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Article: `Scar' wars: Re-released movie is both embraced and condemned.
- Article from:
- San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, CA)
- Article date:
- September 29, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 San Jose Mercury News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Glenn Lovell
On its first go-round 20 years ago, "Scarface" was blasted in what seemed gleeful slow-mo by outraged reviewers, many of whom consigned it to their 10-worst lists. The box-office take was just as discouraging: Budgeted at $25 million, the film barely broke even.
Over the years this ultra-violent crime fantasy became the object of bitter attacks by Spike Lee, Luis Valdez and others who damned it as racist and pornographic. "It extols violence and trades in the worst kind of Latino stereotypes," Valdez still asserts today from his office in San Juan Bautista, Calif. "It's not fit for human consumption."
Why then is Brian De ...