8 / 10
The Untouchables is Brian De Palma’s 1987 American crime drama loosely depicting the 1930 Chicago campaign by Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness against Al Capone. The film follows Ness as he assembles a small team of incorruptible officers including beat cop Jim Malone, sharpshooter rookie George Stone, and accountant Oscar Wallace. Together they pursue Capone through escalating tactics until securing his conviction on tax evasion charges. Kevin Costner plays Eliot Ness. Sean Connery plays Jim Malone. Andy Garcia plays George Stone. Charles Martin Smith plays Oscar Wallace. Robert De Niro plays Al Capone. Billy Drago plays hitman Frank Nitti. Patricia Clarkson plays Ness’s wife Catherine. Richard Bradford plays Mike Dorsett. Jack Kehoe plays Walter Payne. The screenplay was written by David Mamet. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures on a budget of approximately 25 million dollars and grossed approximately 76 million dollars on initial release. Sean Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Untouchables works as stylized gangster mythology instead of as historical drama. The actual Eliot Ness did not personally throw Frank Nitti off a building, did not enter Capone’s accountant’s hotel room with guns drawn, and did not engage in most of the particular events the film depicts. Brian De Palma directed the film as deliberate cinema-of-spectacle instead of as documentary. The David Mamet screenplay combines elaborate dialogue with structural mechanics that operatic gangster cinema typically employs. Ennio Morricone composed the score. The Sean Connery performance as Jim Malone won the Academy Award and gave the actor career rehabilitation that had been declining through the 1970s and early 1980s. The result is a film whose specific cinematic achievements have aged into recognition while its historical inaccuracies have continued to generate criticism.
The Connery Comeback
Sean Connery was fifty-six during production. His career had been declining through the 1970s and 1980s after his Bond exit. The Untouchables gave him material that demonstrated his continuing capacity for serious dramatic work. The Best Supporting Actor win restored his industry standing and enabled his directors who followed including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and various other major roles across the subsequent decade.
Connery plays Jim Malone with the controlled authority that the character requires. Malone is a veteran Chicago cop who has learned to survive within a corrupt system without becoming corrupted himself. The performance combines genuine moral seriousness with practical operational knowledge. Connery’s Scottish accent operates somewhat oddly for a depicted Chicago Irish-American character, but the performance succeeds despite the accent instead of because of it. Career rehabilitation can occur through single roles that demonstrate continuing capacity.
For Writers
Career rehabilitation can occur through single performances when the performer demonstrates continuing capacity. Worth remembering for creative work. The contributor whose career has declined can sometimes restore standing through one strong return instead of gradual recovery.
The Train Station Sequence
The film’s most famous sequence depicts Ness and Stone waiting in Union Station to capture Capone’s accountant. The sequence intercuts the gunfight with the slow descent of a baby carriage down the station stairs, deliberately referencing the Odessa Steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925). De Palma constructed the sequence as homage to the foundational Soviet cinema technique that gangster film typically does not reference.
This homage reflects De Palma’s consistent attention to cinema history. His other films have referenced Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, and various other directors across his career. The Eisenstein reference gives The Untouchables sequence cinematic weight that pure action filmmaking would not have generated. Audiences with film history knowledge receive additional content through recognition. Audiences without film history knowledge receive the sequence as action set piece. The double layer shows how cinematic reference can work without requiring audience expertise.
For Writers
Reference to foundational works in your tradition can give your work weight that pure invention cannot produce. Useful for creative work. Audiences who recognize the reference receive additional content. Audiences who do not still receive the surface effect.
The Historical Departures
The actual Eliot Ness operated a Prohibition Bureau unit against Capone’s bootlegging operations but did not produce the case that convicted Capone on tax evasion. The actual conviction came from Treasury Department investigators that the film fictionalizes as members of Ness’s team. The actual Frank Nitti was not thrown from a building by Ness. The actual courthouse sequences depicted in the film bear limited resemblance to the actual trial proceedings. The film lands as legend instead of as documentary.
Brian De Palma and David Mamet did not pretend to be making historical drama. The film opens with title cards that establish the general historical context without claiming particular accuracy. Subsequent audience confusion between The Untouchables and actual Eliot Ness history has produced ongoing complaint from historians. The film treats the historical material as raw material for cinematic mythology instead of as constraining accuracy requirement. The decision has aged into mixed reception. Audiences who accept the film as mythology engage successfully. Audiences who expect historical accuracy receive a different work.
For Writers
Historical sources can support legend or documentary depending on the work’s intent. The same applies to creative work. This of which approach to take requires clarity about what this film is attempting to achieve.
Craft Note
Brian De Palma directed The Untouchables between Body Double (1984) and Casualties of War (1989). His career consistently engaged with cinema history through reference and homage. Some of his work succeeded through this engagement. Other work failed when the references overwhelmed the surrounding material. The Untouchables operates at the higher level of his work where reference enhances instead of replaces dramatic content.
Verdict
The Untouchables reads as stylized gangster mythology instead of as historical drama. The Sean Connery comeback performance won the Academy Award and restored his industry standing. The train station sequence references Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin in ways that operate on multiple levels for audiences with varying film history knowledge. The historical departures have produced ongoing criticism from audiences who expected documentary accuracy. Worth viewing for anyone interested in gangster cinema, in De Palma’s filmography, or in films that treat historical material as raw material for cinematic mythology.