Tony Montana
Essay title: Tony Montana
TONY MONTANA
Antonio “Tony” Montana is a fictional character in the Brian DePalma film Scarface and the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours, portrayed by Al Pacino. Oliver Stone came up with the name by combining the last name of his then-favorite football player (Joe Montana) and the first name from the main character of the 1932 film version, played by Paul Muni.
Tony Montana shows up in Miami from his native Cuba on the Mariel Boatlift in 1980. He is questioned by U.S. customs officials, his scars and gang tattoos, (which hint the status of an assassin), do not go unnoticed. What is known is that he is a prematurely released convict as his mother will later point out. His mother also adds weight to the theory that he was an assassin by asking him, when he boastfully tries to give her money, who he has killed for it. Montana is refused entry into the US and sent along with his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) to a make-shift detention camp. In the camp, Tony carries out a cartel hit that earns him and his friends an early release, green cards and a job washing dishes at a tiny food stand.
Tony and Manny soon quit their jobs after Omar (F. Murray Abraham) offers them a job to do a cocaine exchange with some dangerous Colombians led by “Hector the Toad” at the Sun Ray hotel. The deal goes horribly wrong. Angel, another refugee, and Tony enter and are ambushed. Angel is dismembered with a chainsaw. Tony stood to suffer the same fate had the crew outside not intervened. In the commotion, Manny is shot, but the group escapes with the buy money and the drugs. Montana and his associates earn the respect and admiration of a powerful drug kingpin, Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), who offers them jobs.
Unlike Manny, Tony is not satisfied with their change in fortune, and sets to establish himself as a major player in the cocaine industry. Tony even has his sights on taking Lopezs mistress Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer). Tony hopes to realize a dream he once thought was impossible: to have “the world and everything in