Carlito's Way Analysis

The target audience for Carlito's Way are mainly fans of Al Pacino, Brian De Palma and of course, the gangster film genre. But I believe most of the fans come from Al Pacino's fan base, because this is not a conventional gangster film. The main character, Carlito isn't even a gangster throughout the film but a reformed criminal who runs a night club and is trying to raise enough money in order to leave the Country for a better life, all whilst trying to rekindle his relationship with a former flame and keep his drug- addled lawyer out of trouble.

The audience for this film would had to have seen Scarface before viewing this, as the film features all the same editing style, music selections and the overall tone of the film is very similar to Scarface, the only major difference being that this film takes place in 1975, not 1980. Just like Scarface, the film didn't do all that well in the public or critical eye when it was originally released, but gained a cult following and is now considered one of the greatest gangster films of all time, right next to Scarface and The Godfather. The film's cult following was so influential to popular culture of today that many characters appeared, albeit under different names in various video games made today, one example is the character of Ken Rosenberg in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City who is heavily based on Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn) in both his mannerisms and appearance. The film's later success also garnered the film a 2006 prequel called Carlito's Way: Rise to Power.

This film is very unconventional when it comes to being a gangster film. The main character in the film, Carlito isn't even a gangster at all in the film, but a person seeking redemption and looking for a quieter life in order to better himself and fit into a humble society. It isn't until his sleazy lawyer, Kleinfeld gets into a lot of trouble with some rival gangsters that forces Carlito to briefly get back into the life of crime. One of the more conventional aspects of the movie and the character of Carlito is his status, as throughout the film he is referred to as legendary and is seen as an influence and idol to any of the upcoming gangsters seen during the film. When it comes to women in the film, we can only say that the female characters (and minor supporting female characters) are treated like objects; in one scene, a dangerous gangster confronts Kleinfeld, threatening him to give 'his girl' back, the girl was just a waitress who served the gangster a lot of times. The women are also very sexualised, wearing very provocative clothing and working as strippers. Carlito's love interest, Gale is a stripper and we can draw comparisons to Tony Montana's Elvira, who also lived a poor lifestyle, although we can sympathise for Gale, as she wants a better life, similar to Carlito.

On the poster, Carlito is in a darkly lit area holding a gun. Even if you've seen the film or you haven't, we, as an audience can assume that Carlito is involved in a deadly battle as the look on his face is that of a truly terrified man who doesn't want to be included in whatever situation he is in. In actual fact, though, the image on the poster is clearly taken from one of the final scenes in the film where Carlito is trying to run and hide from a gang of imposing gangsters who are out for revenge after one of them is brutally murdered by Kleinfeld, the gangsters believe the murderer to be Carlito, as he was once known to them as a formidable gangster and a one- time rival. Another small portion of this analysis should be directed towards the text at the top of the poster, it reads in big, red letters: PACINO, clearly advertising to Al Pacino's fans, other names featured on the poster are Sean Penn and, to a lesser extent because you can't see it that well, Brian De Palma, all very big names at that time being used by the distributors to advertise to the film's intended target audience, to this day, distributors for Hollywood movies use the name of the stars (and sometimes the name of the director) in order to attract a wider audience and make more money.