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About Fake Dog Films

Fake Dog Films is three people — Dara, Paul and Gearóid. We're based in Galway, Ireland, and we like to make films! To find out all about us, see the about us page!

You can see all our films on our films page.

If you've watched all our films, and you want more, then check out our photo gallery, where you can see photos from many of our shoots. You can also read our blogs where you'll find everything from movie reviews to favourite recipes! The latest news can be found, predictably, on the news page, where you can keep up-to-date on everything that's going on with Fake Dog Films.

And finally, if all that isn't enough for you, you can get in contact with us on the contact page. Or if you want a friendly conversation with Fake Dog and friends, then join up on our message board, and get chatting!

Webby's Way

Written 30 March 2009, 18:51 by Paul

In our About Us section, we each answered a few questions for our personal profile, favourite dish, favourite song etc… I always find that one of the hardest questions to answer is what is your favourite film? There are so many and you’re always seeing new great films, but most people seem to always come back to one film that they saw when they were young that just stuck with them.

For me that film is Carlito’s Way. (1993) directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino. I saw this film when I was about 15 and fell in love with it immediately. I was always in to crime films like Scarface and Goodfellas but this stood out as a slightly more mature gangster film. It follows the story of Carlito Brigante played by Pacino, who is just released from prison twenty years early due to a slip-up in his prosecution. He returns to the streets of East Harlem in New York but is determined to go straight and just wants to get enough money to move to the Bahamas. However his efforts are complicated by his lawyer Davy Kleinfeld played by Sean Penn.

Webby's WayThe film is based on a novel by Edwin Torres, an author who is also a Supreme Court Judge in New York. He grew up the Barrio of East Harlem, around gangsters like Carlito and worked his way up the ladder to become a lawyer and a judge where he came across many characters like Kleinfeld, lawyers who were corrupted by their clients and became gangsters themselves.

De Palma did not want to do the film originally; he did not want to get pigeonholed into directing Latino gangster films with Al Pacino. However as much I as enjoy the ridiculousness and extravagance of Scarface, Carlito’s Way is a much more accomplished film.

The film is excellently cast. Pacino brings a lot of style and integrity to his character and you can’t help but root for him. Penn gives one of his best performances ever (up there with Milk) and was actually lured out of early retirement for this film. It also features some early roles for well-known actors of today. Luis Guzman plays Pachanga – Carlito’s backstabbing right hand man. In one of his first roles John Leguizamo plays Benny Blanco from the Bronx, a ruthless, upcoming gangster who is essentially a young Carlito Brigante. Viggo Mortensen also proved himself as an upcoming talent in this film, playing a disabled ex-gangster Lalin. It was a long time before I realised it was Aragorn playing this part.

This film is really well paced and edited. There are some gripping action sequences. Early in the film, Carlito unwittingly accompanies his cousin on a drug deal. It descends in to a violent double cross forcing Carlito into a situation he’s desperately trying to avoid. Through out the film, disco and Latin rumba music is used to great effect, in this scene it is used intensify the action. The film climaxes with an enthralling chase scene through the New York subway.

This is one of the most under-rated films of the last twenty years, but has grown a cult following recently. I like to throw it on every so often, it’s a very nice film. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it and let me know what you think. But whatever you do don’t watch Carlito’s Way – Rise To Power. -the straight to DVD prequel with Puff Daddy and Luis Guzman playing a different character altogether. Not Good.

— Paul

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Leave a comment ...

  1. I don’t like Brian De Palma, but I’m a big fan of Carlito’s Way! Good review. Uncanny likeness, too!

    — Dara · Mar 30, 08:22 PM · #

  2. THE FUTURIST! is a big fan of De Palma. He saw DRESSED TO KILL at an early age and it enthralled him. De Palma copies some great shots from master directors of old, but adds this heightened stylization to his interpretation. Its almost operatic. The subway sequence is indicative of this … as Webby stated. It is a perfectly edited sequence of numbing suspense.

    — THE FUTURIST! · Mar 31, 09:55 PM · #

  3. I’ll definitely check it out after this blog!

    — Gearóid · Apr 6, 08:47 PM · #

  4. I use to have this on video. Long gone I’d say though.
    I think I might have been to young to understand most of what was going on when I watched it. Must watch it again.

    — Sentineil · Apr 15, 06:43 AM · #

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