The Untouchables (1987) Review: Justice in the Shadows
Some crime movies make corruption complicated. The Untouchables (1987) makes the basic conflict surprisingly simple: Eliot Ness wants to enforce the law, while Al Capone has enough power to make the law feel almost meaningless.
What makes Brian De Palma's film interesting to me is what happens between those two positions. Ness begins with a clear belief in rules, but he enters a city where following the rules does not necessarily mean the rules will protect him.
That tension gives the movie more weight than a straightforward cops-versus-gangsters story. Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Brian De Palma's visual direction, and Ennio Morricone's music all approach the same question from different angles: how do you fight people who refuse to play by the rules without becoming too much like them? This review stays spoiler-light and avoids the film's major outcomes.
1. A Spoiler-Light Look at the Story
Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the movie follows Treasury agent Eliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, as he attempts to challenge the criminal organization controlled by Al Capone.
Ness quickly discovers that arresting criminals is only part of the problem. Corruption has made it difficult to know who can be trusted, so he begins assembling a small team of people he believes will not be bought.
The most important of them is veteran police officer Jimmy Malone, played by Sean Connery. Malone understands Chicago very differently from Ness. Where Ness begins with principles, Malone begins with experience.
That difference becomes the emotional foundation of the movie. The question is no longer simply whether Ness can stop Capone, but what he may have to become in order to seriously challenge him.
2. Ness and Malone See the Same Law Differently
The relationship between Ness and Malone is my favorite part of The Untouchables.
Ness believes in what the law is supposed to represent. Malone knows what happens when those ideals meet people who are willing to ignore them completely.
Sean Connery gives Malone a mixture of warmth, experience, and danger. He can feel like a mentor in one scene and a warning in another. His character constantly reminds Ness that good intentions alone are not enough.
What interested me is that Malone does not simply teach Ness how to become tougher. He forces Ness to confront a more uncomfortable question: if your opponent recognizes no boundaries, which boundaries are you still willing to keep?
That conflict keeps Ness from feeling like a perfect hero. His greatest challenge is not only defeating Capone—it is deciding what kind of man he wants to remain while trying.
3. Three Performances Give the Movie Three Different Energies
Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro seem to be acting in deliberately different emotional registers, and I think that contrast works beautifully.
Costner keeps Ness controlled and sincere. He needs that restraint because Ness is the character whose moral position is being tested.
Connery is looser and more unpredictable. Malone has already seen enough of the city to understand the difference between how institutions are supposed to work and how they actually work.
De Niro goes in the opposite direction as Capone. His performance is larger and more theatrical, which fits a man who treats power as something to display. His public confidence makes him feel less like a criminal hiding from society and more like someone who believes society has already made room for him.
Put together, the three performances create an interesting balance: Ness represents principle, Malone represents experience, and Capone represents power without meaningful restraint.
4. Brian De Palma Makes Waiting Feel Dangerous
One of the reasons The Untouchables still works so well for me is that De Palma understands suspense is not the same thing as action.
Before violence begins, he often makes us understand the physical space around the characters. We notice entrances, stairs, distances, objects, and people who may or may not matter.
Once I understand where everything is, waiting becomes uncomfortable. Instead of wondering what I am looking at, I begin wondering which part of the frame is going to change.
That is an important distinction. Many thrillers try to surprise the audience by hiding information. De Palma often creates tension by giving us enough information to imagine several things that could go wrong and then making us wait.
5. Why the Famous Station Sequence Still Works
The movie's famous station sequence is probably the clearest example of De Palma's approach, but I do not want to describe what happens in detail for anyone watching the film for the first time.
What I find remarkable is how much tension comes from time itself. Movements are stretched, small details suddenly become important, and the audience becomes increasingly aware that several things may collide at exactly the wrong moment.
The sequence famously echoes the Odessa Steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, but knowing the reference is not necessary to appreciate it.
For me, the scene works because De Palma turns a few seconds of uncertainty into something that feels much longer. The suspense comes from waiting for movement, not simply from the movement itself.
6. Ennio Morricone Makes the Story Feel Larger Than Life
Ennio Morricone's music gives The Untouchables an almost mythic quality.
At times the score makes Ness and his team feel heroic. At others, the rhythm underneath a scene creates pressure before anything dangerous has actually happened.
I think the music is also one reason the movie feels different from many modern crime dramas. De Palma is not trying to make everything understated or documentary-like. He wants Chicago, Capone, Ness, and their conflict to feel larger than ordinary life.
That approach will not appeal equally to everyone, but it gives the movie a personality that is still easy to recognize decades later.
7. What Worked Best—and What Modern Viewers Should Know
What works best for me is the confidence of the filmmaking. The Untouchables is not embarrassed to be dramatic. The performances can be big, the music can be bold, and De Palma's camera often makes ordinary movement feel like an event.
Sean Connery is the emotional standout for me, but the movie works because his rough experience has Kevin Costner's idealism to push against. Robert De Niro then gives both men an opponent whose confidence seems almost as powerful as his criminal organization.
One thing modern viewers should know is that the movie is based on real historical figures and events, but it does not try to recreate everything exactly as it happened. Instead, it presents the characters and events in a more dramatic and cinematic way, giving the film the style of a grand Hollywood gangster movie rather than a strictly realistic crime drama.
Its operatic style may feel larger than contemporary crime thrillers, but that is also exactly what I enjoy about it. The movie commits completely to the world it creates.
Who Should Watch The Untouchables?
- Crime and gangster movie fans: The film combines an accessible crime story with distinctive visual direction.
- Sean Connery fans: His performance as Malone gives the movie much of its humor, toughness, and emotional weight.
- Film-direction enthusiasts: De Palma's use of space, waiting, movement, and slow motion offers plenty to observe.
- Ennio Morricone fans: The score is an essential part of the film's larger-than-life personality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is The Untouchables based on a true story?
A: The movie uses real historical figures including Eliot Ness and Al Capone, but it dramatizes and fictionalizes parts of the story for cinematic effect. It is better approached as a Hollywood crime drama than as a documentary account.
Q: Why is Sean Connery's performance so well remembered?
A: Connery gives Malone both toughness and warmth, making him an effective contrast to Ness's idealism. His performance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Q: Does this review contain major spoilers?
A: No. It discusses the basic premise, performances, visual direction, music, and the filmmaking approach of the station sequence without revealing the major outcomes or ending.
Final Thoughts: Why I Give The Untouchables 5 Out of 5
What stays with me most about The Untouchables is not simply the gangster story. It is the conflict between the kind of law Ness believes in and the world Malone knows actually exists.
That difference gives the movie a moral tension underneath all of its style. Ness wants justice, but the harder question is how far someone can go in pursuit of justice before the methods begin changing the person using them.
Sean Connery gives that question a human voice, Robert De Niro gives it a larger-than-life opponent, and Brian De Palma turns waiting, space, and movement into suspense. Ennio Morricone's music then makes the entire struggle feel almost legendary.
Some of its history is dramatized and its style is intentionally theatrical, but neither bothers me because the movie never pretends to be restrained realism. It knows exactly what kind of crime story it wants to tell.
For its memorable performances, visual confidence, extraordinary suspense, powerful music, and a moral conflict that gives the spectacle something meaningful underneath it, I give The Untouchables 5 out of 5 stars.
🎬 Movie Info
Title: The Untouchables (1987)
Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: David Mamet
Music: Ennio Morricone
Genre: Crime / Drama / Gangster / Thriller
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy García, Charles Martin Smith
Running Time: 119 minutes
My Rating: ★★★★★ 5.0 / 5.0