 And
the reviewers did. Richard
Corliss wrote in Time
magazine on 5 December 1985:
“Most of
the large cast is fine: Michelle
Pfeiffer
is better. The cool, druggy WASP woman
who does not fit into Tony's world, Pfeiffer's
Elvira is funny and pathetic, a street
angel ready at any whim to float away
on another cocaine cloud.”
The film had previews in New York and
Los Angeles. In Manhattan, Raquel
Welch talked about the 'comic
strip violence that goes on ad nauseam'.
Cher thought,
'It was a great
example of how the American Dream can
go to shit.' In Los Angeles, Joan
Collins had a final word about
the graphic language: 'I
hear there are 183 "fucks" in
the movie, which is more than most people
get in a lifetime.'
 Initially,
violence and language overwhelmed what
would later be regarded as Pfeiffer's
breakthrough movie. Al
Pacino in an interview just before
Christmas in 1992 a more relaxed and subdued
Pacino said
he believed Scarface
was a star making vehicle for both Pfeiffer
and Steven Bauer,
who played Manolo.
For Bauer,
who was then married to actress Melanie
Griffith, there followed a string
of similar offers that didn't work out
too well. For Pfeiffer
that trap was also set: 'I
was offered every bitch that had ever
been.'
She resisted the temptations of work
she didn't believe was suitable. And although
the critics launched into Scarface
for the violence, she was quick to defend
it: 'I know it's
not an easy film to watch, but since it's
an antidrug film I think it had to get
violent to get the message across. Four
letter words? I'm so used to hearing that
word that it doesn't really offend me.
I use it myself, after all. And after
fifteen minutes I don't think you are
aware of it anymore in the movie. At least
I wasn't, although some people found it
offensive.'
 Pfeiffer,
who De Palma
had resisted casting, became something
of a heroine to the director. Here was
an actress, at twenty three, standing
up publicly for her own thoughts nor someone
else's mantra. It impressed De
Palma and a lot of others in Hollywood.
And her views on violence would affect
her in some major future film choices,
including the Oscar winning Silence
of the Lambs, which she turned
down, allowing Jodie
Foster to take the role and 1992's
Best Actress Oscar.
Early in her career Pfeiffer
was willing to fight for her corner, her
opinion. The violence of Scarface
she could justify, just as the psychopath
as a winner/hero in The
Silence of the Lambs she could
not. De Palma
was happy for the support but has equally
strong views on the violence Issue.
In an interview in his spartan offices
at Burbank Studios, De
Palma, who went on to highs (Kevin
Costner's Untouchables
in 1987) and lows (The
Bonfire of the Vanities in 1990),
defended his vision of Pacino's
Montana and
Pfeiffer's
Elvira. And
his own violent reputation from films
including Carrie,
The Fury,
Dressed to
Kill and Body
Double in 1984. A big, bearded,
bear of a man, who favours khaki combat
jackets and jeans when he works, smiled
as he talked of Scarface,
saying in a rare interview:
 “Tony
and Elvira, Al and Michelle, were doomed
people, and it was drugs that doomed them.
That was the message. I think we underplayed
the violence. The drug world is much more
violent, brutal and cruel. We made no
attempt to romanticize it, which is why
we got so many negative opinions. But
I think everyone pulled their weight,
and we got the antidrug message across.
There was certainly nothing glamorous
about Michelle's character. Oh, she looked
good on the outside, but she was a mess
beneath that beautiful shell.”
"I'm drawn to a
certain type of material. I'm a film maker,
and I'm attracted to certain things that
I want to make movies about that I would
like to see."
Later, Pfeiffer
would use a similar rule of thumb in choosing
her films. She made mistakes but fewer
than most. But she makes no apologies.
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