The Untouchables (1987)

The prohibition period of US history has proven itself fertile ground for adaptation over the years. One of the most famous, and popular of these in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. Featuring an impressive cast, big budget and screenplay by renowned playwright David Mamet it is a film that, on paper, seems a sure-fire success. De Palma though is a director who blows hot and cold more than most, his distinctive stylistic fetishes and tone can be tricky to mould to more serious fare and so it proves to be the case here. The Untouchables is something of a mess a film that despite its best intentions just doesn't hold together. It feels like a wasted opportunity and for once I feel quite out of step with the general consensus on its merits.
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The film tells the story of Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner), a special federal agent charged with putting together a team to stop Al Capone (Robert De Niro) from flooding prohibition hit Chicago with illegal alcohol (amongst other other things). It's a story ripe for drama, excitement and insight and yet one that constantly feels undercooked. Maybe it's the quality of recent gangster fiction, from The Sopranos to HBOs recent Boardwalk Empire (which deals with very similar material) but The Untouchables feels overly simplified and broad at every turn. Whether this is due to De Palma's tendency to the sledgehammer end of the subtlety scale, or Mamet reaching beyond his comfort zone it is unclear, I tend towards a mixture of both. The screenplay is light and characters sketched roughly, Sean Connery (saddled with attempting to turn his regular Scottish brogue somewhat Irish and failing) comes out of it best, his Jim Malone is a beat cop temped back into the line of duty, but his introduction is so brief, his change of heart so swift it never rings true. He is clearly enjoying the role though but when the action scenes are staged in such an over the top manner it kills any real connection with the characters.
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This is all such a shame because there are glimpses of a great film here in the material, De Palma as always stages some technically impressive sequences (the shootout at the station at the end is the most famous). Yet for such an iconic villain in Al Capone Robert De Niro is given very little to do, except overact like some sort of pantomime villain. Randomly inserted scenes of him are introduced to keep the threat in mind, but he feels so disconnected that the ending has no weight to it. A scene that typifies the film's failings is the one late on, where a character is being stalked at his house. The camera, in first person mode, follows him from the windows, gliding outside the house in De Palmas typical voyeuristic style. It is creepy and effective, however at several points the cameraman can be seen in the reflection. It's sloppy and kills the mood. Never mind that the scene goes on to a very over the top and gaudy shootout. 
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Throughout the film it just feels like a mismatch of tone, the lack of engagement with the characters stops it being all that entertaining even as a straight up action film. It clearly wants both, to view this special team of operatives as heroes, and movie stars, whilst trying to add a layer of realism to the affair that is never earned. Andy Garcia plays another of the team, one of Italian descent, but is given nothing to do. His character has no arc, very few lines and we never learn any more about him. When he was introduced there are hints of a troubled past, a link to the very gangsters they are fighting, but this is never expanded on. Kevin Costner's main characters suffers in a similar way, he isn't the most charismatic of actors, but playing Ness as an uptight lawman he does a fair enough job, again the problems falls that Ness has nowhere to go, no obstacle to overcome except Capone, in a very abstract way.
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The Untouchables is a film then unsure of what it wants to be. It is a film that just doesn't work, for all its good intentions and effort, and that is always a disappointing thing to find as a viewer.