The Untouchables

Release date: 2 June 1987 (New York City, USA)

This is a classic crime story filmed classically by director Brian De Palma. The Untouchables recounts the adventures of Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and his near obsession in bringing Chicago gang leader Al Capone (Robert De Niro) to justice. Ness pulls together a ragtag team including Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery), George Stone (Andy Garcia) and accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) to the deed done. Along the way he battles with Capone's henchman Frank Nitti (Billy Drago), is tempted into corruption and sees members of his team picked off by the violence that was Chicago in the early 1930s. While I continue to find the music of this film obtrusive to the nth degree, De Palma has captured the drama perfectly, despite the violence, and every star is pitch perfect, despite Costner's rather one-dimensional approach.

For showing us the seedy side of an ugly America, my rating 8 out of 10.