Brian De Palma's 'Scarface' Is Based on a Brutal True Story

To this day, it's one of the most frequently quoted films in modern cinema history. Anyone who's ever heard the line, "Say hello to my little friend," or, "For a green card, I gonna carve him up real nice," knows they come from the 1983 masterpiece Scarface, director Brian De Palma's epic contribution to the gangster genre. The movie chronicles the rise and fall of Tony Montana, a refugee from the 1980 Cuban Mariel exodus who ascends the blood-stained rungs of the drug underworld to become Miami's "Cocaine King." Al Pacino, whose unhinged and frenzied performance as the maniacal Montana earned him a 1984 Golden Globe nomination, was so convincing that some moviegoers believed the story of the horrifyingly lethal narcotic kingpin was about a real person. And it actually was.