How Oliver Stone took revenge on cocaine by writing the Scarface screenplay
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Though Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) is considered a ‘mob film’ and starts out as such, by the time Tony Montana reaches his gargantuan gilded bathtub it’s really more about drugs – specifically cocaine – and its ability to sabotage relationships and induce paranoia.
If, amid all the trademark De Palma violence, Tony’s alienation from wife Elvira and best friend Manny felt quite personal, that’s because. for screenwriter Oliver Stone, it was.
He was originally brought on board to write a fairly faithful remake of Howard Hawks’ 1932 film of the same name, but found that he was able to mine his own problems with cocaine addiction to create a script with more depth.
“I was a cocaine addict for about two-and-a-half years prior to writing Scarface,” Stone told Sabotage Times in 2015. “I knew that world, the drug world of the early ‘80s very well.”
This wasn’t a Hunter S. Thompson-esque situation though, where the drugs not only formed but helped sculpt the text – the Platoon director had to “go cold turkey” to write the script, being of the opinion that cocaine in no way helps writing. He ultimately ended up moving to Paris to sober up and write the script, telling Empire in 2011 that he “knew [he] couldn't break the habit in Florida [where the film is set], LA or New York.”
Art so often stems from pain, and flushing that pain from brain to paper proved cathartic for Stone.
“Cocaine had screwed me so much,” he recalled. “It had taken so much of my money that now I needed to take my revenge and so I wrote Scarface.
“In the past, I’ve talked about Scarface as being a farewell love letter to cocaine, but it’s really me taking my revenge on the drug.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments