Scarface's Audience

Apparently, the most popular shirt worn by people getting their mugshots taken are pictures of Tony Montana:






So, what do these people have in contact with their cinematic icon? Like their hero, they aren't very good at being criminals.

This particular post isn't against Scarface. I like the movie quite a bit. What does mystify me about it are the legions of little wanna-be hoodlums who walk around the food court at my local shopping mall, wearing their Tony Montana tee-shirts with pride, as if trying to communicate to me thus:

"I am a gangsta. I am opportunistic, ambitious, and amoral. I reject the societal notion of working full time for modest wages, but I shall instead strike out for fortune outside the realm of contemporary laws and morality."

This is what I read:

"I am a person who chooses to admire a moron with poor self control, no planning skills, and an incestuous streak a mile long."

Let's get the obvious out of the way; Tony Montana is not a very good criminal. He's impulsive, reckless, foolhardy, and dumb enough to get addicted to the very drugs he sells to people. These aspects of his character aren't a mystery, but they're clearly worked into the storyline and inform the character's thought process.

I suppose we're supposed to see these traits as being an exaggeration of the ambition necessary to reach the American Dream(tm) but I don't think the fan base thinks that deep into this stuff. Tony Montana is himself something of an exaggeration. His accent is broad to the level of parody, he behaves like some barbarian thug king, he's childish in his temperament. The point of the movie is that he lives at such an extreme pace he is doomed to flare out into self-destruction.

All this is well and good for a tragic hero. But he's not exactly someone to emulate if you're into the *cough* thug life.

I could go on and on about this, about how successful drug dealers need to be more discreet than he chooses to be, about how you can't chose a life of crime and murder and suddenly balk at the notion of murdering innocent people, how you can't go through life pissing off all your connections, and how gross it is to want to fuck your sister, but the long and the short is that some of these cats walking around wearing Scarface clothing missed the point of their movie.

However, I won't say it to their face. They'd probably kick my ass.

I’m a little amused by the hype surrounding Dollhouse. I’m not personally a Whedon hater; I enjoy the man’s work, but I’ll readily admit he only works within certain tropes, and exhibits a number of quirks that some may find…questionable. The Whedon fan machine (Das Uberwhedonmachina) on the other hand, would have you believe the man only gives birth to golden unicorns while farting rainbows.  Dollhouse is prime example. Months before the shows premiere, certain genre websites were spending unjustifiable amounts of fan energy trying to convince us, the fan populace, that Dollhouse wouldn’t suck. There are even Save Dollhouse fan campaigns already being organized. Here is the real problem kids; you’re going about this all wrong. 

First, you’re pretty much preaching to the choir. Joss Whedon is never going to have the mainstream crossover appeal of a J.J. Abrams or a Bryan Singer. Now, that’s not a bad thing. I personally respect Whedon for the fact that he has singular vision and voice even if it often brushes up against, and breathes heavily into the ear of creepy. 

Second, no matter how you feel about Whedon, there is a well documented history of his TV shows being molested by overzealous execs. Genre Works + Capitalist Pigs = Suck.

 Third, this was all Elisa Dushku’s idea. As far as I’m concerned she spent all her Faith cachet on Tru Calling. The account is empty. Insufficient Funds.

Which brings me to the root of fandom's problem. We as fans need to Stop. Stop with the pre-emptive "Save …" campaigns. Stop running out and buying overpriced tie-in crap, or the 15th"special edition" release of the same movie. We need to stop supporting stuff because of misplaced nostalgia for something that was good 20 years ago (Lucas, Romero, Miller…I’m looking at you). We need to stop fueling the fires of fan appeal mediocrity and start taking, and subsequently rejecting, things on their own merits.

Unless you’re really looking forward to the Punky Brewster reboot.