ended.

Reception

Box office

• Opening weekend U.S. gross: $10,023,094
• Total U.S. box office gross: $76,270,454

Background notes

The media reported that the producers wanted Sean Connery for the movie but could not afford his salary, so he agreed to do the movie for $50,000 with a 10 percent share of the proceeds. The expectation was that the movie would not make much money, so the producers agreed to it. However, it exceeded all expectations and Sean Connery reaped a large amount of money. It was one of the most publicized times that an actor had benefited so greatly from having "bet" on the future of the movie and since then other actors have parlayed their acting skills into taking less up front for a part of the proceeds.

Critical response

The film has received a mostly positive reception from critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the movie a glowing review, calling it "a smashing work" and saying it was "vulgar, violent, funny and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful." [1] Roger Ebert, on the other hand, said "'The Untouchables' has great costumes, great sets, great cars, great guns, great locations and a few shots that absolutely capture the Prohibition Era. But it does not have a great script, great performances or great direction." [2] Many reviewers, including Ebert, singled out DeNiro's scenes portraying Al Capone as the biggest disappointment of the film, while giving praise to Connery's performance. Connery, however, won first place in a BBC poll for worst film accent. [3] Leonard Maltin gives the film a four out of four star review. Colin McNaughton rates the film 4 out of 5.

Academy awards

Award	Person
Won:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Sean Connery
Nominated:
Best Costume Design	Marilyn Vance
Best Score	Ennio Morricone
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration	Patrizia von Brandenstein William A. Elliott Hal Gausman

Prequel

The Untouchables: Capone Rising is a prequel to director Brian De Palma's earlier film The Untouchables. It tells the story of Al Capone, his arrival in Chicago and his dealings with cop Jimmy Malone, portrayed by Gerard Butler, and Capone's subsequent rise to power.

Premise

Beginning with Capone's killing of Edwin Macy in New York, Capone moves to Chicago. Jimmy Malone, recently promoted to detective, befriends Capone. He is not bribed by money, but respects him by arresting his henchmen but not Capone as his 9 year old son is present. Capone returns the favor by letting a witness to a murder, a maid named Halina, live. He changes his mind and has her killed on a train. Malone soon begins to rally Irish gangsters, culminating in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Production

Antoine Fuqua was originally attached to direct in 2004, but DePalma took over the reins a year later. Shooting was set to begin in June 2007, but was delayed to October. Gerard Butler signed on to star in May 2007, and Nicolas Cage was negotiated with to play Al Capone, but left due to scheduling difficulties. In a November 2007 interview, De Palma said that if he could not cast the lead role and begin production within the next month that he may move on to other projects; De Palma stated that he needed to be shooting during the winter to recreate the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Computer and video games

A Side-scrolling computer game was released by Ocean Software in 1989 on ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, Amiga and later on NES, SNES. Based loosely on the movie it lets you play out some of the more significant parts. It is set in Chicago and the main goal of the game is to take down Al Capone's henchmen and eventually get Capone in jail.

Playable characters

• Eliot Ness
• Jim Malone
• Oscar Wallace
• George Stone (Giuseppe Petri)

Levels

1. The Streets: This is the first level in the game and it puts you as Elliot Ness shooting at gangsters from behind a warehouse as they shoot at you.
2. The Warehouse: As Ness you must shoot guys who have information regarding Capone and pick up the information they drop when they have been shot.
3. The Bridge: This is the first level in which The Untouchables (Stone, Malone, Wallace, and Ness) are the playable characters. As the Untouchables you blow up some of Capone's drug trafficking trucks.
4. The Alley: This level is very similar to The Streets, however, you have the option to switch between Ness and the Untouchables.
5. The Train Station: As Ness you must guide a baby-carriage down a flight of stairs while fighting off Capone's henchmen.
6. The Hostage: One of Capone's henchmen has taken a man for a hostage, Capone's bookkeeper and possible witness, and while controlling George Stone you must take one shot to take out the henchman.
7. The Rooftops: Another level that is similar to The Streets except you must reload your own gun in between shots while you take cover behind a courthouse wall. This level is a confrontation between Eliot and Capone's assassin and enforcer, Frank Nitti.

Further reading

• Tucker, Kenneth. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables: The Historical Reality and the Film and Television Depictions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-7864-0772-7

External links

• The Untouchables at IMDb
• The "Untouchables" Rotten Tomatoes Page
• Movie stills