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As the 80s turned into the 90s, Brian De Palma thought he was done with gangsters.
But its relationship to its predecessor is much more complicated.
Can a gangster with a changed heart find a way out?
Can anyone escape the sins of the past?
To argue one is better than the other is to miss the point: They belong together.
Maybe it was the shouting.
He beginsCarlitos Wayas if picking up where he left off.
Brigante crows in triumph and behaves as if, as the judge notes, hes accepting an award.
Brigante emerges in the New York of 1975, but it might as well be another century.
He returns to his old neighborhood, but its not really his anymore.
Trouble is, nobody around him believes him or particularly wants to help him.
Within that frame, Pacino plays Brigante as a man who doesnt quite realize that hes already a ghost.
This guy is you 20 years ago, someone else tells Brigante in confusion.
That doesnt make it any easier; Brigante has come to hate who he was then.
The prevailing sensibility is that of someone whos seen how hard it is to escape a life of crime.
No matter how deep the commitment, one obstacle or another keeps getting in the way.
For all of the films fatalistic qualities, however,Carlitos Wayis also a thrilling piece of filmmaking.
It was never destined to inspireFunko POP!
Tellingly, its most sampled bit of dialogue Brigante shouting, Okay, Im reloaded!
isnt a brag but a bluff.
Hes out of ammo, faking it, just trying to get out, to live another day.
The world, he now understands, is not his and never was.
He may not even have a place in it much longer.
