Carlito's Way

Carlito's Way (1993) is about a drug dealer out of prison trying to build a straight life, and it shows you how it ends in the first scene. Carlito Brigante is released unexpectedly after five years; his lawyer found a procedural error. On the way out he tells everyone the same thing: I am out of that business. He plans to run a nightclub, save money and go to the Bahamas. The trouble is that leaving the past is not a decision. His cousin pulls him into a job, his lawyer runs up a debt, the old neighbourhood still expects something. Every time he tries to do the right thing, the right thing draws him further in. The film gives the ending at the start: Carlito is on the ground, narrating. So the tension is not about what happens but how. It is adapted from two novels by Edwin Torres, who was a prosecutor in New York and later a judge; he knew that world from the courtroom. It is De Palma and Al Pacino's second film after Scarface, and the two are inversions of each other: one is a rise, this is a fall. The final chase in Grand Central is among De Palma's best editing; the escalator section is almost silent. Sean Penn plays a lawyer and is unrecognisable. It did moderately and its standing has risen since. It runs 144 minutes. Good for: crime drama, De Palma, and character cinema. Less good for: it is long, the violence is harsh, and the ending is known from the start.