| | | "Once You're In, There's No Way Out."
Features: DVD
From the director of Scarface comes the critically acclaimed crime thriller Carlito's Way. Oscar winner Al Pacino gives an electrifying performance as former drug kingpin Carlito Brigante, who is sprung from prison by his high-powered attorney (Academy Award winner Sean Penn). He stuns the New York underworld by vowing to go straight from a history of violence, but his plans are undermined by misguided loyalties and an outmoded code of honor. In a life-or-death battle, Carlito takes on the relentless forces that refuse to let him go. Co-starring John Leguizamo and Luis Guzman, Carlito's Way is a powerful, action-packed ride all the way to its explosive conclusion!
"This is Brian De Palma at his best." Joel Siegel, Good Morning America
"One of Pacino's best. A first rate crime thriller." Clint Morris, MovieHole
"...the film's climax practically surpasses Hitchcock and even gives Scorsese's GoodFellas a run for its money." Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Editor's Note
Notorious Puerto Rican heroin dealer Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is released from jail on a technicality thanks to the manipulations of his sleazy lawyer buddy (Sean Penn). All he wants is to keep his nose clean and earn enough money to start a business in the Bahamas--and maybe rekindle romance with his old flame, played by Penelope Ann Miller. Instead he finds himself back in trouble as a result of old-world codes of honor and misguided loyalties. It all takes place in 1975 Manhattan, in and around a nightclub Carlito manages, so there's plenty of classic disco music pulsing on the soundtrack. John Leguizamo plays one of the younger generation of hoodlums out to prove something. Viggo Mortensen and Luis Guzmán star as a couple of Carlito's buddies from the old days. Brian De Palma, who directed Pacino a decade earlier in SCARFACE, makes this seem almost like that film's sequel. As expected, there's plenty of elaborate tracking shots and suspenseful set pieces, most memorably a pulse-pounding chase through Grand Central Station. It's adapted from two novels by New York Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres based on his childhood in East Harlem.
Plot Summary
Drug kingpin Carlito Brigante vows to go straight when he is released from prison. As a host of vengeful former cronies and young thugs out to prove themselves come after him, somehow he must find a way to hold on to his newfound integrity.
| Features | Photo Gallery | | The Making of Carlito's Way | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Scene Selection | | Theatrical Trailer | | Recommendations | | Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Widescreen Version | | Interactive Menus |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 8/22/2006 |
| Running Time: 145 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1993 | | Catalog ID: 21459 | | UPC: 00025192145926 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Golden Globe (1994) | | | Sean Penn, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Penelope Ann Miller, Nominee, Best Supporting Actress | | | Penelope Ann Miller, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | | | Sean Penn, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | |
Nominee (1994) | | | Golden Globe, Sean Penn, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | | | Golden Globe, Penelope Ann Miller, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...Pacino brings vast entertainment value to [the film]....[Penn gives a] strange, jarringly intense performance..." 11/10/1993 p.C19Sight and Sound
"...A fierce Pacino performance...and a trio of big action sequences as exciting as anything seen on screen..." 02/01/1994 p.49-50 Variety
"...Rich with irony and keen in its attention to detail. Handsomely made, expertly directed and colorfully acted....Brian De Palma is in top form with CARLITO'S WAY..." 11/15/1993 Entertainment Weekly
"...A smoother piece of filmmaking than SCARFACE....It's fun to see Sean Penn ham it up again....His energetic performance keeps you watching..." 11/12/1993 p.40-1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Brian De Palma in his best films is a muscular director who relishes over-the-top behavior, and here he paints a gallery of colorful gangsters and lowlifes..." 11/12/1993 p.44 Total Film
"...Pacino is the sexiest he's ever been as the Puerto Rican crook, but it's Penn who really steals the show..." 10/01/2000 p.101 USA Today
"Penn's spectacularly flashy supporting role marked his best work in a decade." 03/16/2004 p.6D James Berardinelli's ReelViews 6 of 10
Technically, Carlito's Way is a combination of the innovative and the banal. The camerawork is invigorating, if sometimes too exotic. DePalma makes good use of the steadicam during the chase sequences, and this heightens whatever tension is present. Jellybean Benitez, a former DJ and club manager, is the music supervisor, and his choice of about a dozen mid-seventies hits helps to establish the time-frame. Patrick Doyle's score, however, is horribly out-of-place. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
The acting here, by Sean Penn, is a virtuoso tour de force--one of those performances that takes on a life of its own... [the movie] is first and last a character study, a portrait of a man who wants to be better than he is... - Roger Ebert
FilmsGraded.com 8 of 10
After the disastrous "Bonfire of the Vanities", director Brian De Palma recovered his career by making a sure-fire, more conventional film: a crime drama starring Al Pacino. While no one will put "Carlito's Way" in the same category as "The Godfather", it is a slightly better film than it has been given credit for. There is much dramatic tension, the presence of Sean Penn adds pathos, and the disco-era soundtrack is good...Sean Penn is well-cast for his character, initially smug but soon decaying into a psychopathic cokehead. Miller is lovely but looks unhappy throughout, adding to the 'onset of doom' feeling that permeates the film. Penn and Miller received Golden Globe nominations for their performances...I'll always take a disco soundtrack over a John Williams score, but someone should have told Jellybean Benitez that Cheryl Lynn's hit "Got to Be Real" was from 1979...The best part of "Carlito's Way" is the dramatic tension. Pacino has to resort to gunplay on several occasions, and admittedly these are the best scenes. - Brian Koller
Reel.com 8 of 10
Carlito's Way is a good film, but it's burdened with the expectations that come naturally when two great creative forces join together. Back when DePalma directed Body Double (1984), he was accused of copying the suspense-building style of Alfred Hitchcock (you could do worse), but now his brand of intense pacing, camera movement, and classical music scores can safely be called his own...Carlito's Way is character-driven, and that is the main reason the movie did not succeed by Scarface standards. But taken as it was intended--that is, as a very different type of picture--it does hold up nicely. And the action scenes, which are limited to just three elaborately staged set pieces, have the trademark DePalma pacing and punch that make The Untouchables such an exciting ride, especially in that film's white-knuckler train station scene. DePalma uses a train station again for the final chase scene in Carlito's Way, his most elaborate and exciting set piece to date, and one that took six months to complete. - Ken Dubois
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